Craig Mack, the late rapper who helped put Bad Boy Records on the map with breakout hits like “Flava in Ya Ear,” almost ended up with the label’s West Coast rival, Death Row Records.
In a new Rolling Stone story that chronicles Mack’s rise as a rapper to his joining a South Carolina religious group, it was revealed that Mack considered joining Suge Knight’s label after the rapper’s relationship with Sean “Diddy” Combs deteriorated.
In a new Rolling Stone story that chronicles Mack’s rise as a rapper to his joining a South Carolina religious group, it was revealed that Mack considered joining Suge Knight’s label after the rapper’s relationship with Sean “Diddy” Combs deteriorated.
The report highlights how Mack served as one of Bad Boy Records first stars, with a spokesperson for Bad Boy telling Rolling Stone that the rapper “played an essential role in the foundation of the label” and that the success of “Flava in Ya Ear” from his debut album, Project: Funk da World, “not only gave Bad Boy its first hit but also set the tone for the label’s future.”
Despite this, Mack and Combs often butted heads on a number of issues, with the rapper unafraid to confront the record executive — something that Combs really disliked.
“He spoke to Puffy directly about shit he didn’t like,” Paul Insinna, Mack’s former attorney and manager, told Rolling Stone. “Puffy took that as a slight because … you always got the impression [Combs’] attitude was, ‘You should be glad to be in the same room as me, let alone getting paid.’ Craig didn’t fall for that shit … and that put him in a bad position.”
This, paired with Mack not getting much support after being overshadowed by his labelmate Notorious B.I.G., strained his relationship with Combs, culminating in Mack deciding to leave the label.
This ultimately led the rapper to try and sign with Death Row. While filing for bankruptcy in April 1996 in hopes of escaping his Bad Boy contract, Mack met with Knight, who wanted the rapper to be the first to join an East Coast division of Death Row.
However, this plan never came to fruition because of Tupac Shakur’s death in September 1996, a soberingly heartbreaking moment that contributed to the end of the East Coast-West Coast rap feud during that time.
“[Mack] was scared,” Roxanne Alexis Hill-Johnson, Mack’s first wife, told Rolling Stone. “Puff was pissed [Mack was] leaving Bad Boy and the fact that he was going to go with Suge. From what I understand, Puff was enraged.”
In a statement to Rolling Stone, a spokesperson for Bad Boy said that Mack “chose to leave Bad Boy to pursue his own interests and was free to sign with any label,” and “he was unrestricted in pursuing all opportunities.”
According to the outlet, Mack and Bad Boy came to an agreement where the rapper could leave the label “but had to withdraw the bankruptcy filing and owed Bad Boy a cut of his new deal.”
Read the story in its entirety here.
