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Cousins! As Bad Boy Records gears up to celebrate their official 30th anniversary, music mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has begun forwarding a variant of artists and songwriters their publishing rights!
According to USA Today, a source close to the situation says that Diddy has been approached with multi-million dollar offers in the past few years to purchase Bad Boy’s publishing. However, he has instead decided to reallocate rights to the artists and writers who have contributed to the label’s success throughout the years.
It has been stated that the 54-year-old is working to spread awareness of financial mobility among artists within the music industy.
Reports read that the Bad Boy CEO has returned official publishing rights over to legendary artists such as The Lox, 112, Faith Evans, Mase, the estate of the Notorious B.IG., and more.
It’s no secret that the success of Bad Boy records has expanded from the 90s through the present day. Originally founded in 1992, the record company has introduced major Hip Hop and R&B artists who have dominated the music industry for the last 30+ years.
Despite selling over 500 million records, producing nearly 40 platinum singles and countless Grammy Award wins; the Bad Boy empire has been met with much criticism. For years numerous artists have called out Diddy upon accusations of shady business deals.
In 2020 Mase took to social media to drag Diddy, as he directly accused him of ripping off a long list of artists throughout his career.
“Your past business practices knowingly has continued purposely starved your artists and been extremely unfair to the very same artists that helped (you) obtain that Icon Award on the iconic Bad Boy label,” reads a since deleted post from Mase’s Instagram.
At this point in Diddy’s career, he has been extremely vocal in promoting personal wealth and entrepreneurship within the Black community.
A source close to the situation says that Diddy is hopeful that fellow music executives will follow suit.