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At the start of February, former Bad Boy rapper Mark Curry will release his tell all book, "Dancing With the Devil." From the book's site:

“Welcome to Bad Boy, where dreams come true,” Sean Combs said as we shook hands over lunch in March 1997. The record producer spent the next hour telling me how impressive my rapping skills were, how soon he planned to release my debut album, and that my personal wealth would soon be in the seven-figure range. Talk about smoke and mirror.

Today, after years of writing hit records for Combs, I am no closer to having my first album released by Bad Boy Entertainment than I was when we signed the contract. Combs cajoled, hoodwinked and bamboozled me for nearly a decade. In the end, which for me came in 2005, I realized that I had to leave the label and its illusions of wealth in order to save my career, my marriage, my mind and my soul.

Dancing with the Devil reveals startling new details about key events in the fast-paced, controversial, and sometimes deadly world of hip-hop music. In revealing the dark side of the industry, Curry hopes to provide a road map for reforms needed before more artist end up in poverty, in prison, or in the grave.

The full title is "Dancing With the Devil: How Puff Burned the Bad Boys of Hiphop." I've heard whisperings of this before, but never anything I could actually report on. Now that there is something concrete, I have to mention it, even though there is a serious lack of credibility concerning this book. Let's start with the cover:


The shadow with horns is a nice touch, as is the ball and chain. Seriously? This cover is incredibly tacky and, to me, looks like the type of material that you'd see from a tabloid or a shock jock. You can't judge a book by it's cover... except when you can.

Most people will see this book and won't know who Mark Curry is and maybe that's the point. Here's a formula that has been repeated many times over: 1. Sign to a record label with a highly visible CEO. 2. Become unhappy. 3. Leave. 4. Say bad things about aforementioned visible CEO. 5. People WILL write about you and you WILL get attention. Or, hey, just skip all five steps, pass go, collect $200 and just say something bad about Diddy's business practices - it's the cool thing to do, like peeing your pants! ("Billy Madison" reference, for those that haven't seen that movie). So, if that's the aim, the idea is that people will give him attention through the project. Like I'm doing here. It bugs me that I am participating in it, but I have to because I wouldn't be doing my job, otherwise, and maybe that is what Curry is banking on.

The only reason pretty much anyone knows who Mark Curry is... is because of Diddy. The only reason Mark Curry has any experiences to write a book about is... because of Diddy. The only reason anyone will buy this book is... because of Diddy. Really, Diddy is featured more on his own website than he is. A story like Curry's, one of not releasing an album, not achieving any solo success, is not unique. It's the norm. Most artists who sign to labels do not achieve solo success. That's just the way it is.

But, what strikes me the most is Curry's bio, which features a grossly exaggerated statement of the role Curry had in Diddy's success, going so far as complete untruth. It says, "He wrote most of Diddy’s first hit singles... He wrote many of the hits that made Sean “Puffy” Combs one of the richest men alive." No way. Unless Curry is going to claim that he didn't receive proper credit on some songs, these statements are both tremendously inaccurate. I've reviewed the liner notes for all 5 of Diddy's albums. Here are the songs that Curry is credited on as a co-writer (not the only writer, but as a co-writer):

"No Way Out"

No songs.

"Forever"

"I Hear Voices"
"Gangsta S***" (Curry is a featured performer)
"P.E. 2000"

"The Saga Continues..."

"Bad Boy for Life" (Curry is a featured performer)
"Blast Off" (Curry is a featured performer, Diddy is not)
"Roll With Me"
"Where's Sean?" (Curry is a featured performer)
"Lonely" (Curry is a featured performer)
"The Last Song" (Curry is a featured performer)

"We Invented the Remix"

"Bad Boy for Life (Remix)"

Press Play

No songs.

Mark Curry wrote on exactly 10 songs featured on Diddy albums. Of them, he performed on all but 4. And one of those 6 he was featured on, Diddy wasn't on. As you may be able to tell, the majority of these songs were not singles. But, better yet, I searched Billboard's archives for any song featured on any chart (not just the most important ones, but any) ever, written by anyone with the last name Curry and performed by Diddy, P. Diddy or Puff Daddy. Only three songs charted, ever. "P.E. 2000," "Bad Boy for Life" and "Come With Me," from the Godzilla soundtrack, which Curry was not featured on.

"Bad Boy for Life" reached number 5 on the Hot Rap Singles chart, number 13 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and number 33 on the Hot 100 chart. "P.E. 2000" reached number 6 on Hot Rap Singles, number 34 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and never charted on the Hot 100. Finally, "Come With Me." This is the biggest hit that Curry can lay claim to. It reached number 1 on Hot Rap Singles, number 19 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and number 4 on the Hot 100.

If Curry were to claim that he wrote a majority, if not all, of several verses for Diddy, I could buy that. But, to claim that "He wrote most of Diddy’s first hit singles... He wrote many of the hits that made Sean “Puffy” Combs one of the richest men alive." is flat out wrong and it's not even debatable. Depending on your definition, he co-wrote - not wrote, but co-wrote - 2-3 hit singles. That is all. But, to say he "wrote most of Diddy’s first hit singles" is highly inaccurate. Let's disregard all of the genre based charts and focus only on the big one, the Hot 100, which features every genre of music. If your song reaches it, it is a hit of some measure. Here are Diddy's Hot 100 charting songs:

Can't Nobody Hold Me Down (1997): #1
I'll Be Missing You (1997): #1
Shake Ya Tailfeather (2004): #1 (with Nelly and Murphy Lee)
I Need A Girl (Part One) (2002): #2
Satisfy You (1999): #2
Been Around The World (1998): #2
Come With Me (1998): #4 (Released by Sony on Godzilla: The Album)
I Need A Girl (Part Two) (2002): #4
Come to Me (2006): #9
Last Night (2007): #10
Victory (1998): #19
Bad Boy for Life (2001): #33
Tell Me (2006): #47
Best Friend (2000): #59
Diddy (2001): #66
Let's Get It (2001): #80 (with Black Rob and G. Dep)

That is 16 songs. 6 of which were bigger singles than anything Curry wrote anything on and 4 of which were released before Curry's highest song listed, which is "Come With Me." There are only 2 songs, of the 16, that Curry had anything to do with. Again, Curry didn't write a single thing on Diddy's first album. Not a single thing. That album spawned 4 of the 16 songs. And then Curry wrote "Come With Me," on a soundtrack that was released 3 months before Diddy's sophomore effort, "Forever." Does writing the 5th big hit single count as writing "most of Diddy’s first hit singles?"

But, if Curry is this far disconnected with that reality, I can only wonder what the book contains. It is being self published by Curry himself. I have nothing bad to say about self publishers, really - a lot of great books are self published and publishing houses, like record labels, are only human and regularly pass on otherwise solid talent. I don't know, for sure, if Curry pitched this around to any major book publishers, but if he did, apparently they weren't interested and that's not a big surprise, either.

The sad thing is that Curry already has my money. In order to cover the story fully, I'm going to need to actually have a look at the book itself. And the only way for me to do that is to buy it. So, I have. Once I get my hands on it, I may post a follow up to this story. For what it's worth, you can read the first chapter on his website. For anyone thinking of buying the book, his website offers you free music if you buy the book, but the actual link offering the supposed music is dead. Update: The link is now working.

A request for comment from Diddy's publicist was not immediately returned today (Saturday). I don't expect her to reply and I don't blame her. Diddy doesn't really need to comment on this sort of stuff.

Via Miles Bennett via Jolene82.