Publisher Random House declared today it had reached a settlement with rapper Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. Random House, Inc filled a lawsuit against the rapper in February, to recover the $300,000 book advance its Ballantine imprint had paid him in a 1998 agreement to write his autobiography, which was never delivered.

"The matter has been amicably resolved," Random House spokesman Stuart Applebaum said. "We will not be publishing a book by P Diddy."

Applebaum refused to say if P. Diddy gave back the money, but did say that the publisher would not be releasing a book by him.

Sean John Combs, born November 4, 1969 aka P. Diddy, Puff Daddy, Sean "Puffy" Combs, is a record producer, CEO, and rapper. He is the founder of Bad Boy Entertainment, one of the driving forces in hip hop in the mid to late 1990s.

P. Diddy first skyrocketed to fame as a label executive, first for Uptown Records and later for his own label, signing and developing acts such as Father MC, Jodeci, Mary J. Blige, Craig Mack, Notorious B.I.G., Faith Evans, 112, Ma$e, and Carl Thomas.

His own music career, and to a lesser extent, his production, has been criticized as watered-down and overly commercialized for a mainstream market, as well as an over-reliance on obvious and lengthy sampling for most of his hit songs. (Wikipedia)