Following the death of The Notorious B.I.G., Diddy began branching his company out. In 1998, he launched the Sean John clothing line and he continued to expand. By 2001, he had surpassed Master P as the richest man in hip hop. With everything going on, Diddy soon did not have much time for Bad Boy Records. Until 2004, he ran all of his businesses and they were all successes.
But, when his net worth jumped from the $10 millions into the $100 millions, Diddy began focusing on what was making money. Sadly, his initial creation was no longer a force in the industry. Every now and again, Diddy falls back in love with his music. When he does, he usually signs a new artist to Bad Boy and he releases a new album. This was the plan, in 2007, but he realized that the label did not have much going for itself outside of his music.
Last fall, Diddy announced his rededication to Bad Boy Records. The first move that he made was ending his four-year relationship with Atlantic Records. Following his departure from Atlantic Records, Diddy reached a new distribution deal with Interscope Records. Once he reached the deal, he moved his artists over from the original deal at Atlantic to the new deal with Interscope. Many established artists are willing to end their existing deals with their labels to come over to Bad Boy. Raekwon stated that he wanted The Wu Massacre to come out on Bad Boy and he said that he wanted to sign with the label.
Because of big money deals outside of Bad Boy Records, Diddy lost his focus, which was to become the new and improved Russell Simmons. His shift in interest led to his label falling out of contention and becoming an afterthought. Now that his label has drastically fallen off, Diddy is working his hardest to rebuild his creation. But, looking back on the whole situation, Bad Boy Records would have never fallen off had Diddy paid more attention to it. However, with his expansion into clothing, restaurants, television production, and other business ventures, Diddy seemingly outgrew Bad Boy Records.