After almost five years as part of the Warner Music Group, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has relocated his Bad Boy Records imprint to Interscope Geffen A&M, Combs told AllHipHop.com Tuesday afternoon (September 29).
The first release to come from the joint venture will be Diddy’s experimental forthcoming album, Last Train to Paris.
Under the new partnership, all of Diddy’s future releases will be distributed via Interscope Records, as will albums by any future artists to join the Bad Boy roster.
All artists currently signed to Bad Boy Records will still continue to release projects through WMG.
“I had started some previous business relationships with Jimmy Iovine,” Sean “Diddy” Combs told AllHipHop.com. “We had a great chemistry with each other. When I sat down with Julie [Greenwald, Atlantic COO] and told them that I had an interest to go sign with Jimmy and they didn’t make it rough for me. Lyor [Cohen, WMG Chairman] and Julie were nice enough to let me get my [Bad Boy] name. I was able to take the name over to Interscope and to still in stay in business with them. I am not abandoning any of my artists over there, I still have that imprint. But all my future recordings, including my recording contract, that will be at Interscope Records.”
According to Combs, the new Bad Boy label with Interscope will operate like a small boutique label, with an emphasis on signing unique talent.
“We are going to take our time with the amount of acts that we sign,” Combs stated, adding that the label will cater to “superstars.”
“We want to find those very unique artists. We want to build something very special that’s not already out there,” Combs told AllHipHop.com exclusively.
Since being purchased by Warner in 2005, Bad Boy has released projects from a new generation of pop, R&B and Hip-Hop acts, including B5, Gorilla Zoe, Yung Joc and Making the Band alums Danity Kane, Donnie Klang and Day 26.
“Puff is a rare person in the music industry today, that can move the culture in many areas – fashion, TV, music – as well as making records,” commented IGA Chairman Jimmy Iovine. “Whenever a free agent like him comes along, which is rare, you grab him.”
“I was at a point where I felt like I needed a fresh start. I felt like A-Rod going to the Yankees,” Combs said of his decision to move on.
Combs’ upcoming Interscope debut Last Train to Paris comes three years after his fifth studio album, Press Play, which is certified platinum.
Last Train to Paris, which Combs has described as “electro-hip-hop-soul funk,” will follow the rapper/entrepreneur along a fictional European tour.
Along the way, he pursues the woman of his dreams, losing her twice before finding their happily ever after.
“It’s Hip-Hop and it has a lot of different ingredients going into it. As soon as people heard the word ‘electro,’ they automatically assumed it was electro-heavy. It’s not electro-heavy, it’s a musical gumbo of the different sounds I’ve experienced throughout my travels and through producing.
Diddy and Dirty Money’s new single, titled “Love Come Down” is set to be serviced to radio stations nationwide.