Southern Plug Magazine: Leaders of the New School 2017 Volume 2 Issue 1 A | Page 93

rapper. First, his driver sued for three million dollars due to personal injury
and stress, followed by a $1.8 million suit from the club owner stemming from
poor business following the shooting. Though Lopez initially supported Puffy,
she broke off their relationship on Valentine's Day 2001. A planned gospel
album was pushed back to a summer release during the mess, but by March
some good news finally hit the Bad Boy camp. Puffy was acquitted of all
charges stemming from the club incident, which also snuffed out the civil suits
revolving around his involvement in the club situation. In a move sure to spark
comparisons with Prince (and not the good kind of comparisons), he
announced that he was changing his professional name to P. Diddy at the end
of the month, and also predicted a new direction for himself and his label. He
recorded a gospel album, Thank You, as well as a new solo album, The Saga
Continues, but the former was never released. "Bad Boy for Life" became his
biggest hit in years late in the summer, and a collaboration with David Bowie
appeared on the Training Day movie soundtrack. Combs took a serious blow in
the spring of 2002 when Arista stopped distributing Bad Boy and took Evans
with them. A collection of Bad Boy remixes entitled We Invented the Remix
became his last album for Arista. 112 also attempted to jump ship to Def Jam,
but a restraining order was filed before the group could make a clean break. It
was around this time that Diddy broke into reality television by becoming the
focal point of Making the Band 2, and subsequently Making the Band 3 (which
birthed the group Danity Kane), Making the Band 4, and Making His Band. Bad
Boy was revived during the summer of 2006 through the success of both Yung
Joc's "It's Going Down" and Cassie's "Me&U," which helped set the stage for
his own star-studded Press Play, released that October. After numerous
holdups, Diddy issued his fifth album in December 2010. Co-billed to Dirty
Money, his group featuring Kalenna Harper and Danity Kane's Dawn Richard,
Last Train to Paris was as heavy on high-profile guest collaborators as the
previous Diddy release. Acting and the launch of a music television channel
called Revolt occupied the years 2011-2013, and Combs announced early in
2014 that he was resurrecting the Puff Daddy alias for the MMM (Money
Making Mitch) mixtape. The single "Big Homie" premiered in February,
featuring Rick Ross and French Montana. Additional guests on the tape
included Sevyn Streeter, the LOX, Pusha T, Lil' Kim, Future, Big Sean, Travis
Scott, Ty Dolla $ign, and more. In 2015 Diddy issued a collaborative single with
Pharrell Williams, "Finna Get Loose," which was slated to appear on 2017's No
Way Out 2.