Bad Boy Entertainment

b. 4 November 1970, Harlem, New York, USA. The most prosperous of a new breed of entrepreneurs in black music, Sean "Puffy" Combs is a hugely successful hip-hop artist (under the name Puff Daddy) and noted producer for artists including TLC and Mary J. Blige. He also excels in business, with his multi-million dollar Bad Boy Entertainment empire establishing Combs as one of the leading black music entrepeneurs of the late 90s. Although his sample-heavy sound has been criticised for taking hip-hop too far into the mainstream, its commercial appeal is unquestionable, and has made Combs one of the most powerful players in American music.

Brought up in the contrasting New York districts of Harlem and Mount Vernon by a single mother, Combs was bright enough to secure a university place, before his musical instincts took over. He danced in a Fine Young Cannibals video, and found a job at Uptown Records, run by Motown Records boss Andre Harrell. By the age of 18 he had been made head of A&R for Uptown, and was involved in successful albums by Mary J. Blige, Father MC and Heavy D And The Boyz. Having been fired from Uptown, Combs worked as a remixer before launching his own company, Bad Boy Entertainment, in 1993. There, he quickly assembled a pool of talented R&B and hip-hop artists around him. Craig Mack's 1994 "Flava In Ya Ear" single earned Bad Boy their first platinum record, and the label enjoyed huge success thereafter, notably with the controversial rapper the Notorious B.I.G., and R&B/hip-hop acts including Faith Evans and Total. Combs also produced other prominent artists including Mariah Carey, Boyz II Men and Aretha Franklin. His involvement in the east coast/west coast gangsta rap feud, which pitched Combs and Notorious B.I.G. against 2Pac and Marion "Suge' Knight"s Death Row Records, was an unpleasant distraction from his seemingly unstoppable assault on both the pop and R&B charts. The untimely death of Notorious B.I.G. delayed Comb's own solo album while he mourned his long-time friend. Released in summer 1997, the single "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" was US number one for almost eight weeks, and was followed by the international number 1 tribute single "I'll Be Missing You", a rewrite of the Police's "Every Breath You Take", with new lyrics dedicated to the Notorious B.I.G. The long-awaited No Way Out was almost inevitably a multi-platinum number 1 album, which earned Combs a 1998 Grammy for Best Rap Album. "I'll Be Missing You" also won the Grammy for Best Rap Performance. "Come With Me", a collaboration with Jimmy Page based around the Led Zeppelin track "Kashmir", was featured on the soundtrack to 1998's remake of Godzilla. Released as a single, it reached US number 4 in July and UK number 2 a month later. Forever was a less effective album, with Combs' pop nous ultimately swamped by the over-cooked arrangements and gloating raps. Combs' high media profile meant his alleged involvement in a nightclub shooting incident, in December 1999, dominated the music headlines when the case was finally brought to trial in January 2001. He was acquitted in March and bizarrely announced that he was henceforth to be known as P. Diddy, under which name he released a new album in June.

b. Christopher Wallace, 21 May 1972, New York, USA, d. 9 March 1997, Los Angeles, California, USA. A large, imposing figure in contemporary rap before his murder in 1997, Wallace grew up in the tough district of Bedford-Stuyvesant, in Brooklyn, New York. He soon graduated to a life modelled on the activities of those around him, selling drugs and acting as a teenage lookout. He first rapped, under the name Biggie Smalls, as part of the neighbourhood group the Old Gold Brothers. He also experimented with his own demo recordings, a copy of which was eventually passed to Mister Cee, Big Daddy Kane's DJ. Cee passed the demo on to The Source, America's bestselling rap periodical, which gave it a glowing review in its "Unsigned Hype" column. This attracted the attention of Sean "Puffy" Combs of Bad Boy Entertainment, who signed Wallace. Having now adopted the stage name Notorious B.I.G., Wallace made his recording debut in 1993 backing Mary J. Blige on "Real Love". He also made a guest appearance on Supercat's "Dolly My Baby". His first solo effort was "Party And Bullshit", included on the soundtrack to the movie Who's The Man. His debut album followed in 1994. Ready To Die became a major hit thanks to the inclusion of singles such as "Juicy", "One More Chance" and "Big Poppa", the latter a US Top 10 hit which was voted Billboard's rap single of the year. He scooped a number of end-of-year awards in The Source, as the album achieved platinum sales. He went to the UK to support R. Kelly at Wembley Stadium in London, and also guested on Michael Jackson's HIStory - Past, Present And Future Book 1. However, despite his elevation to such exalted company, Notorious B.I.G. never left the ghetto behind. He formed M.A.F.I.A. with some of his former hustler colleagues, releasing an album, Conspiracy, in 1995. He was also involved in sundry episodes involving violence, such as a fracas with a promoter in New Jersey and his attempt to take a baseball bat to autograph hunters (for which he received a 100 hours' community service sentence). He was also involved in a running feud with rapper 2Pac, who was convinced of B.I.G.'s involvement in a 1994 robbery in which he was injured. Their disagreement soon festered into a bitter feud between the east and west coast American rap scenes. When 2Pac was murdered, B.I.G.'s non-attendance at a rap peace summit in Harlem was widely criticized. Instead he began work on a second album, entitled, prophetically, Life After Death. Its cover featured the rapper standing next to a hearse with the number plate B.I.G. He never lived to see its official release. He was gunned down after leaving a party in California in March 1997. Subsequent conjecture indicated that his murder may have been in retaliation for 2Pac's killing. Issued three weeks later, Life After Death went straight to the top of the US charts. Two years later the Notorious B.I.G. was back at the top of the charts with Born Again, a motley collection of unreleased material.

From Sean "Puffy" Combs' Bad Boy stable, 112 comprise Q Parker, Slim Seandrick, Daron Jones and Michael Keith. To media-watchers, it quickly became obvious that this Atlanta, Georgia, USA-based vocal quartet were being marketed as individual talents who could also perform collectively, based 'on the model of New Edition. However, they made their bow just as the Notorious B.I.G. and Ma broke through commercially. Not surprisingly, their 1996 self-titled debut was somewhat overlooked as a result, though it still managed sales of close to a million copies. It also produced the major hit singles, "Only You" and "Come See Me". Afterwards they were awarded a Grammy, alongside Combs and Faith Evans, for their contribution to "I'll Be Missing You", a tribute to the Notorious B.I.G and a worldwide number 1 in autumn 1997. The quartet then refined their formula, offering a second album concentrating on love and romance rather than the hustler-related lyrics of their debut. They also lifted their tempos, in an effort to become less reliant on ballads. The resulting album, Room 112, was described by label boss Combs as "one of the best R&B albums I've ever been involved in." Among the other high profile writers employed by 112 was Diane Warren. Additional production was provided by Dallas Austin, with guest artists including Ma (on the US Top 20 single "Love Me") and Lil' Kim. The quartet assumed most of the production and writing duties for the follow-up, Part III, which included the US Top 5 hit "Peaches & Cream".

b. Chicago, Illinois, USA. One of the few soul singers on Sean "Puffy" Combs' hip-hop dominated Bad Boy label, Thomas has earned critical praise for his adherence to traditional songwriting values. After several years playing low-key bar gigs around Chicago, Thomas joined Bad Boy in 1997 as their in-house backing vocalist, appearing on releases by rap artists such as the Notorious B.I.G., Black Rob, and Combs himself. He also contributed to albums by other rappers including Noreaga and Raekwon. Emotional, Thomas' long-playing debut, was released in 2000. This largely self-written album, recorded with a stellar cast of producers including Mario Winans and Heavy D, eschews samples and beguiles the listener instead with its reliance on melody and classic song structure, a bold move in an era dominated by urban R&B singers singing over mechanical beats. The obvious reference points are the classic 70s soul albums of artists such as Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway and Teddy Pendergrass, with stand-out tracks including the duet with Kelly Price on "Giving You All My Love" and the organ-driven "Cold, Cold World". Emotional climbed into the US Top 10, buoyed by the radio success of the single "I Wish".

The sexy pop group Dream is made up of four talented singers, Diana Ortiz, Holly Blake, Melissa, and Ashley Poole. The foursome, all from California, came together when a production company in Los Angeles auditioned hundreds of young female singers for the purpose of forming one incredible girl band. Ashley, Holly, and Melissa were chosen first. It turned out that a friend of Holly's, Diana, was the missing piece of the puzzle that made Dream click. The new group was quickly signed by Puff Daddy to the Bad Boy Records label. Dream made big waves in the music world in 2000 with the release of "He Loves You Not." The chart-making single kept the radio airwaves hot for weeks, and drew lots of attention toward the young singing team. That same year Dream was featured in magazines like Teen, YM, Vibe, Cosmogirl, TeenStyle, and others. The girls toured through the United States and into Canada with hot groups like N'SYNC. When there was a break in performing live, Dream went back into the studio to work on a debut album, It Was All a Dream. Some of Dream's other hip-hop flavored pop tunes are "Pain," "When I Get There," "Angel Inside," and "Daddy's Little Girl." -- Charlotte Dillon, All Music Guide

b. Robert Ross, New York, USA. Alongside the accident-prone Shyne, New York, USA-based rapper Black Rob was heralded as the new saviour of Sean "Puffy" Combs' Bad Boy Entertainment empire as it entered the new millennium. Ross endured a dysfunctional family life, jail and homelessness before turning his life round in the early 90s and concentrating on his love of rhyming. Establishing his own neighbourhood crew, he experimented with various names including Robbie O before signing a recording contract with Bad Boy in 1996. Most of the tracks for his debut long-player were completed between 1997 and 1998, but the album was put on the back burner while Combs concentrated on other Bad Boy acts. Life Story was finally released in 2000. The album was immediately touted as a return to the hard-hitting style of previous Bad Boy stars, the Notorious B.I.G. and Ma, with Black Rob relating his own experiences on the streets on cuts such as the title track, "Lookin' At Us" and "Can I Live". The album, nevertheless, was spoilt by the typical Bad Boy flotilla of guest stars including the LOX, Ma, and Jennifer Lopez (on the Latin-styled "Spanish Fly"). Nevertheless, the album was a major commercial success with radio picking up on the highly catchy "Whoa!".