Death Row Records vs Bad Boy Records | Life After Death | 1

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2021

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode contains explicit language.

In the 1990s, the landscape of American music was changed forever by two titans of hip hop: Death Row and Bad Boy. The rivalry between these iconic rap labels would go on to become as legendary as it was notorious. But in these early days? It’s all good.

Death Row Records, the West Coast company, is already the hottest label in gangsta rap. But now that they’ve signed mega-star Tupac Shakur, they’re poised to dominate the industry.

New York-based Bad Boy Records finds an answer to Death Row in The Notorious B.I.G, also known as Biggie Smalls. But first, founder Sean “Puffy” Combs has to convince the young rapper to evolve his sound to reach the masses.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to business wars at free on Amazon Music. Download the app today.
0:12.3	A note to listeners, this episode contains adult content and language.
0:20.4	It's September 7th, 1996 in Las Vegas.
0:24.0	Tupac Shakur rides in the passenger seat of a BMW sedan, the reigning king of rap.
0:35.6	Tracks like ambitions as a rider have Tupac on his way to becoming one of the best-selling artists in history.
0:42.7	But on this night, he has the look of a man moving towards his fate. At a stoplight,
0:48.9	a gunman pulls up alongside Tupac's open window and puts two bullets in his chest.
1:04.8	Tupac's death rocks the rap world. There are vigils and tributes. But the feeling isn't just
1:12.0	one of laws. There's also fear, a sense that the violence is not yet over.
1:20.4	Tupac's death comes at the height of tensions between warring record labels on opposite coasts.
1:27.0	Tupac was the star of West Coast Juggernaut death row records.
1:31.7	Rival rapper Biggie Smalls of Bad Boy Records represents the East.
1:35.8	It seems absurd that a rivalry between music labels could lead to murder.
1:42.0	But the atmosphere becomes so charged that no one in the inner circle of these two rappers
1:48.7	feel safe. And then on March 9th, 1997, just six months after Tupac's death, Biggie,
1:57.9	also known as the notorious B.I.G. attends an awards show after party in Los Angeles. Biggie is 24
2:06.9	at a superstar at the height of his powers on display and has hit machine gun funk from his album
2:12.9	Ready to Die. Just after leaving the party, Biggie sits at a red light. A gunman hits him with four
2:23.9	bullets at close range. He dies hours later. The deaths of the two most important names in hip hop
2:32.7	might have marked the end of an era and the end of death row in Bad Boy Records. Instead,
2:39.4	it's the start of a new war with the future of the music industry at stake.
2:45.9	Hi there, Wondry listeners. Hannah and Sruti here from TrueCram Podcast Redhanded.
	...

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