Former Bad Boy artist Craig Mack was trying to be released from his Bad Boys Record deal and sign with Suge Knight’s Death Row Records.
Mack, who died from congestive heart failure in March 2018, tried to file for bankruptcy to leave his Bad Boy deal after his sophomore album, Operation: Get Down, was shelved until 1997, Rolling Stone reports. After speaking to Knight, who offered him a $200,000 advance and a $1.25 million recording budget, Mack wanted to sign with the West Coast label… and Sean “Diddy” Combs was reportedly not happy about it.
Craig Mack was the first artist to leave Bad Boy, filing bankruptcy to escape his contract. He nearly signed with Death Row, backing out after Tupac's death.
— Cheyenne Roundtree (@cheyenne_round) August 16, 2024
His music career took a nosedive. “Puffy became a vindictive bastard and really stuck it to him,” his former lawyer says https://t.co/FqHT940PZS
Mack reportedly changed his mind about signing with Death Row after Tupac Shakur’s assassination.
“He was scared,” Mack’s ex-wife, Roxanne Alexis Hill-Johnson, told the outlet. “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.”
She continued, “Puffy became a vindictive bastard and really stuck it to him for doing that.”
Craig Mack began rapping as a teenager under the name MC EZ. His first single, “Get Retarded”, was released in 1988 via Fresh Records. Mack is best known for his 1994 hit single “Flava in Ya Ear”, which was released under his real name. The remix of the single was the breakout appearance of The Notorious B.I.G., as well as one of the first solo appearances by Busta Rhymes. While Mack was technically the first rapper to release music on Bad Boy Records, the success of The Notorious B.I.G.’s debut album Ready to Die, which released exactly seven days before Mack’s debut album Project: Funk da World, overshadowed Mack’s early success on the label.
