"Ain't Nothing Shine Brighter Than That Bad Boy" The Inside Story of Hip-Hop's Most Notorious Label

An oral history of how Puff Daddy, Biggie Smalls, an army of rappers, and an ocean of champagne changed hip-hop forever
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1. From Ashy to Classy

The first album released by Bad Boy Entertainment—twenty years ago this month—was the Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready to Die, an instant classic and possibly the most influential rap record ever made. For Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs, the label’s founder, it was the first in a remarkable streak of commercial hits: twenty-one straight gold- or platinum-selling albums, including Puff’s own Grammy-winning debut, No Way Out, plus home-grown artists like Faith Evans, the Lox, Mase, Total, and 112. By the mid-1990s, Bad Boy was the biggest label in pop music. This is the story of how it all began.
Jadakiss (rapper, the Lox): Getting on Bad Boy was like being the top pick in the draft, going to play with the Bulls when Mike was there. It put the battery in our back.
Janelle Monáe (singer, Bad Boy artist): Bad Boy was proof that the American Dream was real for hardworking young black artists in the ’90s, just like it had been real for Berry Gordy and all my soul and funk heroes at Motown in the ’60s and ’70s. When I graduated high school, I headed straight to New York. That’s where Broadway was. That’s where Puff was.
Russell Simmons (co-founder of Def Jam): Everything Puffy touched was golden. He just made hit after hit after hit.

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BY 
CRAIGH BARBOZA