Diddy to Receive Global Icon Award at 2023 Video Music Awards
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The 2023 MTV Video Music Awards will present the third-ever Global Icon Award to Sean “Diddy” Combs when the ceremony airs live from New Jersey’s Prudential Center on Sept. 12. The artist also joins the performance lineup as he gears up to release The Love Album: Off the Grid, his first solo album in 17 years, on Sept. 15. It will mark his first VMAs performance since 2005.
The Global Icon Award was adopted from the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2021 as the VMAs moved on from the short-lived Tricon Award, which was only ever presented to Lady Gaga. Diddy joins past recipients Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers in receiving the award that “celebrates an artist or band whose unparalleled career and continued influence have achieved a unique level of global success in music and beyond,” according to MTV.
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The mogul, who over the course of his career has cycled through being called Sean Combs and Diddy to Puff Daddy and (most recently) Love, appears to be ushering himself into a new era of his career — and is getting all his ducks in a row as to not distract from his current moment.
On Monday, Rolling Stone reported that Diddy is assigning music publishing rights back to the artists that signed with his influential label Bad Boy Records, launched 30 years ago. The decision, which he called “unprecedented,” was introduced “as part of a broader goal of promoting economic empowerment for Black artists and culture,” according to a statement on his behalf.
Diddy last received a major icon award at the 2020 Grammy Awards. There, he was presented with an “Industry Icons” award and received criticism from Bad Boy rapper Mase for stating that “Black music has never been respected by the Grammys” while he had developed something of a reputation for not adequately compensating the Black artists on his roster.
Bad Boy has reportedly already struck deals with artists including Faith Evans, Mase, the Lox, 112, and the estate of the Notorious B.I.G. to return rights to their material.
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