Residents, music producer from Sean Comb's hometown in Mount Vernon react to verdict
MOUNT VERNON (WABC) -- From Lower Manhattan to Westchester County -- now-disgraced music mogul Sean Combs was born in Harlem but was raised in Mount Vernon, where he launched his music career.
He founded his own production company in 1993 called Bad Boy Entertainment and went on to work with people like Mariah Carey, Boyz II Men, Mary J. Blige and the late Biggie Smalls.
At the time, he made his hometown proud.
Mount Vernon has been home to other notable hip-hop and R&B acts, but Sean Combs was the most successful and powerful of them all.
"I realized that what he had been building was not just a New York thing, that it was a national thing and he literally had his fingerprint and his footprint in multiple cities," said music producer Prince Charles Alexander.
Alexander first met Combs when he was a rising artist known as "Puffy."
Alexander worked with Combs to launch Bad Boy Entertainment.
"Where he is right now is a byproduct of access and having that access at a very young age and not knowing who to trust," Alexander said.
Combs attended high school at Mount St. Michael Academy on the Bronx border and played football at the all-boys Catholic school.
In 2023, the school congratulated the 1987 graduate for being named a VMA Global Icon.
That same year, Combs' son Christian hosted a sneaker giveaway at Mount Vernon City Hall.
Those days of musical acclaim and rousing support are now behind the music mogul.
"You came to be an idol to our kids and then you turn around and do something like this? I lost total respect for you," one resident reacted to Combs' sex trafficking trial.
"He's supposed to be a decent dude ... back in the day. That was then, we're talking about the current of him now, big difference," another resident said.
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