The industry icon talks his Bad Boy empire in the latest interview with Zane Lowe. The two cover a range of topics within Diddy's work, but specifically focus on his rise as one of the most influential artists and businessmen within the industry.
He stresses the importance of how he looked to the past for inspiration when building Bad Boy, specifically naming Dr. Dre, James Brown and others as instrumental in understanding his own vision. He now sees the same thing begin to happen with his older work by newer artists. Still, despite the entire industry changing Diddy has been able to solidify his spot at the top. "To be honest, it’s going to be even bigger [now]” he said. “And with the streaming and right now with the accessibility, the appetite for music, the appetite for hip-hop is at an all-time high. The sky’s the limit.”
If he were to build Bad Boy from scratch today, his take would be the same, “I don't go approach the record industry like the money. I approach it about the song and how is this song and this artist going to be different and so ahead of anything that's out there now?” He compliments artists like SZA for CTRL, as well as Drake, Future, and Kendrick Lamar for their extremely high-quality output and the direction they are now taking the industry.
Take a look at the full interview below.