ABSTRACT
Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs was not best known as an incisive political economist. Owner of the hip-hop media empire, Bad Boy Records, Combs forged a reputation as a strong-arm gangsta rap impresario during the 1990s, his output lionising a ghetto life of sex, violence and lavish high-rolling. But, while Combs’ 1997 single, ‘It’s All About the Benjamins’ (referring to $100 bills), was an anthem to outrageous excess, the song’s title also stands as a neat epithet for the economic imperatives central to the history of the commercial youth market, its products and associated media.
