(Left to Right) Mark Curry (Twitter screenshot)/Sean "Diddy" Combs, June 26, 2022, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
Bad Boy Records founder and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs had decided to return the publishing rights of his label’s catalog to the artists and songwriters behind the music, it was recently announced. Instead of selling Bad Boy Records’ catalog, Diddy has chosen to reassign the publishing rights to the label’s artists and songwriters, such as Faith Evans, the estate of the late Notorious B.I.G., and Ma$e, Forbes reported.
But wait, says former Bad Boy artist Mark Curry. According to Curry, this gesture by Diddy is an empty one.
On September 6, 2023, Curry, who appeared on Biggie’s posthumous track “Dangerous MCs” and Diddy’s 2001 hit “Bad Boy For Life,” took to Instagram to speak out.
“What’s it worth now?” Curry questioned. “He gave me mine back a long time ago… That’s disrespectful — I said why don’t you just keep it and pay me? I don’t want the publishing; I want the money.”
“Diddy gave the publishing back… So what… it has no value… I want him to give me a million cash, and then I can plan the rest of my life out well,” it read in the caption accompanying the Instagram video.
Curry elaborated further in the comment section of his post, comparing the situation to someone owing you $50, not paying you when you needed it, and then finally reimbursing you when the money’s value has diminished, Music Xclusives reported.
Curry left Bad Boy Records in 2005 and pursued various ventures outside the entertainment industry. In 2009, he authored a book titled “Dancing with the Devil: How Puff Burned the Bad Boys of Hip Hop,” giving what he said was insight into Diddy’s business practices.
According to TMZ, Diddy has been offered “nine figures” for the catalogs but opted instead to return the publishing rights to the artists.
But this gesture was long coming. Ma$e for one has called out Diddy over the years for not letting him have his publishing rights. In 2020, he said even offered to pay Diddy $2 million for the rights but was turned down, HipHopDX reported.
“I heard u loud and clear when u said that u are now for the artist and to that my response is if u want to see change you can make a change today by starting with yourself,” Ma$e wrote on social media in 2020.
“Your past business practices knowingly has continued purposely starved your artist and been extremely unfair to the very same artist that helped u obtain that Icon Award on the iconic Badboy label.”
(Left to Right) Mark Curry (Twitter screenshot,
https://x.com/omowale99949437/status/1699464084863750490?s=61&t=fP_PvawJ-u11wxwrilX87Q)/Sean “Diddy” Combs arrives at the BET Awards, June 26, 2022, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
