29 May Former Bad Boy Artists Upset They’re Not On Epic 20th Anniversary Tour
The Celebration of The Notorious BIG’s 44th Birthday Turned Tour Is Epic, But Leaves A Bitter Taste For Some Who Felt They Should Have Been In The Line Up
May 21 marks the 44th birthday of Christopher Wallace, also known as The Notorious BIG. He was the self-proclaimed “heart-throb never” star of Puff Daddy’s Bad Boy Records, a label which provided the soundtrack of urban life in the 90’s. Everything Bad Boy dropped was fire. It was Hip Hop music, but it touched every facet of life. It could make you laugh, dance, and in the end, it made you cry. Two of Bad Boy’s major hits came after the March 9 murder of Christopher Wallace, ending the Bad Boy reign and leaving its fans holding on to one hell of an era.
Twenty years later, Biggie is still missed, respected, held up as one of the greatest of all time and his music proves timeless as fans still bump “One More Chance” like it dropped last week. Knowing what BIG and the music meant to fans, Puff saw a light. Orchestrating an epic tour he dubs “Bad Boy Family Reunion”, the line-up features the greats we know and love. Appropriately, the First Lady of Bad Boy and Biggie’s wife, Faith Evans, the first and therefore real Queen B Lil’ Kim, Puff’s left hand man, Ma$e, the original hood rap trio The Lox, the R&B crooners of Bad Boy 112, the listgoes on. These artists are the ones whose music we know from the first beat, lyrics we can sing from front to back.
These are the songs that run you back to the places and people, the nostalgia and reminiscent emotions even the smells. So, it’s only fitting thatthese songs and these artists are the ones the fans get to hear. This point, however is lost on some Bad Boy artists who came along long after the Bad Boy reign had ended. They came along when Puff became Diddy and he sought to recreate the magic by capitalizing on the reality TV andsocial media explosion, but the magic was in a time capsule in 1997, not to be interrupted.
DaBand’s Sara Stokes is “tight”. In her mind, her group DaBand should be on that tour, “We made history with Diddy on Making the Band and pretty much opened the doors for all the other reality shows.” Is that all? Because if so, that’s your answer as to why you’re not on this tour. Puff is on a wave of the feeling of the music, not some sense of entitlement because he gave you a shot and you haven’t done a damn thing since. Babs of DaBand knows what he’s talking about, and she’s down to buy a ticket so she can get ‘one more chance’ to soak up those emotions. Members of Diddy Dirty Money are also feeling salty as well as Dustin Michael of B5 who told Rolling Out Magazine, “We just felt like our relationship [with Diddy] was better than that.” You just don’t get it.
I do, and I shall purchase my tickets so I can bumble with the ‘B’ and two-step with Ma$e along to some of the music that shaped my adolescent years and served as the soundtrack to my own life.
Do you think these artists should be on the tour?
No Comments