Remember the song “Bad Boy 4 Life” that featured a Bad Boy artist by the name of Mark Curry? Many still wonder what ever happened to him.
After being signed back in 1997, Curry played the background for many years while penning a few songs for Diddy during his tenure at Bad Boy. His most notable contribution was “Come With Me” off of the Godzilla movie soundtrack which scored Curry his first #1 song on the Billboard Hot Rap Singles Charts.
Curry never released an album and found his way out of his Bad Boy contract. No longer a rapper, he has turned his talents as a writer into becoming an author. His first contribution as an author would be the highly controversial book titled Dancing With The Devil. Within its pages, the former Bad Boy artist recounts his time with the label and goes into detail about his tenure with Diddy. BET.com caught up with Curry to discuss the book, Diddy and many things that only Curry says he knows about.
“You give people enough time to understand their wrongs and then you give them enough time to come back and straighten that wrong out on their own,” Curry says when asked why he chose now to release the book. “But if they don’t do that on their own, you have to do the next thing that is best for you. And the next thing that was best for me was to do a book.”
“Seven years have gone by (Diddy) had plenty of time to ask me how I was doing,” he exhales.
Curry also explains the money situation that has always cast a dark cloud over the label. It’s no secret that there has always been a rumor about how Diddy handles money with his artists and Curry explains what went on from his perspective.
“I think the only person that walked away with a little bit of money was Mase,” Curry explains when it comes to what Bad Boy artists are doing well financially since leaving the label. “As far as any other artist? If you could tell me another Bad Boy that’s doing good, I’ll listen to you. Other than that, I can’t waste my time trying to think because I don’t think there is one that exists.”
He also says that most artists on Bad Boy were afraid to ask for “too much” from Diddy but found themselves in debt when realizing that they have to pay Diddy out of their budget to appear, produce, or even use his studio.
“You got me signed to a parent label and got me a budget. Then I have to spend it with you. I’m going to pay your producers with my budget money. All the studio time, I have to pay that too,” he explains. “Here we have a boss who is an artist as well. So he gets on my song and I have to pay him to be on my song. Then we have to go to the studio to record the song. What studio are you going to? Daddy’s House. It’s a good game.”
Curry says the financial stagnancy found him struggling and subsequently losing his wife and his house while being signed to Bad Boy. In the meanwhile, Diddy became too enamored with other ventures to focus on his artists, according to Curry.
The former Bad Boy artist does mention that he remains in contact with other ex-Bad Boys such as Carl Thomas, Craig Mack, G-Dep and Black Rob. The one name that stuck out on his list of friends was the incarcerated Shyne.
“I can’t wait for him to get back home,” he says. “He would probably be one of the only people that I would be interested in recording music with again. I know he’s going to come out and have a lot to talk about.”
Ultimately, the former rapper-turned-author feels that his book is his sweet justice for all the wrongs that he felt were done onto him by Diddy.
“If you think that you can do this to my life: Signing me, throw me on the side forever, that’s cool. I’m not going to be mad. But I’m going to write a book about what I see. That’s what’s going to sell,” he states. “(You can) put me through hell. That’s cool. I’m going to write a book about what hell looks like (and) who’s down there. Dancing With The Devil, it’s the book (saying) guess who I saw in hell?”
BET.com asked him who exactly did he see in hell and he replied “I see a lot of entertainers in hell, a couple of big bosses in hell, rich men in hell. There’s a lot of Bentleys riding through the streets and brimstone. It seems like a nice place.”
When asked if he thought Diddy would be there too, Curry ponders the question for a moment and responds “I told you that I’ve seen a lot of people…yeah, he’s there.”
Dancing With The Devil is available now.