According to Tony Yayo, Diddy had an opportunity to sign 50 Cent to Bad Boy Records but turned him down.
“50 went to Diddy for Bad Boy. A lot of people don’t know that. We had the meeting. And it was so crazy that Diddy didn’t sign him – I know that was one of the biggest mistakes of Bad Boy. And you know, the Preme situation — a lot of people were scared of Preme — 50 wasn’t.”
He continued, “I remember Diddy said this, he don’t even remember. He said, ‘The three things people hate about rappers.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, we can’t sign you, playboy. It’s too much. It’s too much drama with the Biggie stuff and all that.'”
Fif’s single “How to Rob” cost him the deal.
“We had a meeting with Diddy, it was me and 50, and he took the meeting out of respect. He had deals all over the table. I wasn’t saying he was gonna take the deal, he might have not. But Diddy didn’t wanna take the deal ’cause of all the drama, but 50 was the hottest n-gga on the planet. This was after ‘How to Rob,’ just after he got shot and he had all the mixtapes sh-t on smash.”