Diddy Returns Publishing to Bad Boy Artists, Social Media Reacts

Source: Paras Griffin / Getty

Labor Day turned out to be a great day for Bad Boy artists. According to multiple sources, Sean “Diddy” Combs allowed publishing rights to revert to his roster of Bad Boy hitmakers, including the estate of The Notorious B.I.G., Faith Evans, and Ma$e.

“Combs sees it as part of a broader goal of promoting economic empowerment for Black artists and culture,” a source confirmed to Rolling Stone.

This all comes ahead of Diddy releasing The Love Album: Off the Grid on Sept. 15, his first solo project in 17 years. Guest stars include H.E.R., Babyface, Coco Jones, John Legend, Mary J. Blige, Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, Ty Dolla $ign, and a whole lot of other prominent artists.

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Given current artist publishing evaluations  – which have led legacy artists like Philadelphia International Records founders Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff and rock stalwarts like Bob Dylan to sell their catalogs for multiple millions, the deal could net some of the Bad Boy artists involved a lot of money.

Diddy is said to have been working out the deals since 2021. A source told RS that Diddy considers the deal so “unprecedented” that it may change artist compensation in the future. They say paperwork has already been completed with Biggie’s estate, the Lox, Ma$e, and Faith Evans.

One of Diddy’s most outspoken critics was Ma$e, who starred on hits with him and The Notorious B.I.G. on “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down,” “Been Around the World,” and “Mo Money Mo Problems,” the latter two songs which went to #1. In 2020, after the Recording Academy honored Diddy with an Industry Icons award, Ma$e had his say in a since-deleted Instagram post.

“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,” Mase wrote. “This is not black excellence at all,” he continued, referencing Diddy’s speech, where he said the RIAA didn’t properly acknowledge the contributions of R&B and hip-hop artists.  “When our race is enslaving us. If it’s about us owning, it can’t be about us owning each other.”

Ma$e alleged that after getting just $20K for his publishing originally, Combs refused a $2M buyout for his publishing, and Diddy countered, saying that Ma$e owed him $3M for an album that never came out on Bad Boy.

While neither man has publicly commented, it appears that Ma$e did receive his publishing per a post from Cam’ron congratulating his fellow Harlem-based rapper.

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