Diddy Gives Publishing Rights Back to Label Signees—Notorious B.I.G., Faith Evans and More

This past weekend, in celebration of Labor Day, rapper-businessman Diddy gave back to the artists that helped him construct his career as a mogul. According to Variety, who cited a source close to Diddy’s camp, the 53-year-old “decided to reassign his Bad Boy publishing rights back to all Bad Boy artists and writers who helped build Bad Boy into the powerhouse it is today.”

Diddy first established Bad Boy Records in 1993 and ended up signing notable hip-hop and R&B artists like The Notorious B.I.G., Mase, The LOX, Faith Evans, Mario Winans, and more. Now, thanks to Diddy’s move, the estate for the late-great Notorious B.I.G. can bring in the publishing earnings from all of his classic hits, and the same goes for Faith Evans, Mase, The LOX, and more.

Diddy’s team insisted that a maneuver like this is “unprecedented,” as it “could impact the industry and shift how artists are compensated.” There is likely some truth to this assertion, considering how many prominent artists have decided to sell their catalogs in the last year, such as Nelly, Peter Frampton, Phil Collins, and more. So now, instead of Diddy and Bad Boy having the power to pull off multi-million dollar sales like this and rake in the dough, the actual artists can instead.

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

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The ownership of publishing rights had actually been a huge point of contention for Diddy and Mase in the past, as Mase mentioned in a now-deleted Instagram post from 2020 that he was being treated unfairly.

“Your past business practices knowingly [have] continued [to] purposely [starve] your artist and been extremely unfair to the very same artist that helped u obtain that Icon Award,” Mase wrote. “You bought [my publishing rights] for about $20k & I offered you $2m in cash… This is not black excellence at all. When our race is enslaving us. If it’s about us owning, it can’t be about us owning each other.”

Diddy’s relinquishing of these rights first came to light on Wednesday (August 30), when Mase’s close friend and frequent collaborator Cam’ron mentioned it in the caption of an Instagram post.

“My n***a [Mase] had to sit this one out,” he wrote. “He just got his publishing back from Puff. Just finished the paperwork for that yesterday. Congrats @rsvpmase.”

Currently, Diddy is working on The Love Album: Off the Grid, his first solo album since 2006, which is set to release on Friday (September 15).

Photo by Jason Koerner/Getty Images