Rap mogul, Howard University Alumni and would-be educator Sean (Diddy) Combs delivered a rousing speech Monday to kick off the first day of classes at a new charter school he co-founded in his old Harlem neighborhood.
Speaking from a podium onstage in the student auditorium at Capital Preparatory Harlem Charter School, Combs told dozens of students and staffers that their school would change the world, starting with the people right there in the room.
“Great schools and great education make a big difference,” Combs told the cheering crowd. “Unfortunately, too many people don’t get the opportunity to succeed, no matter how hard they try. This is leveling the playing field here at Capital Prep.”
Combs, 46, was born in a public housing project in Harlem and raised in Mount Vernon.
Can’t nobody hold you down.
That’s the message hip-hop star Sean “Diddy’’ Combs delivered Monday to an auditorium full of squealing students at the christening of a new charter school he founded in Harlem.
Combs reminded the kids that he grew up in circumstances that mirrored their own.
The impresario -— whose first single off his debut album was “Can’t Nobody Hold me Down’’ — credited his late mother for instilling in him a respect for education and diligence.
“Can’t stop, won’t stop,” Combs told his charges to another ovation before again being mobbed by students during a group picture.
