Bad Boy for Life (Paperback)

THE GROUNDBREAKING INVESTIGATIVE ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF THE MOGUL WHO BROUGHT HIP-HOP TO THE MAINSTREAM, OFFERING READERS A RIVETING LOOK AT THE EMPIRE HE BUILT AND THE DESTRUCTIVE POWER OF CELEBRITY

If not for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ ability to harness the voice of hip-hop and package it via artists like Mary J. Blige and the Notorious B.I.G., the landscape of world music would look and sound entirely different. For decades Combs’ charisma, vision and brand of cool transformed hip-hop culture into a multibillion-dollar powerhouse. While his acumen built a multifaceted empire, another side of Combs was hidden from public view.

In Bad Boy for Life, journalist Cheyenne Roundtree vividly brings to life Combs’ early days and his rise to power. She also excavates the disturbing history of his alleged abuse. Through cultural insights, meticulous reporting and in-depth interviews with more than 100 sources, she examines Combs’ misuse of power, leading to the criminal trial in 2025 that caused his kingdom to unravel.

Ultimately, this account shows how Combs embodies the much bigger narrative of hip-hop’s ascension and fame’s sinister aspects. This is one of the most significant pop-culture stories of our time, one that charts the path of an impresario while asking questions about accountability and justice, who is believed and who is silenced, and why we protect the powerful.

In Bad Boy for Life, Roundtree depicts the man in full, offering a comprehensive portrait of Combs’ astonishing rise and fall.

‘Richly reported and utterly absorbing, Bad Boy for Life is a rare biography that illuminates not just its subject but the culture that elevated him, raising uncomfortable questions about the wilful blindness on which Combs’ power and celebrity depended’

VICKY WARD, bestselling author of Kushner, Inc.

Cheyenne Roundtree is an award-winning investigative journalist at Rolling Stone, known for her reporting on the entertainment industry and for pursuing stories that expose abuses of power. Her work has been recognized by the Newswomen’s Club of New York and the LA Press Club. Originally from Dallas, Texas, she lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband. Bad Boy for Life is her first book.