Bad Boy Records
| Bad Boy Records | |
|---|---|
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| Parent company | Sony Music Entertainment |
| Founded | 1993; 23 years ago |
| Founder | Sean Combs |
| Distributor(s) |
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| Genre | |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Location | New York City, New York |
Bad Boy Entertainment (also known as Bad Boy Records) is an American record label founded in 1993 by Sean Combs. Today, it operates as an imprint of Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment.
After his climb from a non-paying internship to becoming an A&R executive at Uptown Records, Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs was fired in 1993 by Andre Harrell. Combs soon founded Bad Boy Records in 1993. 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. On the heels of these releases came "Juicy" and Ready to Die, the lead single and debut album from The Notorious B.I.G. (a.k.a. Biggie Smalls), released the same year. While Mack's album went gold, Ready to Die achieved multi-platinum success. Dominating the charts in 1995, B.I.G. became one of the genre’s biggest names of the day and Bad Boy’s premier star. Also in 1995, the label continued its success with platinum releases by Total and Faith Evans. 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.
The rapid success of Notorious B.I.G., and Bad Boy as a company, raised some tensions, especially with the Los Angeles-based Death Row Records. For two years leading up to 1995, West Coast hip hop, dominated by Death Row, had been preeminent in mainstream rap music. Suge Knight, CEO of Death Row Records, held Combs responsible for the shooting death of his friend Jake Robles, allegedly at the hands of Combs' bodyguard. Tensions were heightened when Death Row signed superstar rapper 2Pac, who alleged that the Bad Boy circle, notably Notorious B.I.G. and Puff Daddy, had been complicit in the November 1994 shooting of him in the lobby of Quad Studios in Times Square.
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