Former Bad Boy rapper Mark Curry didn’t hold back when revealing details about his time working with Sean Diddy Combs, the rap mogul credited with launching the careers of Biggie, Ma$e, the LOX, and Faith Evans.
Curry claims Diddy was not only a shrewd businessman but ungenerous when came down to taking care of his artists.
During his exclusive interview on “The Culture Club Uncensored,” the “Bad Boy For Life” recording artist recounted how he used to make money while on tour with Mr. “Take That, Take That.”
According to the Brooklyn native, Diddy allegedly had him involved in a scheme where he would scalp tickets and backstage passes for concerts, ostensibly to generate additional revenue while he was traveling, but also to line the father of seven’s own pockets.
After getting signed to Bad Boy Records, before he could get in the studio to make music, he was immediately placed on the 1997 “No Way Out” tour.
“You know Puff is weird like that. He calls at weird hours. He called at ’bout 2, 3 in the morning and said, ‘Playboy, I want to sign you to the label,’” said Curry.
He claims Diddy then flew him out to New York to join the tour so he “could see what the life is like.” Since Curry wasn’t a headliner, he asked Diddy how he and his producer could make some money. The music mogul said a surefire plan — which got Curry a couple of extra dollars, but at a cost.
“He’ll be like ‘Playboy, I got these tickets … like he’ll go and buy the tickets from Ticketmaster and then give them to me,” he explained.
Adding, “Then I gonna go out there in front of the stadium before the concert and try to sell the tickets for a little bit more.”
Whatever Curry did not sell, he would give back to Diddy.
“I was making $5 a ticket,” he revealed. “If the ticket was $100 and he paid $100 for a ticket, if I sold the ticket for $150, I would make like $5 or something small.”
Osei asked, “So, you gave him an extra $45?”
Curry replied, “That’s what he was doing,” sharing that a lot of artists at the time scalped tickets to their own shows. Because he was not making any money with regular tickets, he stopped that hustle. However, it picked back up when the “Missing You” chart-topper upped the ante.
The new hustle was selling backstage passes.
“I was selling them for $500 a piece, so I have like five of them when we first get to someplace,” he recalled, noting that this venture allowed him to make like $2,000 a night, but then that enterprise had a glitch.
“All of a sudden when we used to get off the stage, it was so many different faces that was in the dressing room, he was like, ‘Where all these people coming from?’” he explained, before saying a decision was made “No more passes” for Curry.
Diddy’s tightfistedness is not the only thing that the “Dancing with the Devil” author has talked about over the years.
Get The Book That Exposed Diddy And His Shady Business Moves Called "Dancing With The Devil" By Former
— #NonBeliever✊🏾😡 (@Fresh_Flames1) April 17, 2021
Bad Boy Artist Mark Curry #RipBlackRob pic.twitter.com/xgNt7s2S3O
Curry has claimed that the label head was taking advantage of artists with unfair contracts and displayed selfish behavior. Curry also mentioned Diddy’s alleged violent tendencies toward Kim Porter, the mother of his son Christian and twins D’Lila and Jessie.
In December 2023, following Diddy’s settlement of a civil lawsuit filed by his ex, Cassie Ventura, who accused him of sexual assault, rape, and physical abuse, three more women filed lawsuits with similar allegations including sex trafficking.
Recently, two of Diddy’s residences were raided by the FBI following the filing of another lawsuit by “The Love Album” producer Rodney Jones, who also accused him of allegations including sex trafficking, sexual assault, drugs, and illegal firearms. Jones alleged that some of the acts took place at Diddy’s infamous parties, which Curry compared to Atlanta’s Freaknik.
“Freaknik was just the same as going to Hugh Hefner’s house. Freaknik could possibly be the same as people going to Puffy’s house. That don’t mean that just because they going to his house that these are the things that’s going to take place. It’s one of those kind of things.”
Diddy has not been charged with any crime and vehemently denies any wrongdoing.
