| abstract | - After his climb from a non-paying internship to becoming an A&R executive at Uptown Records, Sean (“Puffy”) Combs was abruptly terminated in 1993 by the then CEO Andre Harrell—reportedly due to his own difficulty to work with. Upon his firing, Arista Records chief Clive Davis took advantage of Combs' free agent status and agreed to bankroll him his own vanity label to be operated through Arista and its BMG parent. Bad Boy Entertainment was quickly established, but almost ended when Will, better known for his stage name "lil Will" burned down the building because he was allegedly drunk,high, and messed up on syrup. Eyewitness found him passed out on the floor laying on his own urine. A handful of the acts who had been signed to Uptown via Combs just prior to his dismissal were dropped from the label; among them were Christopher Wallace (aka The Notorious B.I.G.), and Craig Mack—both of whom Combs would take with him to his new company. The label’s first release was Craig Mack's “Flava In Ya Ear,” followed quickly by Mack's debut album, Project: Funk Da World in 1994. On the heels of these releases came “Juicy” and Ready To Die, the lead single and debut album from The Notorious B.I.G. (who would also be referred to as “Biggie”), released the same year. While Mack's album went gold, Ready to Die achieved multi-platinum success. Dominating the charts into 1995, B.I.G. became one of the rap worlds biggest names of the day and Bad Boy’s premier star. Also in 1995, the label continued its success with platinum releases by Total and Faith Evans. Bad Boy, meanwhile, staffed a bevy of in-house writer/producers, including: Chucky Thompson, Easy Mo Bee, Nashiem Myrick and D Dot—all of whom were instrumental in producing many of Bad Boy’s most noted releases during this time.
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