Songoftheday 12/2/22 -I'm the definition of "half man, half drugs" Ask the clubs, Bad Boy, that's wussup...
"Bad Boy For Life" - P. Diddy, Black Rob, & Mark Curry
from the album The Saga Continues... (2001)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #33 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 3
Today's song comes from rapper/producer/record label mogul Sean Combs, who has last been seen here under the moniker "Puff Daddy" where he went to #2 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 pop chart in the autumn of 1999 with "Satisfy You", his collaboration with future felon R. Kelly from Combs' second album Forever. However that album only sold platinum (one million as opposed to his debut selling seven million), and that single was the only track on the set to reach the pop top-40. Things got worse when he was involved in a scuffle at a club that found him arrested for gun charges with another rapper, Shyne, and although he got off, Shyne got ten years, and shortly after his highly-publicized relationship with Jennifer Lopez ended.
After recording a gospel album that got shelved, Combs changed his moniker to "P. Diddy" and compiled a third album with the group name "P. Diddy & The Bad Boy Family" relating to the record label he ran (and a nod for good luck to his debut album under Puff Daddy and the Family). Combs appears on all the tracks except the few interlude skits and a track from Faith Evans and Carl Thomas. The set was preceded in the spring by a single that also appeared on the album of rapper Trevell "G-Dep" Coleman, that also would be on Diddy's The Saga Continues.... "Let's Get It" featured the two plus rapper Black Rob (Ross), who had almost made the pop top-40 in the spring of 2000 with the single "Whoa!". The resulting combo, billed as "The Three...", peaked at #18 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart, and #80 on the crossover Hot 100.
The next single coming from the upcoming Saga Continues was the branding boasting track "Bad Boy For Life", which also featured Black Rob along with Bad Boy rapper Mark Curry. Written by Rob and Mark with producer Dorsey "Megahertz" Wesley along with Jamel Fisher and Drayton Goss, they pump up their street cred and how much they've been through, but also how wealthy they are from hustling, as well as a nod to deceased rap icon Notorious B.I.G. That's on Curry's verse, which is the weakest link of the three, but the sing-song chorus is too distracting to notice unless you really pay attention. At the time, Combs still had some celebrity capital to spend, and the music video shows that out, with a cavalcade of cameos as well as alt-rock biggies Dave Navarro and Travis Barker playing his "garage band"...
"Bad Boy For Life" became P. Diddy's eighth top-40 crossover pop hit on the Hot 100 as a lead artist, as well as the first for Black Rob and Mark Curry, in September of 2001. The song also climbed to #13 on the R&B Singles chart, as well as #5 on the Rap Singles list. On the radio, the track climbed to #15 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single made the top ten in Germany (#6) and Belgium (#7W/#14F), and reaching the top-40 in the United Kingdom (#13), the Netherlands (#17), Australia (#20), Switzerland (#20), and Sweden (#32). The Saga Continues... album, released in July of that year, spent a week at #2 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and topped the R&B Albums list for a week, though it didn't even manage to hit "Gold" status (500,000 shipped/sold). At the Grammy Awards in 2002, "Bad Boy For Life" was nominated for Best Duo/Group Rap Performance, losing to Outkast for their iconic "Ms. Jackson".
A third single from the set, the self-aggrandizing "Diddy" with the production group The Neptunes (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo), stalled down at #21 on the R&B Singles chart and #66 on the pop Hot 100. (It's even worse than this.) But Combs/P. Diddy will be back to the series.
As for the other two, Black Rob's second album took five years to emerge, and while The Black Rob Report made the Billboard 200 top-40 at #40 and the R&B Albums list at #10, the lead single "Ready" stalled down at #49 on the R&B Singles chart. Unfortunately,
Rob derailed his career by being a criminal, and was imprisoned for
four years for grand larceny for stealing jewelry in 2006. Dropped by
Bad Boy, he didn't come back with another album until 2011's Game Tested, Streets Approved on
the indie Duck Down label, which spent a week on the R&B Albums
list at #44. In 2021, Black Rob died of a heart attack. His most recent
release before his death was the independently-released Genuine Article in 2015.
Mark Curry totally disappeared from the scene, though he's come to spill the beans on his mistreatment by the business.
(2/10)
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Tomorrow I'll have my new music roundup, followed by my new album roundup on Sunday, then on Monday: The Irish new age songstress is counting the minutes.
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