Some critics blame the demise of Bad Boy Records on the death of Biggie. While that had a lot to do with it, Bad Boy still made hits years after his death. Harlem rapper, Mase, had signed to the label right before Biggie’s death. The plan was to make him into a formidable star under the light that was Biggie. Those plans obviously changed after Biggie died. The plan then was to turn Mase into the face of the label.
Perhaps if Mase had not retired things may have gone differently, but he did and that was a major blow to the label. If that was not enough, Shyne, the next face of Bad Boy was arrested and sent to prison. Soon, Puff Daddy changed to P. Diddy and he officially took over being the top rapper for the label. But, with so many businesses on the side, P. Diddy soon began marketing Loon as the new face of Bad Boy.
In 2003, Loon released his self-titled debut album, which only certified gold. From that point on, no one ever heard from Loon again. After his stint with Bad Boy, he reverted back to rapping on the mixtape scene. Meanwhile, P. Diddy changed his name to Diddy and created a new division of Bad Boy Records. This new branch, Bad Boy South, was created to compete directly with rival label, Def Jam and their Def Jam South.
Behind successful releases from 8Ball & MJG and Yung Joc, Bad Boy South was dominating the game for a little while. However, since 2006, there has not been much heard from any part of Diddy and Bad Boy Records. Initially, Diddy had major plans for 2007 that were pushed back to 2008 that were pushed back to 2009. It turned out that the real problem came from Atlantic Records and not Diddy, himself.
During his feud with the Def Jam executives, his main rival was Lyor Cohen. When he made the decision to move Bad Boy to Atlantic Records, Cohen was the head of the label. In the fall of 2009, Diddy shook up the hip hop game. He announced that he was moving the Bad Boy operation from Atlantic Records to Interscope Records. Jimmy Iovine was glad to have Diddy move his label over since 50 Cent was in the process of moving G-Unit.
Now that he has a solid deal for Bad Boy with Interscope Records, Diddy has made Red Café into the new face of Bad Boy Records. Also, after a five-year feud with Mase, they have called a truce and Mase will release a new album with Bad Boy. Diddy also hopes to release his long-awaited R&B debut, Last Train to Paris, and Cassie plans to release her new album this year. In the past decade, Diddy has focused on other projects as opposed to his original creation.
With 2010 here, Diddy is shifting his focus back to Bad Boy Records. After all, had it not been for his creation of Bad Boy, it would have been a lot harder for him to branch out the way that he did. Following the release of his next album, Diddy is retiring from the music business, entirely so that he can focus on the operating of his businesses.