I was down at South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive for the past week and that is why there has been no new articles during this span. We'll resume coverage shortly, but I wanted to be sure to mention that on Monday, Bad Boy Blog celebrated five years online.
I'd like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who supports what we do here. I launched this site because it was the site I wanted as a Bad Boy fan and that is where our responsibility first lies - to fans. I have a responsibility to provide accurate, fair coverage and work hard, every day, to ensure that that standard is met.
Thank you to the people in and around Bad Boy, and it's artists and ventures, who understand this and the importance of it - the importance of that independence and our responsibility to cover all stories. Not just the positive ones.
Thank you for reading this and for visiting Bad Boy Blog.
"Make Em Clap" uses previously released Diddy vocals while Feel Stronger features a new mix with numerous changes that you can hear when comparing it to the original version that was released. Edit: Aasim representative David Harraway says that some of the vocals on the song from Diddy are new. See more below.
Update: I have removed both records from our audio player. Shortly after this story was posted, I received an e-mail from David Harraway, who represents Aasim and had provided us with the audio.
He told me that my claim that "Make Em Clap" used previously released vocals from Diddy was inaccurate. He said that the vocals were new, except that they had used "maybe 2 things" from a previous record. According to him, they want people to accept the record as new and my writing took away from their desire. He suggested that I remove the comment about the vocals.
I responded, informing him that if there were new vocals on the record, I would be happy to update this post to make that clear, as I want it to be accurate. I asked that he please point me to a couple of examples of new vocals on the record and their second marks on the song. I also reminded him that while I like Aasim and we cover him like no one else does, that also doesn't mean that we aren't an independent publication.
His response was to request that I remove "Make Em Clap" from our audio player, that it had been given to me as a "courtesy" and that as a "gentleman," I should have removed the part about Diddy's vocals as a "courtesy" to him. In other words, if I want to play the record in our audio player, I should remove something from a post that was accurate at his demand, or else.
As such, I have removed the record - and "Feel Stronger" - from our audio player. Bad Boy Blog is an independent publication and while we are generally supportive of Bad Boy and it's artists, we will not be pressured into not covering potentially negative stories or stating simple facts (even if they aren't particularly negative, as was the case here).
Mr. Harraway did not respond to my request for pointers to the specific original vocals, but I have gone ahead and noted his objection to my writing above.
Fourteen years ago today, The Notorious B.I.G. passed away. At this point, that's all I need to say. The greatest rapper of all-time died on March 9. Rest in peace.
On Twitter, Aasim revealed that he was preparing a mixtape called "Last Stop Queens," which will use the beats and hooks from Diddy/Dirty Money's "Last Train to Paris."
