Sean “Diddy” Combs has reportedly transferred music-publishing rights to the individuals who contributed to the success of his Bad Boy Records.
The artists in question include the Notorious B.I.G.’s estate, Faith Evans, Ma$e, the Lox, 112 and “many more” unspecified creators. Specific details were not immediately available but the assets are said to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Those assets have increased dramatically in value in recent years as artists or estates representing the music catalogs Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Genesis, Luther Vandross and many others have struck nine-figure deals selling or partially selling the rights to those catalogs. The source notes that Combs has received multiple multi-million dollar offers for the rights to the Bad Boy publishing catalog, but instead has decided to reassign the rights to the songwriters.
Mase, a multiplatinum-selling Bad Boy rapper who appeared with Combs on many songs, has often called out his former mentor over money allegedly owed; Combs said on the Breakfast Club last year that Mase actually owned him $3 million, a claim that Mase disputed aggressively. Mase said in 2020 that Combs had refused his $2 million offer for Mase’s publishing.
During the 1990s it was not uncommon for labels or label owners to take a percentage of an artist’s publishing as part of a recorded-music deal, although that syndrome has faded away as artists and songwriters become more aware of the value of their publishing rights.