{"id":15171905,"date":"2026-06-22T16:42:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T20:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/clive-davis-storied-music-exec-dies-at-94\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T17:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:10:10","slug":"clive-davis-storied-music-exec-dies-at-94","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/clive-davis-storied-music-exec-dies-at-94\/","title":{"rendered":"Clive Davis, Storied Music Exec, Dies At 94"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"704\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/hiphopwired.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/06\/17821461715527.jpg?w=1024&amp;strip=all&amp;quality=85\" alt=\"Pre-GRAMMY Gala and GRAMMY Salute to Industry Icons Honoring Sean &quot;Diddy&quot; Combs - Show\" class=\"wp-image-3057763\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: Allen Berezovsky \/ Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/hiphopwired.com\/217493\/famed-record-executive-clive-davis-confronts-his-own-bisexuality-in-new-memoir\/\">Clive Davis<\/a><\/strong>, the OG music industry exec known for signing Whitney Houston and igniting the career of Sean &#8220;Diddy&#8221; Combs, has passed away. He was 94. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <em>New York Times<\/em> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/06\/22\/arts\/music\/clive-davis-dead.html\">reports<\/a> that Davis died on Monday (June 22) at his home in Manhattan. The Brooklyn native had reportedly recently been hospitalized for with respiratory issues and his family confirmed his passing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Davis, who would become famed despite not being a performer, started in the music business as a lawyer for Columbia Records. While becoming a renowned kingmaker, some of his famed signings to recording contracts across the years include the aforementioned Houston, Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin and Milli Vanilli. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Famously, or now infamously, in 1993 it was Davis who agreed to a joint venture with Diddy Combs&#8217; then-fledgling Bad Boy Records after the disgraced exec had been fired from Uptown Records. The result was classic music from the likes of the Notorious B.I.G., Ma$e and Faith Evans. After leaving Arista in 2000, Davis formed J Records, whose signings included Alicia Keys and Luther Vandross. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the decades, <a href=\"https:\/\/hiphopwired.com\/1935276\/diddy-guest-list-clive-davis-pre-grammy-soiree\/\">Davis&#8217; Pre-Grammy Gala<\/a> was a yearly A-list event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Davis&#8217; last gig in the music biz was chief creative officer of Sony Music Entertainment, and he reportedly never officially retired. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inmi-source\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/hiphopwired.com\/3057759\/clive-davis-storied-music-exec-dies-at-94\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Entertainment \u2013 Music \u2013 hiphopwired<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Clive Davis, the OG music industry exec known for signing Whitney Houston and igniting the career of Sean &#8220;Diddy&#8221; Combs, has passed away. He was 94. The New York Times reports that Davis died on Monday (June 22) at his\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15171907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[195],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15171905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15171905-17821461715527.jpg",1024,704,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15171905-17821461715527-300x206.jpg",300,206,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15171905-17821461715527-620x426.jpg",620,426,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15171905-17821461715527-768x528.jpg",768,528,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15171905-17821461715527-940x646.jpg",940,646,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15171905-17821461715527.jpg",1024,704,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15171905-17821461715527.jpg",1024,704,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15171905-17821461715527-998x665.jpg",998,665,true],"ignition_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15171905-17821461715527-670x446.jpg",670,446,true],"ignition_item_lg":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15171905-17821461715527.jpg",1024,704,false],"ignition_article_media":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15171905-17821461715527-510x510.jpg",510,510,true],"ignition_minicart_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15171905-17821461715527-160x160.jpg",160,160,true],"profile_24":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15171905-17821461715527-24x24.jpg",24,24,true],"profile_48":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15171905-17821461715527-48x48.jpg",48,48,true],"profile_96":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15171905-17821461715527-96x96.jpg",96,96,true],"profile_150":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15171905-17821461715527-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"profile_300":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15171905-17821461715527-300x300.jpg",300,300,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"news.iNthacity","author_link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/author\/atombo\/"},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/articles\/entertainment\/music\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Music<\/a>","tag_info":"Music","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15171905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15171905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15171905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15171906,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15171905\/revisions\/15171906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15171907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15171905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15171905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15171905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}