‘Bad boy of politics’ Mayor Adams awards key to the city to ‘bad boy of entertainment’ Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
Can’t nobody hold him down.
Sean Combs took the TSX stage in Times Square to accept a “Key to the City” award from Mayor Eric Adams, who proudly dubbed Friday “Diddy Day.”
“The bad boy of entertainment is getting the Key to the City from the bad boy of politics,” Adams gushed.
The Harlem-born rapper — also known as Puff Daddy, P. Diddy and Diddy — was celebrated for his contributions to music and fashion as well as his entrepreneurial and philanthropic endeavors, despite a history of arrests and legal troubles since the ’90s.
“This city has given me triumphs, life lessons and love,” Combs said at the event. “Today, I accept this key not just for me, but for every dreamer, every hustler, every artist, and every kid from New York who dares to dream big.”
Before rising to fame, Diddy almost pursued a drastically different path. He tried peddling drugs as a student at Howard University but quickly got scared out of a life on the streets, he told The Post back in 2017.
He made a name for himself in the East Coast hip-hop scene and founded Bad Boy Records in 19
In 1999, Combs attacked music exec Steve Stoute with a Champagne bottle and spent a day in anger management.
Later that year, the “Bad Boy for Life” singer got into a dispute at a Manhattan club, where he was celebrating a Bad Boys protégé alongside then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez.
Shots rang out and three people were injured. Diddy was charged with criminal possession of an unregistered gun and attempted bribery, and faced a hefty 15 years in prison. He was acquitted in 2001.
The Grammy-winning mogul, who was known as Puff Daddy at the time, is said to have reinvented himself after the arrest, going instead by P. Diddy.
His famous White Parties have drawn the likes of Donald Trump, Martha Stewart and Salman Rushdie.
These days, it’s all about the Benjamin’s. Combs is worth an estimated $1 billion and a portfolio including Sean John sportswear and Ciroc liquor.
Combs has helped open schools in Harlem and the Bronx and donated millions in scholarships to Historically Black colleges and Universities.
The Big Apple won’t be singing “I’ll Be Missing You” to Combs anytime soon.
Diddy’s Key to the City is a “symbol of the city’s wish that a guest feel free to come and go at will,” according to the release from the Mayor’s Office.
The event coincided with the release of Diddy’s first studio album in 17 years, “The Love Album: Off The Grid.”
