Puffy produced four of the tracks on the album. Those are the four songs that are collaborations between Puffy and me. And he gives me my space to work even when we work together, like with my producer and my vocal coach.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Puffy's contribution to hip-hop culture was the remix. He offered us the music that his mom played in front of him, with newer drums and younger artists. That worked, and will consistently be there. The remix comes right after the original record, that's something Puffy did to influence the culture.
I don't think Puffy knows what he did for hip-hop. Because he intertwined hip-hop and R&B so that people weren't intimidated.
I can't even say Puff and me are like brothers, 'cause we closer than that.
When I came out rapping on my record, a lot of people said, Oh, you just want to be like Puff.
I felt like for what I needed, Bad Boy got me... they got me covered. Especially Puff, man. He's going to be the first billionaire rap entertainer. At the end of the day, they need me. Other artists-labels don't need me, but Bad Boy and Puff needs me. And I need them. It goes both ways.
So I didn't have anything to do with picking the songs, but I got to musically take them in places I thought might be interesting, so it was a real neat collaboration among the three of us.
Smokey Robinson is one of my heroes as a singer and songwriter; a major influence on my own music from the very start.
Umm... I don't judge my relationship with Puff or Bad Boy according to other people or past artists. At the end of the day, you are in charge of your career, and you can't depend on no man to do anything for you. I've learned to judge relationships with a person on myself and that person, not what they have done with previous people.
Really the only thing holding a lot of records together is the personality of the singer, and the will to write all of these different things.
Our albums just tend to be collections of songs really, because we all write in the group, all four of us.