In a new interview with the Art Of Dialogue, Styles P explained how he, Jadakiss and Sheek Louch ended up signing with Bad Boy Records. In the video below, the Yonkers rap legend said Puff Daddy reached out to their managers at the time after hearing their music, which was being played on the tour bus by Mary J. Blige.
“Our sister Mary J. Blige was on tour, playing our music on the tour bus, and the story was, Puff came on the tour bus, heard it, and was going crazy,” Styles P said. “Then at the time, Ruff Ryders was our managers and they didn’t have a label, so Puff reached out to them, we met up with Puff one day, rhymed in front of him, and that was it.”
He continued: “[Suge] tried to sign us before we got to Bad Boy. Our music was circulating, people were checking for us, and Suge Knight was on that list. It just didn’t make sense for us at the time.
They called one day and they was like ‘Suge is interested in y’all, Suge wanna meet up with y’all and is interested in getting y’all on Death Row.’ Suge probably looked at it like we would be a good fit over there.”
Styles P admitted he has idea how their lives would’ve turned out if they took the deal with Death Row. He then recalled a time the infamous label also tried to sign DMX.
“I don’t remember that specifically, but I’m pretty sure of that because before X signed to Def Jam, he was on the market, and pretty much everyone wanted to sign him, like the whole industry really,” said Styles P.
The Lox signed to Bad Boy Records in 1996 and only released one album under the label, before joining Ruff Ryders in 1999.
In the same interview with the Art of Dialogue, Styles P confirmed Biggie was taking shots at 2Pac on The Ugliest. “That was a subliminal at Pac,” Styles P said.
