He is a rap mogul and the undisputed “king of bling”. But a British DJ has forced Sean Combs to change the name he calls himself in a song.

The High Court ordered Mr Combs yesterday to drop a lyric in which he calls himself “Diddy” when he performs at Wembley Arena next month.

The megastar, whose music and fashion empire is valued at £195 million, suffered defeat at the hands of Richard “Diddy” Dearlove, a club DJ best known for remixing Blondie’s hits.

Mr Dearlove, 41, has established previous ownership rights over the alias. He won £10,000 in damages from Mr Combs last year after proving to the High Court that he had been trading under the name Diddy since 1992.

Mr Combs, 37, who has also used the names Puff Daddy, P. Diddy and Puffy, then agreed not to use the Diddy alias in Britain to comply with “passing-off” laws.

But in a High Court ruling, Mr Justice Kitchin said that Mr Combs had breached that agreement. He discovered that the star clearly advertised himself as “Diddy” in a song called The Future on his latest album Press Play.

The judge ruled: “The second verse refers to Mr Combs as ‘Diddy’ as he invites the listener to ‘mainline this new Diddy heroin’. Mr Combs expressly refers to iTunes and asks the listener to ‘Download me in every resident’. He refers to his CD as ‘my CD’s in 3-D holograms’, and finally refers to his shows with the words, ‘the live show’s a hard act to follow man’.

“I see this as straightforward advertisement by Mr Combs of his CD, his songs which can be downloaded from iTunes and his live shows, all under and by reference to the word ‘Diddy’.

“The listener will understand he is being encouraged to buy the Press Play CD, to download the songs and that the live show is an event well worth attending.”

Lawyers for Mr Combs confirmed that their client would exclude the line when he performs the song during a British tour next month, where he will be billed as P. Diddy.

The judge ordered a full trial on whether there had been further breaches of the agreement. He said that the use of the name “Diddy” on the MySpace and YouTube websites was a breach, but was unable to decide whether Mr Combs had any control over the content.

Mr Combs’s official page on the MySpace social networking website hails him as Diddy but instructs British viewers to link to a “P. Diddy” page.

Mr Combs relaunched himself as P. Diddy after being acquitted of gun possession charges after an incident in a New York nightclub. In 2005 he announced that he wanted to be known simply as Diddy, saying that “the P was getting between me and my fans”.

Mr Dearlove complained that the name change caused confusion and was damaging to his business. He had also received e-mails from Puerto Rican girls asking to be in his next video.

His victory last year prompted a huge rebranding operation for Mr Combs’s British interests. The rapper paid more than £100,000 in legal costs.

Mr Combs, who did not attend the hearing, is under investigation by Los Angeles detectives after being accused of punching a man at a party after the Oscars. Gerard Rechnitzer claims he was thumped after Mr Combs tried to chat up his fiancée at the Roosevelt Hotel. Mr Combs’s media empire stretches across records, restaurants, a clothing range and a film production company. He was named in Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People list and led a campaign urging young Americans to vote in the 2004 presidential election.

The Future

I like it when you say my name
Mainline this new Diddy heroin
The Afro-American dream is too evident
The potential to be the first black President
iTunes, download me in every resident
We in the hood like black soap and dollar vans
My CD’s in 3-D, holograms
The future, y’all need to holla man
The live show’s a hard act to follow man
But it’s, back to the future, sold out arenas
We, take ’em to the cleaners, calm ya nerves
This is the man who provided more jobs for blacks than armed services
Bang like chitty chitty here to disturb you
New CD, watch it spread like bird flu

Also Diddy

— David “Diddy” Hamilton DJ and star of Doddy’s Music Box show. Quit Radio 2 over “geriatric” music policy in 1986

— The Diddy Men 3ft (1m) tall operators of the Jam Butty mines in Knotty Ash, created by Ken Dodd

— Diddy Kong Animated monkey from the Nintendo Donkey Kong game

— David “C-Diddy” Jung US and world air guitar champion, 2003

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