Sean “Diddy” Combs launched Bad Boy Records in 1993, shortly amassing the expertise that might flip it into one of the influential hip-hop labels of all time. Now, 30 years later, he’s assigning music publishing rights again to these artists fairly than promoting off the dear catalog.
Bad Boy has already struck offers with artists together with Faith Evans, Mase, the Lox, 112, and the property of the Notorious B.I.G. to return rights to their materials, a consultant confirmed to Rolling Stone. Terms of those agreements, which Combs started pursuing in 2021, haven’t been made public. In an announcement shared with Rolling Stone, the billionaire mogul’s camp known as the transfer “unprecedented,” speculating that it “might impression the trade and shift how artists are compensated.”
While musicians from Bob Dylan to Justin Bieber have offered off their again catalogs for astronomical prices lately as demand for such belongings boomed, Combs reportedly turned down comparable however unspecified offers to purchase Bad Boy’s enviable record for thousands and thousands. According to the assertion on his behalf, Combs sees the choice to restore publishing rights to songwriters who helped constructed the label “as a part of a broader objective of selling financial empowerment for Black artists and tradition.”
Notably, Combs had been beforehand criticized by Bad Boy rapper Mase for failing to adequately compensate these on his roster. After he criticized the Recording Academy at a pre-Grammys gala occasion the place he acquired an “Industry Icons” award in 2020, claiming that “Black music has by no means been revered by the Grammys,” Mase unloaded on Diddy as a hypocrite in a since-deleted Instagram
“Your previous enterprise practices knowingly has continued purposely starved your artist and been extraordinarily unfair to the exact same artist that helped u acquire that Icon Award on the long-lasting Badboy label,” Mase wrote on the time, alleging that Combs had turned down a suggestion of $2 million to purchase again his publishing, although Mase had solely acquired $20,000 for the rights initially. “This is just not black excellence in any respect,” he added. Diddy claimed in 2022 that Mase owed him a $3 million advance on an album he by no means delivered, which prompted one other angry Instagram post from Mase — this one mentioning Combs’ mom — that was later taken down.
But the feud appears to be settled. Last Wednesday, rapper Cam’ron introduced on Instagram that Mase had finalized the paperwork to regain his publishing from Diddy the day earlier than.
If Diddy is within the temper to clear the air, it will make sense forward of what seems like a feel-good new document from the producer, The Love Album: Off the Grid. His first solo LP in 17 years, it drops on Sept. 15 and is filled with featured guests together with The Weeknd, Bieber, John Legend, Mary J. Blige, and just about everybody else you’ve ever heard of.
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