Back with a bang

By Nekesa Mumbi Moody
Associated Press

In his "second era" as a hip-hop mogul, Sean "P. Diddy" Combs says he's feeling the pressure to please music fans. Associated Press

"I came to them honestly. I said, 'Can you help me out? When I come back on the scene, I want to come back in a big way with a big soundtrack,' " Combs said on Monday. "I wanted to set it off with a bang."

The CD, which dropped yesterday, features Combs, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent and Nelly, among others.

If the hip-hop mogul sounds a bit anxious, it's because the soundtrack to the Martin Lawrence-Will Smith action flick is not just another album release for Bad Boy.

Combs' company was a dazzling star of boutique labels in the mid to late 1990s, with hits from acts ranging from the Notorious B.I.G. to Faith Evans to 112 to P. Diddy himself.

But after the killing of Notorious B.I.G. in 1997, hits from other artists became more infrequent, costs soared, and Bad Boy began to lose some of its bling.

Last year, the label ended its 10-year partnership with Arista Records, and Combs sought a new distributor. It took him eight months to find one in Universal Music Group, and he didn't get anywhere near the $100 million deal that he had hoped.

But Combs says he believes his deal with Universal has given him a fresh start and another chance set the music world on fire — much as he did as a blazing young Uptown Records music executive, when he pioneered the genre of R&B sung over hip-hop beats with acts like Mary J. Bilge and Jodeci.

"I wanted to make sure as I'm coming into my second era ... I'm gonna start all over," he said.

Combs, whose empire also includes his Sean John clothing line and his "Justin's" restaurants, also said he's concerned with "giving the consumers something that they can listen to from beginning to end," instead of just hit singles.

"I definitely feel that the longer I'm in the industry, the pressure to please the fans," he said, "and give them product that they would love."

Besides the "Bad Boys II" soundtrack, Combs plans to release albums from rapper Loon, the teen pop act Dream and a duets album containing archival material from the Notorious B.I.G. over the next few months.

Whether the sequel to Bad Boy, the record label, will prove to be a bigger blockbuster than its first incarnation remains to be seen. But Combs is ready for the challenge.

"There's nobody more hungrier than me," he said.