The New Breed

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His star-studded birthday bash, Broadway acting gig and get-out-the-vote campaign (whose tag line, Vote or Die!, earned its fair share of derision) kept his fans — and the gossip pages — rapt. But fame alone doesn't really pay the bills. No other CEO has combined celebrity and smart branding quite like Sean (P. Diddy) Combs, 35, head of the sprawling Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group. Combs' $300 million urban empire includes a hip-hop record label, two restaurants, a music-publishing arm and a marketing company, Blue Flame, which teaches FORTUNE 500 clients like Pepsi and Microsoft how to reach an inner-city audience. And in June, Bad Boy's crown jewel, the Sean John clothing line, earned Combs the Menswear Designer of the Year Award from the Council of Fashion Designers.

Combs survived a hard childhood in Mount Vernon, N.Y.; a senseless bicoastal rap war in the 1990s that probably cost the life of his best friend, top Bad Boy performer Christopher (Biggie Smalls) Wallace; and a 2001 gun-possession trial, which ended in acquittal, before acquiring his mainstream profits. And he's not finished. Bolstered by a $100 million investment from Los Angeles supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle, Combs signed a licensing deal with Estée Lauder to launch a men's fragrance next fall. This summer he opened a Sean John retail store on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue. More stores are in the works. As Bad Boy keeps growing, the ubiquitous Combs vows to shed some of the spotlight. "I was really tired this year," he says. "It's important for me to slow down and to focus on the details so that nothing falls through the cracks." Combs doesn't need to spend more time in the boardroom. He has already shown millions of fans that you can make it to the mainstream without leaving your roots behind. --By Sean Gregory/New York

Mellody Hobson
ARIEL CAPITAL MANAGEMENT

Above all, Mellody Hobson is a defender of entrepreneurialism, and she thinks it should be for everyone. As president of $20 billion Ariel Capital Management, the largest African American-owned capital-management company in the world, Hobson believes entrepreneurial spirit can close the gap between rich and poor. And she has been aggressive about spreading that gospel, aiming "to make the stock market the subject of dinner-table conversation in the black community." At Ariel, Hobson launched the nation's first ongoing study of African-American investment behavior, calling attention to her hunch that blacks lag behind whites when it comes to investment, planning for retirement and putting money aside for college. The firm also started the Ariel Community Academy, an inner-city Chicago school that teaches elementary school students how to invest. Hobson takes her stump speech-- essentially a crash course in investment strategy — to PTA meetings, union halls and schools, and she is a financial consultant for ABC's Good Morning America. She agitates on corporate and civic boards, from the Chicago Public Library to Princeton University. "Mellody has a deep set of values about what's right and what's wrong," says former Senator Bill Bradley, a close friend. "She knows that she can have an impact because so few people say what they really feel." Indeed, Hobson had the guts to stand up to crusading New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer at a conference when she thought he was criticizing the mutual funds industry too harshly, and she has clashed with top Senators in testimony before Congress. She is worried that "rampant legislation" will stifle creativity and force smaller firms out of business. "What has made this industry so strong is the spirit of smaller firms," says Hobson, "and I would hate for that to be lost." --By Noah Isackson/Chicago