Diddy caused quite a stir when he said he was returning publishing rights to the likes of Ma$e, The Notorious B.I.G. and The LOX, but not all former Bad Boy Records artists are happy.
B5, an R&B group who released two albums while signed to Bad Boy in the mid-’00s, have claimed that they have been excluded from the much-publicized deal.
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Appearing on the We In Miami podcast, the group said they had not received their publishing rights back and “didn’t hear anything, we didn’t get no calls [or] nothing like that, from that.”
“Puff — Diddy, yeah, we all want our publishing too,” they demanded.
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The five-piece group, who are all brothers, also reflected on their time on the record label, commenting: “We were so young at the time; we didn’t understand the business of it.
“But, you know, now looking back, it’s like, ‘Damn, why our names wasn’t on the credits?… Where the percentages at? Where the [publishing] at?”
They also revealed their departure from the vaunted label was due to “not seeing eye to eye.”
B5 are not the only former Bad Boy artist to take issue with Diddy’s announcement. Mark Curry, who is best known for featuring on Diddy’s 2001 hit “Bad Boy For Life,” criticized his former label boss on Instagram.
He said: “What’s it worth now? 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.”
“Ever had somebody owe you $50… when you needed it back… they didn’t pay you… then by the time they do pay you… the $50 doesn’t mean the same as it did when you needed it?”
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According to TMZ, Diddy was offered a nine-figure sum for the the Bad Boy catalogue, but the music mogul instead gave the rights back to the artists so they could sell it themselves.
Artists said to benefit from the deal include Ma$e, The Notorious B.I.G. (through his estate), The LOX, 112 and Faith Evans, along with numerous songwriters who contributed to the label’s success.
