who was the first artist signed to bad boy records
Bad Boy Records After his climb from a non-paying internship to becoming an A&R executive at Uptown, Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs was fired in 1993 by Andre Harrell. Combs soon founded Bad Boy Records in 1993.[1] The label’s first release was "Flava In Ya Ear" by Craig Mack, followed quickly by Mack's debut album, Project: Funk Da World in 1994. On the heels of these releases came "Juicy" and Ready to Die, the lead single and debut album from The Notorious B.I.G. (a.k.a. Biggie Smalls), released the same year. While Mack's album went Gold, Ready to Die achieved multi-platinum success. Dominating the charts in 1995, B.I.G. became one of the genre’s biggest names of the day and Bad Boy’s premier star. Also in 1995, the label continued its success with platinum releases by Total and Faith Evans. Bad Boy, meanwhile, staffed a bevy of in-house writer/producers,[3] including: Easy Mo Bee, Chucky Thompson and D Dot—all of whom were instrumental in producing many of Bad Boy’s most noted releases during this time.