Old heads, how exactly did Diddy get his own label?

[BrothaZay]

Can yall explain what actually happened, why was he able to get clive davis trust?

someone said if it wasnt for biggie he wouldnt of got it

plus who is andre harrel n why did he fire puff?

 

[smokeurobinson]

He gave Mary J Blige and Jodeci their images and it opened doors.

 

[Mr. Negative]

He gave Mary J Blige and Jodeci their images and it opened doors.

this and this exactly.

 

[BrothaZay]

He gave Mary J Blige and Jodeci their images and it opened doors.

So he just showed ppl pictures of them?

 

[smokeurobinson]

So he just showed ppl pictures of them?

One PAYDAY MR.GOODBAR wanted a BIT-O-HONEY so he took miss HERSHEY'S behind the POWERHOUSE on the corner of CLARK and 5thAVENUE. He began to feel her MOUNDS with his BUTTERFINGER. That was pure ALMOND JOY. It made her TOOTSIE ROLL and he let out a SNICKER as she screamed " OH HENRY" while squeezing his PETER PAUL and ZAGNUTS. Miss HERSHEY'S said: you are even better than the 3 MUSKATEERS. Soon she was a bit CHUNKY and nine months later had a BABY RUTH.

 

[DANJ!]

Uptown Records was a hot label in the late-80s/early-90s. It was run by Andre Harrell, who used to be part of a rap group called Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. He put on Heavy D, Teddy Riley, etc. etc.

Puff got hired as an intern, who had a knack for knowing what all the new hot shyt was, and he was a party promoter who put on a lot of big parties in NY and DC... so he eventually got promoted to A&R of Uptown.

As A&R, he took artists and molded their image, sound, etc... the main two being Mary J. Blige and Jodeci. Before then, they were signed to Uptown but were on the shelf because they had no idea what to do with them.

Eventually it got to a point where he was the dude behind all of Uptown's hottest projects. He was exec-producing them all and practically running shyt.

But he wasn't running shyt cause Andre was still the boss. Either way, he couldn't fire Puff cause he was the driving force by then. He ended up giving Puff a sub-label under Uptown that was gonna focus on putting out harder hip-hop stuff. This is when Puff signed BIG and Jesse West, started recruiting producers like Mo Bee and Lord Finesse, and called the sub-label Bad Boy.

But Puff's ego got a lil' out of control to the point where people were complaining to Andre about how obnoxious Puff was getting. So once Puff was starting to scream on Andre in meetings and publicly saying he was why Uptown was hot, Andre gave him the boot.

BUT other people in the industry knew Puff's moves and felt like he did have a track record and was probably sitting on some more hot shyt to come... so major labels started hitting him up to see if he wanted to run his label with them. He ended up doing a deal with Arista to distribute Bad Boy.

The rest...

 

[BrothaZay]

One PAYDAY MR.GOODBAR wanted a BIT-O-HONEY so he took miss HERSHEY'S behind the POWERHOUSE on the corner of CLARK and 5thAVENUE. He began to feel her MOUNDS with his BUTTERFINGER. That was pure ALMOND JOY. It made her TOOTSIE ROLL and he let out a SNICKER as she screamed " OH HENRY" while squeezing his PETER PAUL and ZAGNUTS. Miss HERSHEY'S said: you are even better than the 3 MUSKATEERS. Soon she was a bit CHUNKY and nine months later had a BABY RUTH.

ahhh, so diddy transformed Mary J and transformed her to what we saw in the 90s? And they were impressed by that which is what led him to the deal wit Clive Davis?

 

[smokeurobinson]

ahhh, so diddy transformed Mary J and transformed her to what we saw in the 90s? And they were impressed by that which is what led him to the deal wit Clive Davis?

U got it.

 

[KENNY DA COOKER]

Diddy's track record as an A&R at Uptown spoke volumes with Clive .......

because he seemed to stick to the blueprint of Artist Development that was beginning to become a "lost art" within the commercial formula based methods of the Urban Music Industry.....

The timing was great cause not only was Combs falling out with Harrell over creative differences....but Uptown because of Harrell's misguided decisions was on it's demise due to Harrell's lack of connection with the streets, that Diddy had as far as music i.e (mixtapes, r&b hip hop blends)

Combs had already made it known that he was looking to start his own imprint following his termination from Harrell in 93.....but based on relationships with other black music moguls such as LA Reid and Antonio "Babyface" whom founded the LAFACE label, he was cosigned by Face and Reid who basically vouched for him when meeting Clive Davis who was always eager to acquire and do business with Urban Imprints and Production teams , based on his earlier success with Laface records.

Being that Arista had "long pockets" due to not only it's succesful run over the years, but it's recent acquistion in 88 by international music distributor RCA/BMG which gave the greenlight to virtually anything Davis cosigned based on his long track record.

So the 50 million joint venture that Davis undertook with Diddy wasn't a difficult acquistion on both parts, and it proved to be succesful, based on Diddy being able to cash in on the investment with Davis profiting as well, giving Diddy further leverage to operate as a semi indy/imprint.

 

[BrothaZay]

Uptown Records was a hot label in the late-80s/early-90s. It was run by Andre Harrell, who used to be part of a rap group called Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. He put on Heavy D, Teddy Riley, etc. etc.

Puff got hired as an intern, who had a knack for knowing what all the new hot shyt was, and he was a party promoter who put on a lot of big parties in NY and DC... so he eventually got promoted to A&R of Uptown.

As A&R, he took artists and molded their image, sound, etc... the main two being Mary J. Blige and Jodeci. Before then, they were signed to Uptown but were on the shelf because they had no idea what to do with them.

Eventually it got to a point where he was the dude behind all of Uptown's hottest projects. He was exec-producing them all and practically running shyt.

But he wasn't running shyt cause Andre was still the boss. Either way, he couldn't fire Puff cause he was the driving force by then. He ended up giving Puff a sub-label under Uptown that was gonna focus on putting out harder hip-hop stuff. This is when Puff signed BIG and Jesse West, started recruiting producers like Mo Bee and Lord Finesse, and called the sub-label Bad Boy.

But Puff's ego got a lil' out of control to the point where people were complaining to Andre about how obnoxious Puff was getting. So once Puff was starting to scream on Andre in meetings and publicly saying he was why Uptown was hot, Andre gave him the boot.

BUT other people in the industry knew Puff's moves and felt like he did have a track record and was probably sitting on some more hot shyt to come... so major labels started hitting him up to see if he wanted to run his label with them. He ended up doing a deal with Arista to distribute Bad Boy.

The rest...

damn.

so andre, wat does he do now?

 

[Sohh_lifted]

all of the above and he sucked clive's dikk.

 

[DANJ!]

damn.

so andre, wat does he do now?

After Puff left, Andre got exposed. By then, he didn't have an ear for a hit anymore, so he leaned on Heavy D to carry him thru that. Heavy was the one who brought Soul 4 Real, Lost Boyz, Monifah to the label and was still puttin' out his own hits. Then Motown wanted Andre to be their president, so Andre made Heavy the president of Uptown and left. When Andre went to Motown, he lost a lot of money and put out a GANG of acts that flopped, and ended up getting fired within a year.

At one point, he ended up working for Bad Boy

Not sure what he's up to now.

 

[The Midnight Marauder]

Puffy gave up the ass to Clive Davis.

 

[BrothaZay]

After Puff left, Andre got exposed. By then, he didn't have an ear for a hit anymore, so he leaned on Heavy D to carry him thru that. Heavy was the one who brought Soul 4 Real, Lost Boyz, Monifah to the label and was still puttin' out his own hits. Then Motown wanted Andre to be their president, so Andre made Heavy the president of Uptown and left. When Andre went to Motown, he lost a lot of money and put out a GANG of acts that flopped, and ended up getting fired within a year.

At one point, he ended up working for Bad Boy

Not sure what he's up to now.

dam

do u think that the traditional record label is dead

u kno, finding talent, coaching them, making them stars, etc..?

 

[DANJ!]

dam

do u think that the traditional record label is dead

u kno, finding talent, coaching them, making them stars, etc..?

Yeah, that's done... I'm not sayin' it never happens at all, but it's not how it was then. Most labels now just wait for artists to gain a buzz on their own, then start cuttin' the check. Ain't too many undeveloped artists gettin' signed and molded these days.