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Diddy discusses Interscope deal
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 30 September 2009
Following those reports that Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs was not renewing his business relationship with Warner Music Group and was instead forming a new partnership under the Bad Boy brand with Universal’s Interscope division, the man himself has both confirmed and explained the new deal to AllHipHop. Somewhat confusing, the new arrangement means there will be two Bad Boy record companies.
As expected, under the new partnership Interscope will distribute releases by all future Bad Boy-signed artists, as well as Diddy’s own solo work, including his new album, ‘Last Train To Paris’, which had been slated for release by Warner Music’s Atlantic label in November. But the current Bad Boy catalogue will continue to be distributed by Warner/Atlantic.
Combs explained: “I had started some previous business relationships with [Interscope chairman] Jimmy Iovine. We had a great chemistry with each other. When I sat down with Julie [Greenwald, Atlantic COO] and told them that I had an interest to go sign with Jimmy, they didn’t make it rough for me. Lyor [Cohen, WMG Chairman] and Julie were nice enough to let me get my [Bad Boy] name. I was able to take the name over to Interscope and to still stay in business with them. I am not abandoning any of my artists over there, I still have that imprint. But all my future recordings, including my recording contract, that will be at Interscope Records”.
He added that he sees the new Interscope-based incarnation of Bad Boy Entertainment as a separate entity to its Warner counterpart, and will use it as a small boutique label to nurture new and more unusual talent. He said: “We are going to take our time with the amount of acts that we sign. We want to find those very unique artists. We want to build something very special that’s not already out there”.
Ever modest, he explained that the first “very unique” release to come out of the deal would be his own new album, which Combs describes at “electro-hip-hop-soul-funk”. He said of the album: “It’s hip hop and it has a lot of different ingredients going into it. As soon as people heard the word ‘electro’, they automatically assumed it was electro-heavy. It’s not electro-heavy, it’s a musical gumbo of the different sounds I’ve experienced throughout my travels and through producing”.
