During this time, the label began to promote its latest signing the L.O.X., who had been prominently featured on various Bad Boy releases that year.

Due to the successive successes of Life After Death, No Way Out and Harlem World, by the end of 1997, Bad Boy as a label and brand name had hit a commercial peak. His own debut album, Harlem World, also released the same year, would go Quadruple Platinum. Mase, Combs' newest protégé, in the meantime was immediately thrust into the void that the Notorious B.I.G. The single topped the charts for eleven weeks and became the hasty second single from Combs' album, No Way Out, which was released in the summer and sold 7 million copies in the U.S. In response to Biggie's death, the label rush-released a Puff Daddy tribute song, ' I'll Be Missing You', which featured Biggie's widow, Faith Evans, and Bad Boy's R&B singing group 112. 1 on the Rap, R&B, and pop charts that spring. The first single, 'Can't Nobody Hold Me Down', peaked at No. In 1996, Puff Daddy had begun recording his own solo debut album. alone, and is one of the highest selling rap albums ever in the U.S. The album eventually sold over 10 million copies in the U.S. Its first two singles, 'Hypnotize' and 'Mo Money, Mo Problems' also topped the singles charts. Posthumously, Biggie's Life After Death reached number one on the Billboard Top 200. The police investigations were criticized by public and judicial sources. Their deaths left many to speculate if the coastal hostility had been responsible for their deaths. On March 9, 1997, while Bad Boy were preparing the release of the Notorious B.I.G.'s double album Life After Death, he was killed in Los Angeles, California. Bad Boy issued a statement of condolences. 2Pac was shot in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 7, 1996, and died September 13. and Puff Daddy, had been complicit in the November 1994 shooting of Tupac in the lobby of Quad Studios in Times Square.Īfter the June 1996 release of 2Pac's ' Hit 'Em Up', smearing Bad Boy, tensions escalated. Tensions were heightened when Death Row signed 2Pac, who alleged that Bad Boy, notably the Notorious B.I.G. Suge Knight, CEO of Death Row, held Puff Daddy responsible for the shooting death of his friend Jake Robles, allegedly at the hands of Sean Combs' bodyguard Anthony 'Wolf' Jones. For 3 years leading up to 1995, West Coast hip hop, dominated by labels such as Death Row, had been preeminent in mainstream Rap. The rapid success of the Notorious B.I.G., and Bad Boy as a company, raised some tensions, especially with the Beverly Hills, California-based Death Row Records. įurther information: East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry Bad Boy, meanwhile, staffed a bevy of in-house writer/producers, including: Easy Mo Bee, Chucky Thompson and D Dot-all of whom were instrumental in producing many of Bad Boy's most noted releases during this time.įeud with Death Row Records and loss of the Notorious B.I.G. Also in 1995, the label continued its success with platinum releases by Total and Faith Evans. became one of the genre's biggest names of the day and Bad Boy's premier star. While Mack's album went Gold, Ready to Die achieved multi-platinum success. On the heels of these releases came 'Juicy' and Ready to Die, the lead single and debut album from the Notorious B.I.G. The label's first release was ' Flava in Ya Ear' by Craig Mack, followed quickly by Mack's debut album, Project Funk da World in 1994. History Beginnings Īfter his climb from a non-paid internship to becoming an A&R executive at Uptown, Sean 'Puffy' Combs was fired in 1993 by Andre Harrell and founded his own label, Bad Boy Records, later that year. In 2023, Combs created a successor label, Love Records to independently release his fifth studio album, The Love Album: Off the Grid. At its peak, Bad Boy was worth a reported US$100 million. In the 2000s, the label signed French Montana, Machine Gun Kelly, Janelle Monáe, and Cassie, among others. In the late 1990s, Bad Boy Records signed numerous artists including the Notorious B.I.G., Faith Evans, 112, Total, the Lox, Mase, Craig Mack, Shyne and Carl Thomas. Bad Boy Records (or Bad Boy Entertainment) is an American record label founded in 1993 by rapper Sean 'Puffy' Combs.

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