it has been confirmed that sean p. diddy combs has parted ways with warner music and BAD BOY RECORDS for a new deal with interscope records. and although details regarding his contract have not been made public as of yet diddy had this to say in a statement: "now that the term of the warner deal has ended i have elected to accept an opportunity to my my recording career and future label venture to another company."
diddys upcoming fifth solo album entitled last train to paris will be released on interscope some time in late novemeber. and then supposedly after that his next outlined task will be to form a new interscope affiliated start-up venture similar to bad boy records which he founded in 1993.
after being terminated by the ceo from an a&r internship at uptown records in 1993 sean combs took a handful of his acts with him including the late great NOTORIOUS B.I.G. and craig mack and some others to form a new label called BAD BOY RECORDS. the labels first release was a song called flava in ya ear by craig mack which was followed by macks debut album in 1994. in 1994 arista records bought a 50%-stake in bad boy and later that year came JUICY and READY TO DIE which dominated the charts into 1995.
the label continued its succes in 1995 with releases from FAITH EVANS and total but began engaging in the epic east coast versus WEST COAST hip-hop rivalry with DEATH ROW RECORDS. in september of 1996 the rapper TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR was shot and killed in a drive by and about 6-months later in march of 1997 CHRISTOPHER GEORGE LATORE WALLACE was shot to death under similar circumstances.
after biggie the bad boy label continued on with the release of his posthumous album LIFE AFTER DEATH which entered the billboard top 200-albums chart at number-1. but in the years to follow bad boy saw a great decline. in 1999 MA$E became religious and abruptly retired from the hip-hop business leaving a dent in the company and the rapper SHYNE from brooklyn came to the label and combs changed his name from puff daddy to p. diddy.
the label did have some success with the creation of BAD BOY SOUTH which began with 8BALL & MJG and hoursed other acts including yung joc and boyz n da hood. also during that time combs participated in the mtv show making of the band and making of the band part-2 which spawned some new acts for bad boy. in 2003 bad boy broke its ties with arista and bmg following the departure of clive davis and moved to universal records however the change of distrubition did not increase the labels productivity. in 2005 warner music group bought out the remainder of bad boys agreement with universal and switched its distribution to warner music groups atlantic records.
in the past 5-years diddy had some more minor success with the label with new signees including cassie and yung joc and danity kane and day-26 and donnie klang but nothing comparable to the days of CRAIG MACK & B.I.G. and although this feels a bit like betrayal it this is clearly the correct move for mister combs.
heres a pic of diddy with his new boss the chairman of interscope-geffen-a&m, JIMMY IOVINE:
