Bad Boy Records

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Bad Boy Records
Image:Bblogo.jpg
Parent company Warner Music Group
Founded 1993
Founder(s) Sean Combs
Distributing label Atlantic Records (US)
WEA (Outside the US)
Genre(s) Hiphop, R&B,Pop Music
Country US
Web address http://badboyonline.com/

Bad Boy Records is an East Coast hip hop record label founded by producer/rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs in 1993. Currently, it is a subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Contents

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Company history

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Beginnings

After his climb from a no-pay internship to becoming an A&R executive at Uptown Records, Sean ("Puffy") Combs was abruptly terminated in 1993 by the then CEO Andre Harrell — reportedly due to his own difficulty to work with. Upon his firing, Arista Records chief Clive Davis took advantage of Combs' free agent status and agreed to bankroll him his own vanity label to be operated through Arista and its BMG parent.

Bad Boy Entertainment (as it was originally called) was quickly established. A handful of the acts who had been signed to Uptown via Combs just prior to his dismissal were dropped from the label; among them were Christopher Wallace (aka The Notorious B.I.G.), and Craig Mack — both of whom Combs would take with him to his new company.

The label's first release was Craig Mack's "Flava In Ya Ear," followed quickly by Mack's debut album, Project: Funk Da World. On the heels of these releases came "Juicy" and Ready To Die, the lead single and debut album from The Notorious B.I.G. (who would also be referred to as "Biggie"). Both albums achieved multi-platinum success. The latter, however, went on to become a monster hit — dominating the charts into 1995, making B.I.G. the label's premiere star. Also in 1995, the label continued its success with platinum releases by Total and Faith Evans.

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Bad Boy—vs—Death Row

The quick success of The Notorious B.I.G., and Bad Boy as a company, did not set well with all — most notably the West Coast hip hop label, Death Row Records. For two years leading up to 1995, Death Row (and the West Coast hip hop scene that it led) had easily dominated the rap world. However, with Bad Boy and East Coast hip hop now garnering the notoriety that it was, resentment loomed as the attention (and acclaim) now had to be shared.

Death Row's CEO Suge Knight especially didn't take too kindly to his turf being seemingly invaded, and openly jeered Bad Boy and Combs. The tension was amped up considerably when West coast rap superstar 2Pac signed with Death Row and forged a bitter rivalry with Biggie. Music fans, meanwhile, began to take sides, resulting in the tension being tagged an "East coast/West coast rap war."

Though Combs made a handful of attempts to denounce the coastal/label feud, and didn't allow any of Bad Boys artists to publicly lash back at the slights coming from the other side, most of his pleading fell on deaf ears as tensions reached a boiling point in 1996. In September of that year, 2Pac was shot and killed — and although Bad Boy issued a public statement of condolence, it hardly quelled the bad blood.

On March 9 1997, as the label readied for the release of Biggie's sophomore double album, Life After Death, he too was shot and killed. The tragic deaths of Biggie and 2Pac left many wondering if the coastal feud had been responsible for their demises. The police investigations, meanwhile, remain unsolved.

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Life after Biggie

Posthumously, Biggie's Life After Death went to number one on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart, and its first single "Hypnotize" reached number one on the singles charts. The tragedy had fueled album sales, and by year's end Life After Death had sold over ten million units.

In early 1997, Combs (now calling himself "Puff Daddy") had begun recording his own solo album. Its first single, "Can't Nobody Hold Us Down," hit number one on the rap, R&B, and pop charts that spring. In response to Biggie's death, the company rush-released a Puff Daddy tribute song "I'll Be Missing You", which featured Biggie's widow, Faith Evans, and Bad Boy's latest act — teen R&B singing group 112. The song topped the charts for ten weeks and became the hasty second single from Combs' album, No Way Out, which was released in the summer and sold 7 million copies. Puff's newest protégé, Ma$e, was immediately thrust into the void that Biggie left. His own debut album, Harlem World, was also released in 1997 and would go four times platinum.

By the end of 1997, Bad Boy as a label and brand name hit a commercial peak, due to the successive successes of Life After Death, No Way Out, and Harlem World.

In the years to follow, however, Bad Boy's fortunes would become more modest. In 1999, Ma$e became religious and abruptly retired from the business — which left a serious dent in the company, especially since he had just released his sophomore album. Combs' follow up albums failed to generate the same kind of attention that his first did. In an attempt to further market himself, he underwent several name changes; from "Puff Daddy" to "P. Diddy", to now simply "Diddy".

As the 2000s emerged, Bad Boy began to noticeably flounder. Many of its more noted acts would eventually vacate the label, while those who remained saw their sales dwindle as time went on. In spite of continually releasing new material, and various attempts at building artists to the status of Bad Boy's deceased icon, none proved as successful as the company hoped. The label's income now comes chiefly from posthumous B.I.G. albums.

Arista Records bought a 50% stake in Bad Boy in 1996 but, following Clive Davis's departure from its parent company, the label broke ties with Arista and BMG, moving to Universal Music Groups' Universal Records in 2002. The change of distribution, however, did not increase productivity. In 2005, Warner Music Group bought out the remainder of Bad Boy's agreement with Universal Music Group, then bought a large minority stake in the label. Today the label is distributed through WMG's Atlantic Records, and continues to operate.

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Artists

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Current

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Former

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See also

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External links

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