Puff Daddy’s Bad Boy Entertainment is turning 20 this year and to commemorate it they’re dropping a compilation with all their hits. One disc though isn’t enough to fit all their solid gold jams so they’re cramming them all in with five discs.
It’s a box set full of some of hip-hop’s finest moments and let’s just take a second to run through a handful of gems. There’s The Notorious B.I.G.’s Hypntoize, Nelly’s Shake Ya Tailfeather and Puff Daddy’s I’ll Be Missing You. That’s without even touching some of the modern bangers like Cassie’s Me & U and then the even more recent Pop That by French Montana.
It’s a pretty massive collection that proves that Bad Boy have been one of the main players in the hip-hop game for two decades - longer than most of your favs have even been doing it.
In celebration of the 20th anniversary a crew including Puff Daddy, Mace, Faith Evans and Lil Kim played at Brooklyn’s Barclay Centre and have since announced that Bad Boy will hit the road at the end of this month.
Before that though, they’re dropping this box set and we’re premiering a vid of Bad Boy head Puff chatting about 20 years of hip-hop dynamite.
“I thought I told you that we won’t stop,” Puff says, opening the vid, as if anyone’s ever doubted them.
On the box set he says, “It was time. 20 years. There’s not a lot of labels that last 20 years.”
Not many labels last 20 years but even more so not many labels sell 400 million records worldwide and clock up a massive 40 platinum or multi-platinum albums.
Check out the full thing below.
You can also grab the box set today here but we’ve cherry picked five of our faves just so we can take a short trip through hip-hop’s finest together.
Diddy - I’ll Be Missing You (Feat. Faith Evans and 112)
Released back in May 1997 just two months after B.I.G. was murdered this is the ultimate farewell song. Diddy reminisces on the verses but it’s Evans big swelling choruses that kickstart the emotions.
Notorious B.I.G. - Hypnotize
This is the last track released in B.I.G.’s lifetime and also one of his biggest hits. Hypnotize still gets bumped in clubs everywhere today and has sold in excess of a million copies worldwide. Monumental.
Nelly - Shake Ya Tailfeather
This one was dropped for the Bad Boys II soundtrack and went on to collect a Grammy for Best Rap Performance For A Group Or Duo. It also went number one and has forever been certified as a classic.
Cassie - Me & U
This is from Cassie’s first and only record. It was a slow-burner in the beginning but it’s since become one of modern R&B’s biggest reference point being remixed, chopped and screwed hundreds of times.
Mario Winans - I Don’t Wanna Know
Sampling The Fugees classic Ready Or Not, I Don’t Wanna Know is still Winans hallmark song. It came at a time when mid-tempo R&B was all the rage and rose above the pack because of that buttery voice that slithers through a near-perfect melody.
Words by the interns' Sam Murphy
