Beats & Bytes: Apple Music is helping, not hurting Spotify

Do you remember the hype around Bad Boy 20 years ago?

Puff Daddy took the incredible talents of Biggie, Lil Kim, Ma$e, 112, & Faith Evans to the top of the charts and top of the culture. Now he’s a music industry icon and bringing Bad Boy back into the limelight with the recently announced 26 city reunion tour. It will be exciting to see such an impresario like Puff Daddy re-invent his brand in the new era. His big reunion shows are taking place this weekend at The Barclays Center (same weekend as Biggie’s birthday) and I plan on being there.

Puffy was always pushing the industry and the culture forward. He blazed a trail into clothes, media, sponsorships, and bombastic videos before anyone understood how powerful those mediums could be.

I got my first taste of being an insider in this magical business of music, dancing in one of his videos back in high school. Today we’re just following in his footsteps, and the industries he helped bring to the mainstream are more important to music than ever.

But I’m watching closely to see how he and the whole roster evolve 20 years later in the digital era. Surprise albums? Snapchat takeovers? Twitter Beefs? Memes on The Gram? He’s always been a master of re-mixing what is hot and making it hotter, and with Revolt, Puffy established a serious foothold in the digital age, showing us that quality content is no longer just a high budget music video. It’s so much more. It’s what is happening behind the scenes with the team that brings it all together.

But on Friday night it’s all about Bad Boy and I am looking forward to being in the building to see it first hand. Hopefully we’ll get to hear some new summer music too, maybe another blockbuster hit? Who knows? But one thing is for sure, Bad Boy is back and like Puff said in the 90’s “I thought I told you that we won’t stop.”

– @JesseKay