In terms of era-defining soirées, few rival Diddy’s lavish White Events. For greater than a decade, from 1998 to 2009, the annual extravaganza over the Labor Day vacation was popular culture’s hottest ticket, with an unmatched visitor listing delivering indelible trend moments.

“I keep in mind the primary celebration he threw within the Hamptons,” Paris Hilton recalled to The Hollywood Reporter in 2008. “It was iconic and everybody was there.”

Within the early aughts, an invitation to the unique bash solidified one’s A-list standing stretching throughout leisure, enterprise, finance, trend and know-how. Recurring visitors included the Kardashians, the Hilton sisters, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Al Sharpton and Martha Stewart.

It has been 15 years since Diddy’s first White Occasion, which was held Sept. 7, 1998, over Labor Day weekend.

The annual custom started when Sean Combs (at present often called Diddy however variously often called Puffy, Puff Daddy and P. Diddy through the years) determined to showcase his new Hamptons homestead by inviting greater than 200 gliteratti to a barbecue. That first fete featured a largely old-money and predominantly white crowd, and the media was fast to label the rapper a “modern-day Gatsby,” which he appeared to relish throughout a 2001 interview with The Impartial by which he boasted, “I am the Nice Gatsby.”

Reality be informed, Diddy was removed from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Gatsby, who threw extravagant events to impress his monied neighbors. On this case, it was the institution that needed a glimpse of Diddy’s world.

Because the rap mogul informed Oprah in a 2006 interview, the intention behind the primary White Occasion was to combine hip-hop into the echelons of the mega-rich, to search out an intersection of each worlds for the sake of unity.

“I needed to strip away everybody’s picture and put us all in the identical shade, and on the identical stage,” he informed Oprah of that inaugural Labor Day bash. “I had the craziest combine: a few of my boys from Harlem; Leonardo DiCaprio, after he’d simply completed Titanic. I had socialites there and relations from down south. There have been 200 individuals sitting out right here, simply having a down-home cookout.”

Mission achieved, in line with some cultural observers, who imagine Diddy’s events modified hip-hop, and American tradition, eternally.

Over time, the White Events branched out from the Hamptons to Los Angeles and Saint-Tropez, and in addition included a number of Fourth of July iterations. The occasions additionally served as a significant fundraiser for varied worldwide charities.

The final official White Occasion happened in Los Angeles in 2009, marking the top of an unbelievable period. This is a glance again at among the seminal moments.

— Further reporting by Chrissy Nguyen