Mark Curry (rapper)

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Mark Curry
Birth nameMark Keith Curry
Born (1971-07-15) July 15, 1971 (age 52)
New Jersey, U.S.
Genres Hip hop
Occupation(s)
  • Rapper
  • songwriter
Labels Bad Boy

Mark Keith Curry (born July 15, 1971) is an American rapper. He is best known for his 2001 single "Bad Boy for Life" (with Puff Daddy and Black Rob), which peaked at number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number 13 on the UK singles chart. In 2009, he published a book, Dancing with the Devil, which contains scurrilous anecdotes about his tenure at Puff Daddy's label Bad Boy Records.

Contents

Life and career

1971–2005: Early life

Mark Keith Curry [1] was born on July 15, 1971 [2] in New York to Kenneth and Lillie Curry, and moved to Teaneck when he was three. His parents separated in 1983; Kenneth relocated to Atlanta in 1986, with Mark following later that year. He initially worked at The Rim Shop, a car accessories boutique in Atlanta, and at Platinum House, described by Curry in Dancing with the Devil as "a black version of Studio 54 without the kinkiness, and with dancers paid to shed their clothing"; [3] it was at the latter that he first met Sean Combs, during the latter's time doing "Bad Boy Fridays" there [4] (parties run by Bad Boy Records to publicise Platinum House [3] ) who he would meet again after being introduced via D-Mack, another artist on Bad Boy Records, to which he signed in 1997. [4]

In 1999, he appeared on "Gangsta Shit" from Sean Combs' Forever [5] and on "Dangerous MC's" from The Notorious B.I.G.'s Born Again . [6] The following year, he appeared on "Down the Line Shit" and "Muscle Game" from Black Rob's Life Story . [7] In 2001, he featured on six tracks from Sean Combs' The Saga Continues... ; [8] Curry used his 2009 book Dancing with the Devil to note that Combs had failed to invite him to recording sessions, and that he only appeared because he turned up anyway. [9] Curry featured on the album's "Blast Off", "Where's Sean", "Lonely", "I Don't Like That (Interlude)", "The Last Song", and "Bad Boy for Life", [8] the latter of which charted at No. 13 on the UK Singles Chart [10] and at No. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100. [11] Also in 2001, he appeared on "American Dream", from the Training Day soundtrack, which credited David Bowie due to it sampling "This Is Not America", [12] and on "Blast Off" and "Let's Get It (Remix)" from G. Dep's album Child of the Ghetto . [13] He left Bad Boy Records in 2005. [4]

2009–present: Later life

In 2009, Curry released a book, Dancing with the Devil, which contained a number of scurrilous anecdotes about Combs and Bad Boy Records, and which Curry began writing in the belief that Combs "would try to deal with me fairly if he knew I was going to air his dirty laundry"; the book claimed that Combs copied Curry's mannerisms and guide vocals verbatim for his 1998 single "Come with Me", [9] that he regularly shoehorned himself on to his artists' tracks so that he could charge high "special guest appearances" and that artists only found out once they received their royalty checks, [14] that he would insist on his sports cars being featured in artists' music videos so that he could deduct high rental fees from their budgets and that he would then claim tax credits for his cars' business use, that he regularly muscled his way into unearned songwriting and production credits, [15] and that he would flaunt his wealth around the people he was exploiting. [9] Curry also used the book to note that he was so poor while with Bad Boy that he had to sell his backstage passes for shows where he was one of Combs' henchmen and that towards the end of his Bad Boy career he had considered selling cannabis to provide for his family, that the previous year he had lost his house to foreclosure, and that he was homeless, driving a 1992 Honda Accord he had bought at auction, and unable to afford health insurance for himself, his wife, or his son Mark Curry II. [9] In 2014, he opened a juice bar in Miami, and in 2018, he took a job in the solar power industry. [2]

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References

  1. ↑ "Bad Boy for Life on ASCAP".
  2. 1 2 "Mark Curry, Author". African American Literature Book Club . Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  3. 1 2 Curry, Mark (2009). Dancing with the Devil. ISBN   9780615276502 . Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 "Mark Curry". WHO?MAG. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  5. ↑ Puff Daddy. Forever. Bad Boy Records.
  6. ↑ Born Again (booklet). Bad Boy, Arista. 1999.
  7. ↑ Black Rob. Life Stories (Media notes). Bad Boy Records.
  8. 1 2 Sean Combs. The Saga Continues... (Media notes). Bad Boy Records.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Mark Curry's Dancing With The Devil". The A.V. Club. July 2009. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  10. ↑ "P Diddy". The Official Charts Company . Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  11. ↑ "Mark Curry | Biography, Music & News". Billboard. Retrieved May 8, 2024.
  12. ↑ Training Day (Media notes). Priority Records. 2001.
  13. ↑ G. Dep. Child of the Ghetto (Media notes). Bad Boy Records.
  14. ↑ "Diddy slammed in tell-all book". Digital Spy. January 25, 2009. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  15. ↑ "Former Bad Boy Ghostwriter Mark Curry Takes Aim at Diddy". Theboombox.com. October 5, 2009. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
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