October 18, 2006 @ 2:32 pm

A Look Back at a Bad Boy

by: Celia San Miguel, Laura Checkoway, and John Kennedy

1992: While attending Howard University, Sean “Puffy” Combs interns at Andre Harrell’s Uptown Records and is quickly promoted to VP of A&R. Can’t nobody hold him down! July 1992: Mary J. Blige releases her seminal Uptown Records debut album, What’s the 411?, produced by Puff Daddy. That next year Harrell fires Puffy from Uptown. July 1994: Following the launch of Bad Boy Records, the imprint releases Craig Mack’s “Flava in Ya Ear,” the first single from Puffy’s new label. November 30, 1994: Future hip hop icon Tupac Shakur is shot five times at New York’s Quad Recording Studios. Tupac later accuses Puffy and Biggie, who were at the scene, of setting him up. The much media-hyped East Coast vs. West Coast feud is born. September 1994: The Notorious B.I.G.’s debut, Ready to Die, is released to glowing reviews and earns platinum-plus sales, raising the commercial stakes for East Coast hip hop. More than a year later, Puffy re-ups with Arista Records’ Clive Davis, who re-signs Bad Boy Records to a new fifty-fifty joint venture. March 9, 1997: Following the 11th Annual Soul Train Music Awards, Biggie is gunned down in L.A.—just months after Tupac’s fatal shooting. Puffy’s Bad Boy family faces a future without their franchise giant of a talent. right March 1997: The Notorious B.I.G.’s posthumous double album, Life After Death, is released. It will go on to sell over 10 million copies. July 1997: Puffy’s first solo album, No Way Out, is released and tops the Billboard Top 200 chart for weeks, stoking the fire of hate in hip hop purists worldwide. Puffy has the last laugh. April 1999: After the multiplatinum success of Harlem World, two years earlier, and a lackluster reception for his follow-up, Double Up, Mase announces he is dropping the mic and taking up the church pulpit. Apparently, he preaches much faster than he rhymes. December 27, 1999: Puffy, then girlfriend Jennifer Lopez, and rhyme protégé Jamal “Shyne” Barrow are arrested after a dispute at Club New York ends in gunplay. June 1, 2001: Shyne is sentenced to ten years for first-degree assault, gun possession, and reckless endangerment. Puff was acquitted back in March to dance another day. March 2001: Puff Daddy changes his name to P. Diddy. Four years later he drops the “P,” claiming it’s coming between him and his fans. Okay… June 2002: Amid dwindling record sales, Bad Boy Records ends its partnership with Arista Records. Diddy will sign a distribution deal with Universal Music Group the next year. October 2002: Bad Boy Films produces the MTV’s reality series Making The Band 2. The show becomes synonymous with in-studio beat downs and overnight treks to Junior’s to indulge Diddy’s cheesecake fetish. June 2004: Diddy wins the Menswear Designer of the Year award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America for his Sean John clothing line, beating out such style stalwarts as Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors. Take that! Take that! August 2004: Mase reunites with Bad Boy Records and drops his comeback album, Welcome Back. Lukewarm sales, however, prove that the music-buying public has a hard time taking the Bible-thumping, rap-rebuking MC seriously. April 2006: In an effort to ride the Southern hip hop commercial wave, Puff announces a joint venture between Bad Boy South and Block Enterprises. June 2006: The marquee artist on Bad Boy South, Atlanta native Jamil “Yung Joc” Robinson tops Billboard’s rap chart with the release of his debut solo effort, New Joc City. July 2006: Diddy announces that he’s changing the name to his upcoming solo album, PDV, to Press Play. The über entertainment mogul later releases the project’s first single, “Come to Me.” And he don’t stop, ’cause he can’t stop…. August 2006: Despite seducing audiences with her summer hit “Me & U,” Bad Boy siren Cassie experiences an Ashlee Simpson–style backlash after botching promotional performances on MTV’s TRL and BET’s 106 & Park. Diddy defends the model/singer, claiming stage fright overcame her. August 2006: The eponymous debut album by five-member girl group Danity Kane debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart. Their 234,000 fans can’t be wrong, right? September 2006: 50 Cent and Diddy have a sit-down and declare a “cease-fire,” ending one of hip hop’s oddest and shortest feuds. The beef erupts after Diddy refuses to terminate Mase’s contract with Bad Boy Records, preventing 50 from officially signing the rappin’ reverend to G Unit. The beef escalates when Fif releases the mixtape Hip Hop Is Dead: G Unit Radio 22, on which he accuses Diddy of knowing the identity of Biggie’s killers. Read more VIBE exclusives.

Article tags: 50 Cent, Arista, Ashlee Simpson, Bad Boy, Bad Boy South, Clive Davis, Danity Kane, Diddy, G-unit, Howard University, Jennifer Lopez, Mary J. Blige, Michael Kors, Notorious B.I.G., Puff Daddy, Puffy, Ralph Lauren, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Sean Combs, Tupace, Uptown Records