S. Samuel
With the ink from French Montana's Bad Boy Records signing still drying, the company's fashionable CEO Diddy has laid out plans to put out new releases from Red Cafe, Machine Gun Kelly and other acts entering 2012.
While Red Cafe is slated to drop his long-awaited Bad Boy debut first, Puff said the fans’ reception of each artists’ individual records will ultimately dictate when projects hit retail shelves.
“It’s a new game out here. You’ve got to really hit that road and really put that work in,” Diddy told radio host Funkmaster Flex. “We invented the hard work, the grind and I think all of these artists I’ve signed, they’ve come to my attention from being on the road and touching the fans and building they fan base. They all play at the sold-out crowds right now. … Right now we’re in set-up mode. Red Cafe is slated, he’s up first. And we’re immediately going after the [French Montana] ‘Shot Caller’ music video today on BET — ‘Wild Boy’ is out there. That’s Machine Gun Kelly’s record with Waka Flocka. We premiered that joint [on ‘106 & Park’] and the success and how long it takes for those records to break, get out there and make sure the names, the project and the energy gets out there, that kind of dictates when the album’s drop but we’re going to continuously be dropping music and keeping our foots on their necks. No mercy.” (Hot 97)
Montana credited Puffy’s determination to ink him for securing their deal and said rapper Rick Ross would also contribute to his Bad Boy LP.
“Shout-out to Kanye [West], Jay-Z, definitely shout-out to [Rick] Ross ’cause Ross definitely helped me out a lot. He definitely looked out for me. I hollered at Puff and said, ‘Yo Puff, you know we should really do the album with you and Ross.’ … So I got him and Ross executive producing my album. So it’s kind of a good feel and everything I asked [Diddy] for, he came through.” (Hot 97)
A few months ago, Red Cafe said his Shakedown LP would hit stores on Valentine’s Day.
“February 14, Valentine’s Day,” Red said in an interview. “I wanted to tag it with that big holiday and just give something that the people could give as a gift — his or hers, it’s all good — We’re in a good place. I’m excited about the album. I’m happy with what we have and where I’m at musically. I’m happy with the growth…I’m really, really excited. I got some big features on there, I got some big producers as well — I’m just ready to go. I can’t wait for the tour, I can’t wait for the release. I’m just ready for everything.” (MTV)
Shortly after signing with Puffy over the summer, Machine Gun Kelly hit up SOHH with his post-deal reaction.
“The way it all started was before Bad Boy/Interscope, it was a major label bidding war. At the end of the day, surprisingly to what people may think, Puff was the one person who said, “I don’t want to touch or change your movement. I just want to get that machine.” Bad Boy recently inked with Interscope and he brought me toJimmy Iovine one night in the hotel room on a fluke though. He was like, “I gotta go run an errand.” I think this was either my first or second time meeting Puff and I was like, “OK, this is kind of random. It’s 2 AM in the morning. Who has to run an errand at 2 AM?” We ended up going to a hotel room and [Interscope Records head] Jimmy Iovine ended up turning around and I think I just shat my pants. I’m just in there at the hotel room with shatted pants. And so Puff told me to tell Jimmy about the idea and I showed him the fans and the movement. Puff just really believed in the idea. Puff pushed for it, we told the other labels what was going on and what we had offered on the table and it was such a game-changing type offer that it’s like, “No way. Not possible.”” (SOHH Guest Star)
Check out Diddy’s interview below:
