Customer Reviews

Bad Boy: The Influence of Sean "Puffy" Combs on the Music Industry

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I enjoy reading about entrepreneur and learning about how they built their particular business into a success. If you are looking for the same thing in this book you will be very disappointed. The book goes through a blow-by-blow account of P Diddy's problems and ultimately questions his ethics. I believe the book is written objectively, but very few pages are are actually dedicated to expalining how he actually made the leap from intern to a CEO of a multi-million dollar company. That was the story I really wanted to read about. Unfortunately, I learned more about Puffy's legal trial than I did about how he built his empire. If you want an entrepreneurial focused book buy Russell Simmons' Life and Def instead.

Many people might not know about this book since it was released in early September of 2001. But Ronin Ro's Bad Boy is a must-read work. Instead of rehashing details about the coastal rap rivalry he already covered in Have Gun Will Travel, Ro presents an entirely different tale, in an intriguing new voice, but with the same eye for the telling detail. For the first time, a book details every stage of Puffy's career--Ro describes his days as an ambitious aspiring music executive, his first steps at R&B/rap label Uptown and his apprenticeship under Andre Harrell, his contributions to the rap remix format, his rise in the industry(precipitated by well-placed acquaintances at various rap magazines), and his relationship with the late rapper Notorious BIG (covered through a mix of Big's lesser-known interviews and compelling and exciting interviews with label insiders, associates and more). Bad Boy also reveals the creative process behind the label's string of hit albums during the 1990s, how Puffy marketed and--in some cases--watered down his artists' music and how he scrambled to save face after some, including The Lox and Mase, abruptly left the label and the man who claimed to have made them famous. Anyone expecting another book-length retread of the Bad Boy Death Row beef might want another book. Bad Boy is more than that. For a balanced look at Sean "Puffy" Combs and the empire he tried to build, the most in-depth portrait of Biggie Smalls ever offered, and a gripping account of Puffy's 2001 criminal trial, read this book.

I thought this book would be more focused on actual business strategies used to grow the business not the stories on how Puffy he recorded CDs.

This book offers a very detailed and accurate chronological compilation of monumental and pivotal events in "Puffy's" life and Bad Boy's history. While it often portrays Puffy as determined and focused, it also depicts him as an egomaniacal and self-serving tyrant. All the people who have played a key role in helping him build his Bad Boy Brand and near billionaire status are woven throughout this story of his meteoric rise to fame including Biggie; Craig Mack; Mase; The Lox; Black Rob; 112; Carl Thomas; Faith Evans; Mary J. Blige; Heavy D; Dream; Andre Harrell; LA Reid; Russell Simmons; and Clive Davis.

You will discover things about Bad Boy that you didn't know (such as Biggie selling his publishing rights to Puffy for $150,000), things that you wish you didn't know (like how Puffy used the tired 60s tactic of buying cars for highly pursued or recently signed new artists with their own money and used it as a smokescreen to blind them to inequitable business practices), and many other serious music business lessons. Despite the fact that this book ends abruptly, it's rivetting, entertaining, and highly informative. Ronin Ro should definitely update this. There's a lot that has happened with Puffy and Bad Boy since it was written.

(...) Damn Puf!!!!!

This is a good insight into the Rise and Fall of Sean "Puffy", "P-Diddy" Combs. And I use to admire the guy. Despite the Haters. Read this and it may change your mind, as it did mine.

Album in stores in February. T Piddy and the GK family present HELLA. Go cop that.