Bad Boy Is Dead, Long Live Bad Boy
One of the ugliest logos in history managed to change history.
Hadn’t had contact with my peoples from Bad Boy in like months. Hit ‘em on the email yesterday afternoon, me wanting to reminisce, joke with them about some funny shit we saw back in the early nineties, she hit me back on the Blackberry with how her and the rest of the Bad Boy staff were “packing up and out tomorrow”. Meaning packing up all of their personal items in the office and closing up shop. Today. Like right as you’re reading this. How, based on the recent deal inked between Sean Diddy Combs and Universal Music Group’s Interscope Geffen A&M label headed by Jimmy Iovine, Bad Boy no longer existed. At least how it had once existed to the team that manned the ship Puff ran, some employees being down since ‘93, the year the label opened it’s doors.
That’s some crazy shit to me. Especially since I worked with home girl when was my old boss’ assistant back in the early nineties. When she told us in ‘93 that she was recently offered a position at Puff’s start-up company and how she wanted to accept, my boss and I both asked her if she was cool with the career risk, how Puff as a label yet hadn’t sold record one. A year later, when Bad Boy was blasting into the stratosphere and had become the world’s hottest label, me, my boss and everyone we knew were fighting to make sure we was down. And we were. Home girl made sure her peoples got a piece of the action. That Palladium scene in that Notorious movie was spot on. The one where Puff is at the bar, entourage in tow when Flex dropped a bomb on the label’s first official single, ‘Flava In Your Ear’ by Craig Mack, that’s when it took off. We was all posted up in that club, watching how the crowd got swept up in that hypnotic beat, Mack’s raps booming out the club’s 800 speakers, that beat sounding cavernous, like it was trying to pull the listeners into some ginormous black hole. Watching how Puff was reacting, like he knew very well what time it was. The beginning of a new era. From that moment on, right in that club, Puffy and the Bad Boy Magic Express left the station and was not going to stop until the proverbial wheels fell off.
Craig Mack, The Notorious B.I.G., Total, 112, Faith, The Lox, Ma$e, Black Rob, Carl Thomas, Diddy and the Family, Mario Winans, Shyne, G-Dep, Loon. That’s a lot of artists, a lot of material. That was a lot of work, and anybody that was on board had to earn their keep. The grind was on full speed 24 hours a day. Weekends and holidays included. Puff wasn’t giving nobody no types of handouts. The production team he kept locked up in his midtown Daddy’s House recording studio was composed of men and women that would create legendary music. Music that would define a generation. We were down because of the many friends we had that was on board. We also repped Deric Angelettie, Ron Lawrence, Nashiem Myrick, Jack Knight, Harve “Joe Hooker” Pierre. We almost had Stevie J too. Stevie was the first cat Puff ever referred to us. Stevie and his pops and his high school sweet heart paid us a visit at our offices in the big city. Stevie was a country boy from a small southern town who was still a devoted church going member of the choir. Humble, and so in love with his baby boo. I told him how ill the business was, how if not properly anchored, it could turn a man in, out and upside down, what with the excesses of money, women, flashing lights, drugs, fame, power. Steve humbly proclaimed that the Lord held him down like a rock. He innocently affirmed how he and his girl were gonna be together for very a long time. His pops had him go with another lawyer he knew, didn’t matter though, we was all fam. Stevie was talented on that genius level and Puff worked it all out of him. Funny how, like a year after we met, and after he blew the fuck up, jumping to the head line as one of Bad Boy’s main Hitmen, Stevie had taken to wearing fur coats and vests while shirtless, and chasing major tail from all over. High school sweet heart forgotten, back in the town they came from. The Lord must have lost his grip because my dude was balling the fuck outta control. And having a ball.
Bad Boy was THE ’90’s Motown. The studio kept moving platoons of cats, in and out like McDonalds to burgers, steady tracking, recording, mixing, rehearsing, writing, singing, rapping, eating, laughing, battling, dranking, smoking, deal making, arguing, auditioning, fighting, sleeping, shooting dice, sexing, learning, growing, bonding, living……. it never stopped. And during breaks from all that work, there were the parties. The entire scene was a Hype Williams video, only real. Shiny, loud, funny, so much money pouring in, New York in full recession free mode, industry and street money cats buying fully iced garbage cans parked in the center of any club New York, filled with gold bottles of Cristal, the owner handing them out to whomever was there at the time. Bad Boy parties brought everybody out, models, hoes, artists, execs, actors, drug dealers, street thugs, killers, magicians. I met David Blaine at one of Puff’s parties, back when clubs would let him in to do sleight of the hand tricks to work and entertain patrons in the crowd. Tupac, Onyx, LL Cool J, the Wu, Mobb Deep, Nas, Jay-Z, Mary, Heavy D, Pete Rock and CL Smooth, Nice and Smooth, Nia Long, Heather Hunter. On any given night. Office, studio, club, office, studio, club was the routine. It only kept getting bigger and bigger. And this was before white America made it to the building.
The hate kept coming too. Bad Boy had mad people making money, but it also sucked up all the money from cats that wasn’t down with the movement. Official crews that had held the city down a couple of years earlier with that real New York street talk was left in the cold if they didn’t join the “good life” program. Puff was the Great Gatsby and life was beautiful. The way Bad Boy would dominate every chart with the way they’d jack a sample had hardcore producers and rappers crying foul. Saying it wasn’t fair, wasn’t rap. Puff laughing, saying he didn’t care about what people thought of his sampling, his philosophy was that the songs he was ripping had already been “market tested” in their original form. How said samples made him a fortune. Rapper dudes throughout the city began feeling a ways about how B.I.G. had New York on his shoulders. That and how it looked like Puff’s money would never end, and how he kept reminding everybody about it. Puff vowed continuously that it wouldn’t stop.
We cried a lot with Bad Boy too. You know the date. My first son was only a couple of months when we got the news. As we were celebrating, marveling at new life, we shared deeply as Bad Boy encountered loss and tragedy. The man, the powerful voice, the perfect diction, cadence that become synonymous with the era was taken brutally from us. Quick. Unexpected. Gone. That shit hurt our souls to the core. The funeral ceremony. ‘We Always Love Big Poppa’ already recorded, playing in the parlor. Ma$e letting the tears flow, Faith trying to stand strong, L.O.X. wanting someone to retaliate against, Charlie Baltimore being notably present, Dame and Jay paying respects, Junior Mafia trying to hold Mrs. Wallace up, Kim swept up a hysterical lover’s cry, Puff, so alone, eyes distant, lost. We cried for days. It was like everywhere we went we cried. Like when Clark and I ran into Busta Rhymes a week after Big’s death and Bus letting out with anguish how Big was “really fucking gone.” Trust when I say we shed some real tears with Bad Boy, B.
How Puff came to his next move, was totally unexpected. The weeks that followed the incident the future of Bad Boy was looking uncertain. Puff didn’t know if he wanted the train to keep moving. And if he decided to stop, we’d all have understood. Rumors ran rampant, one day it was that he was done, retired, the next was about how he wanted to keep moving. When dude decided the best way to get past all that was by dancing, when we all saw dude dancing with the kids on the hill in the video, after he had busted his ass on the motorcycle, we knew instantly that he was back on his “I won’t stop, don’t stop” shit. Oh yeah, the fall on the motorcycle was real, no stunts, not planned. Puff decided to keep that shot. Let the world see how he had fallen. How he got back up. When we saw him get up, we followed suit. Bad Boy took a major spill but was officially back on its feet.
The new Bad Boy accomplished the impossible by becoming far bigger, better than it was before. Misfortune transformed Sean Combs into a mega star. Everyone knew his name and wanted to be down. Donald Trump made sure Puff made some time for him, movie stars, athletes, paparazzi, Hollywood. My moms asked me one day if I really really knew him, and what kind of name is Puffy. She caught the vapors. Trying to get away from all the death he had seen, Puff wanted to take his mind, our minds off that. Manhattan moved to the Hamptons, and then overseas, videos now being shot in exotic countries, Jennifer Lopez jumped on for the ride as she and Puff became, for a moment, America’s first couple.
The parties got more exclusive, even after the Shyne drama. Puff was invincible now. Beef, deaths, jail, public romances and heartbreaks, Bad Boy remained the foundation. Bad Boy stayed being the deepest root that held down and supported the growth of other ventures, Hollywood, Broadway, fashion, television. Puff and his superstar personality, his many uber successful business ventures eventually overshadowed the legacy that Bad boy was, but like a loyal dog, Bad Boy stayed on the tracks, moving, dropping records yearly since ‘94. No matter how small or distant it became from it’s offshoots, from it’s owner, all roads led to Bad Boy. To Bad Boy and it’s staff who helped Puff man the ship from day one.
After the game changed, ipods, the digitalization of music, and how a huge portion of the industry’s customers ceased to believe that music had value, that they should pay for it, Puff kept it moving. Having become way bigger than Bad Boy, the marathons, reality shows, fashion weeks and the fragrances now taking center stage, Bad Boy and crew still remained, virtually unnoticed except for maybe when Making The Band needed cameo shots of what went on at the label. No longer garnering the public’s affection, no longer the industry’s center of the universe, the label kept at it. Puff kept dancing too, even though he danced less. It was announced earlier this week that Puff inked a new deal for himself and Bad Boy at Interscope. No financial terms were disclosed and the length of the deal was not made public. As I touched base with my people yesterday, they informed me that Bad Boy as they, as we knew it since 1993 no longer existed. That the deal made was a lot smaller in scale to what Bad Boy had once commanded from the majors. The entire staff will be going home for the last time today. There will be a new Bad Boy at Interscope, run and staffed most likely by employees from within that system. The old Bad Boy has finally been put to rest.
Puff’s going to be alright. He’s bigger than Bad Boy, bigger than rap. He’s Mr. New York, America loves him. No one will be shedding a tear for the death of Bad Boy as we knew it. I also believe they’ll be no stories about today. How big of an event it is. The true end of an era. I’d be remiss if I didn’t pay proper respects. To all you people that made the dream a reality for over 16 years. Loyal to the end. Thank you. You all fought the fight and stayed being the winning team through it all. Bad Boy for life. I salute you all. Bad Boy is dead. Long live Bad Boy. Bad Boy For Life!
Props to Bad Boy, they really changed the game. Does that mean that the guys with contract situations with Bad Boy are now free agents? Also does that mean you can give us more inside stories from your dealings with them? Love your “daily” math.
SAK PASE? THE ARTICLE WAS WELL WRITTEN, WITH ALOT OF HEART G..PEACE
classic.
CJ, you are so right Bad Boy was are generations Motown. They had hit after hit and it seemed like it was never going to stop. I remember hearing “Flava In Ya Ear” and wishing that beat never stopped. That joint was crack and the remix that shit was crystal meth. I remember getting the bootleg of “Ready To Die” the rumor in Queens was that DJ Clue snatched that dat from the studio and put it on the streets. Don’t know how true that was, but the bootleg was the bidness. We played that shit everywhere we went. Bad Boy had me clubbing every weekend and buying CD’s every Tuesday. Used to stand on those long ass lines to get up in the Tunnel and once I got inside, I start fronting telling chicks I worked for Bad Boy. We would go right to that unisex bathroom and get it popping. Those were some good times. Bad Boy rock on!!
The Tunnel on Sunday nights was the shit. I saw Biggie in there rocking the same coat and kango form the “One More Chance” video. I saw Derrick Coleman come through and pick up like 10 chicks and leave. That shit took like two minutes. I was wishing I played in the NBA that night, instead of working at the hospital, lol. The Tunnel was outta control. I know you gotta have some great stories about that place.
sick sick sick
Well written article. All things change but feelings will always remain. I think you did a good job to get that message across. Interested in reading more of your articles.
You giving away alot of chapters for free of a book that could catapult you to the best sellers list…….we are grateful for the insight and the precision of the pen. Salute
Great post. ‘Bout time somebody told the Bad Boy story without hate or bullshit shading the tale.
New York’s industry scene, the one we at least think of from the late 90s, IS the bad boy scene. The one you describe above. The clubs, the money, the cars, the hoes. Sadly, but maybe not so sadly, it’s all gone. I’ve a love/hate relationship with it. It was cool, but it was also like, get over yourself. I can just remember it as a dude trying to break into the game. It was very insular. That those walls, that sense of self importance doesn’t exist anymore, I’m not mad at it. It was a lot of bullshit at the end of the day amidst the string of success Bad Boy had.
btw you can read my take on the deal by going here: http://pauljcantor.com/2009/10/01/diddy-signs-with-interscope-what-difference-does-it-make/
as far as pure business success, profits & revenues, Puff Biatche was successful.
as far as making great music, Bad Boy sucked. The exception was BIG’s 1994 Ready To Die, a classic album. Anyways, BIG’s ability to make a dope album should be attributed primarily to BIG’s great rapping. Put BIG with another big label, he would’ve made dope albums(s).
What other albums did Bad Boy release that you have or would like to have in ur IPod? BIG’s rapping was still great on his 2nd album, but Puffy chose some wack beats that ruined the album.
Also consider Diddy Dummy is responsible for a lot of horrible trends in music, The Shiny Suit Era, Mase, wack bitchmade talking over the beat “take that, uhh-uh uhh-uh”, etc.
Sales figures don’t equal great music. If you insist they do, I expect you to write tributes to the labels behind Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer, Lil Wang, Britney Spears, & Miley Cyrus.
Many random INDIVIDUAL ARTIST’s discography pwn Bad Boy’s entire roster’s discography. FACT.
A few examples:
A Tribe Called Quest, Common, CunningLynguists, De La Soul, Ice Cube, Jay-Z, Jill Scott, Little Brother, OutKast, Panacea, Prince, Rakim, Scarface, Stevie Wonder, Talib Kweli, The Roots, etc, …, Artist #4080
tight.
Only you would put up a Bad Boy dedication, which is what makes this blog great. All other blogs will just try to get the “news” out of it, when what we care about is the significance. If you grew up in the 90s and say you weren’t feelin Bad Boy, than you’re LYIN! Puff held us down for so long, good and bad, and it hurt me to see him in that video with Iovine almost looking powerless and too humble. The recession hits everyone.
I BECOME…so pissed when your stories end.
GREAT READ! lots of passion and heart…def brought back the emotions of that era!
Very good read. I wish i could write like that, it’s all very 3D and cinematographic.
I just hope that all the artist on the label get a chance to be FREE and pursue new ventures now and not stuck on a dusty shelf.
Peace!
Good God Damn Jack… swingin’ for the fences on this one.
I don’t even know what I can say- but yeah, you said it. I’ll never know how it was for my moms growin up into Motown as a teenager, but I can say that between ‘94 and around ‘98, that was a time for me as a teen coming up in that Bad Boy era. Even the stuff that wasn’t “officially” Bad Boy or from the Bad Boy label was influenced by that. It’s a sound/feel and a brand, which is something that no label (including Bad Boy) even has today. Puff really had his hand on the pulse for some years there. It’s def. one of those things I can gloat about to the youngins when I get on my ‘in my day’ shit, haha.
-D!
“The new Bad Boy accomplished the impossible by becoming far bigger, better than it was before.”
To someone outside the bad boy bubble, It appeared the wheels fell off immediately after biggie died. So much ran through biggie that when he died the virtual blood ceased to flow through those other acts.
Bad Boy, IMO, became hollow. NO substance.
I give him props for giving brothers jobs. Who else is gonna hire Dougie Fresh?!? But, he was bad for the art form. Easy Mo Bee deserves most of the credit for Ready To Die.
BadBoy was why I loved rap.
I didn’t listen to much rap as a kid because I’m West Indian
so I was into Reggae/Dancehall/Zouk/Kompa
but BadBoy Records made me a rap fiend
Very good read. CJ
I gotta disagree with Buey.
To me Puff & B.I.G. complemented each other, at that time, cuz something tells me B.I.G. wouldn’t have stayed w/Diddy forever.
Eventually he would’ve asked questions about his publishing & matters of that nature.
There’s also a certain time when you want to become a Boss & when you have the means, well…
But back to Buey, prior to Ready To Die, Puffy Combs had worked on Jodeci & Mary J. Blige’s first two LP (+ the remix album from MJB) & ,IMO, “My Life” & “Diary of a Mad Band” are two classics.
To my understanding, Mr. Combs was essential into getting Biggie to record thing like “Big Poppa”, “Juicy”, “One More Chance (Stay With Me remix)” – which were the records that lured you into listening to Ready To Die & discovering all that talent, B.I.G. had in him. The LP would’ve been dope, mos def, but not a classic w/o both of them compromising in order to have the best music out.
As for post-Biggie Bad Boy, I blame Ma$e for Puff lack of interest in his artists cuz prior to 1999 (Double Up/The Forever album), I was okay w/the shiny suits cuz I knew Mase was murda, the Warlocks were better off as Living Off Xperience & Black Rob had those ill guest verses that made me anticipate his album. My parents weren’t mad at the music neither cuz they recognized those Diana Ross, The Police/Sting, Kool & The Gang & Rod Stewart samples/interpolations! Them being Kompa listening, church going folks, that’s something! But they didn’t understand the lyrics, ‘tho, lol!
BTW Jack, will you have a review of Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City?
DONT GET IT TWISTED .. PUFF WAS A GENIUS IN MAKING CONCEPTUAL ALBUMS . READY TO DIE , LIFE AFTER DEATH , NO WAY OUT , AMERICAN GANGSTER , LIL KIM HARD CORE , G DEPS ALBUM , BLACK ROB ,SHYNES ALBUM . THERE SOME MISTEPS TOO I GUESS BUT I SALUTE PUFF FOR REALLY HELPING TO BRING NY BACK … IF U WERE FROM THAT ERA AND U KNEW THE CHOKE HOLD THE WEST HAD ON THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY THEN YOU WOULD MARVEL AT PUFFYS AND BAD BOY EVEN MORE . IM NOT SAYING BAD BOY AND EAST COAST WON OR WHATEVER .. BUT THE ENERGY TUPAC HAD ON THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY WAS NOT A GOOD ONE . EVEN I A GREAT FAN OF HIS ADMIT THAT TUPAC WAS REALLY BAD FOR HIPHOP IN THE END
The way you described when “Flava in your Ear” dropped was cinematic. I cant front, I got choked up reading about BIG’s death. It put me right back to when I first heard the news. Heartbreaking. I never cried when Pac Died, But I felt like a piece of me did when Big passed.
What Puffy did for Hip Hop is undeniable. Whether you feel he destroyed it, brought it back to it’s essence, took it to the next level; that’s a personal decision. But in my mind, what can’t be denied is what he did for R&B. He changed it forever and turned it into what we currently define as R&B. From Jodeci, Total, 112 to Mary J. wouldn’t have existed without Puff. Who knows what R&B would sound like today if not for the defining sound and foresight of Puff? Puff rode the last major wave that we will probably ever see in music. The money just isnt there anymore and the fame is so fleeting nowadays. Bady Boy to me is what Motown is to my parents. Long Live Bad Boy
i was thinking the same thing before i scrolled down and saw the first line:
“one of the ugliest logos in history”
CJ,
I will never forget the morning I heard about BIG dying, I was knocked out on my living room floor, never making it to my bedroom, comig back from Club Esso’s, my girl calling me up asking me where I been and if I been listening to the radio. I really did tear up that morning.
damn Badboy gone, its like my youth is really really gone.
sad man.
It’s crazy …. a couple of my peoples that work(ed) at 1710 (broadway…the badboy/sean jean offices) kinda hipped me to some ominous moves that were made within recent weeks. Sad tho… i saw a man livin the american dream while in a brief stint there… grand lifestyle forreal.
wish the best for the next era in BB.
Whats good Jack been a long time lurker gotta say that i really enjoy (pause) these type of articles.
What happened to that tales of a hustler shit from the old blog? I was reading that shit faithfully.
Any way keep these type of stories coming (II) i know u got a lot more to share with us!!!
peace.
Yo CJ I respect you for all you have accomplished in this game but lets keep it real Puffy, is one of the worst black Americans ever to be born. For as much as he’s done he also shitted on to many people to get where he is. For example I know from former BB artists that puff robbed everyone who signed with his gay ass. With the only real exception being Mase, only cause like Cassie, Mase was down to have sexual relations with Puff. Since you talking about how great Bad Boy was why don’t you also tell the people why when Big was alive that nigga was constantly chasing Diddy for money owed to him. Including the fact that Big not only had to sell copies of Ready to Die from his car to make ends meet.
He also was beggin Puff for his money the same week that he was suppose to fly to LA!!!!!!!!!!But than this nigga wanna fall off motocycles dance in the rain, run up mountains with lil kids an shit acting like he really gave a shit about Big was Big was alive! If he loved him so much why didn’t he pay that man what was rightfully his! Not wait till the nigga dies to act like he just lost his best friend an shit. FUCK THAT! My Aunt (Bless the Dead) use to always say “love me when I’m alive cause when I’m gone it doesn’t matter anymore”.Puff is a nigga addicited to fame and he hated the way Big was more famous than he was! You know and I know it! Why don’t you tell the people that..oh wait that might fuck up your lawyer money right??
Keep it real CJ you and I know Puff was born a piece of shit and that nigga will die one!! Fuck Bad Boy as a staff record label and motherfucking crew and if you wanna be down with BadBoy than fuck you too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
^ that last comment eviscerated Diddy Dummy. The comment reminded me of the Barney “Hit Em Up” clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU3wZ_aVp9E
Right, wrong or indifferent, Bad Boy provided me with a soundtrack for some of the most adventurous years of my life.
May not like it, but you gotta love it.
I like this drop Jack but…
America loves Puff? Nah Jack. You know that shit ain’t true.
I remember reading that story where he was voted the “most hated New Yorker” or some shit in one of those N.Y. papers.
I also remember a yahoo article that said Johnnie Cochran and 2Pac had been voted the “most hated Americans.” These muthafuckas hate the people we love the most.
Nah, they don’t love Puff. A lot of US might (a lot of US don’t too!) But nah son, these muthafuckas don’t love him, or nobody else most of us love.
bad boy died when bad boy left arista
bad boy last good run imo was 2000-2002
after bad boy signed with universal it was over for the good days at bad boy
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David Blaine has very good showmanship and his magic tricks are good too.”~-
I like your blog – super work!
Nip Tuck is a unique TV Series just like House MD.~~`
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i like the magic tricks of David Blaine but Chris Angel is much better.”:’
Nip/Tuck has some great drama too in the story, the women in this tv series are gorgeous too eventhough most of them are mature:~~
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