Former Bad Boy Rapper Airs Out Diddy’s ‘Business Practices’
Former Bad Boy rapper and producer, Mark Curry, who recorded under the name Chop D.I.E.S.E.L., has revealed some of Diddy's more dubious business practices in a forthcoming book about his time with the label.
The tell-all, entitled 'Dancing With the Devil,' relates Diddy's reason for appearing in so many of his artists' videos. "Puff has an annoying habit of inserting himself into the songs and videos of all the artists on his label and its common knowledge that many Bad Boy acts resented him for this," Curry writes in the first chapter.
When asked about his practice in the July 1995 issue of a magazine aimed at teenagers, the music mogul said: "I like performing with my artists. I like talking on the records and I like being in the videos. It protects my interests in terms of what I'm going to do in the future. Say if a company tries to remove me. It's going to be hard to remove me and still have my acts and [have] the same level of intensity and the same flavor and feeling."
In addition to stealing the spotlight from his artists, Diddy charged for it, Curry alleges, through hidden fees. "Puff charged the artists for his appearance on their records and videos, usually without [them] realizing it until they receive their royalty statements," continued Curry. "That's when they discovered that their large sums of money had gone to fees which were doubled, tripled and even quadrupled because of Puff's 'special appearances.' He charged artists, for example, for having his Bentley in his videos-which he insisted upon -- then took tax credit for business use of a car."
The book, which also relates an incredible story about Suge Knight using Puffy as a human shield in Atlanta (which can be read here), will be released in February.For shame Diddy, for shame!
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