RandoMax Radio Presents: Bad Boy Invented The Remix (a fake album starring Puff Daddy & The Family)

 

Last week over on the Patreon (which you two should sign up for if you haven't already – I know money's tight right now, but three American dollars per month is pretty cheap), I ran a lengthy review dissecting We Invented The Remix, Puff Daddy's 2002 Bad Boy Records compilation designed to highlight his contributions to the remix game by... not showcasing any of his actual popular examples of the sub-genre, instead going with a lot of exclusive-to-this-project poorly-realized remakes (and a handful of previously-released efforts) that pointed the spotlight at far too many artists not signed to Bad Boy Records to ever make any goddamn sense whatsoever.

It was bad, folks.

So bad that I was inspired to do something about it. Many times throughout the writing process I kept telling myself (and only myself, my wife gets bored of this kind of nerd talk) that I could have put together a better version of We Invented The Remix with very little effort, and my take would make much more sense as both a historical document and as a label sampler.

And what do you know? I put that motherfucker together, and I may be biased here, but I believe that my version is much better than the official take, and I have no doubt that you two will agree. (The two of you that dare to listen to a Puff Daddy project, anyway – I’m a realist, as you know.) I 'd recommend you read the post in question before clicking through, but it isn't really necessary - a quick parse through its tracklist will tell you what I suffered through, and it only provides extra unnecessary context for what I'm offering today anyway.

Bad Boy Invented The Remix (I shifted the focus away from the "we", because while I do believe Sean "Puffy" Combs has produced some music in the past, he definitely doesn't put in as much work as the many members of his sprawling Hitmen collective) is my attempt to correct the biggest oversight found on We Invented The Remix - namely, that the official album in no way offers any proof that Puff Daddy "invented" jack shit. There are a couple of interludes where Puff tries to explain his position, even name-dropping his first recorded instance of remix work, but then the rest of the album tries to force the listener into agreeing that subpar reworkings of tracks that already sucked will somehow extend his label's legacy.

Fuck that shit - he needed to prove that he did, in fact, "invent" the remix. And while he, of course, didn't invent anything, he did popularize a certain type of remix, one that took the original song and repurposed it for either a radio audience or the dance floor, usually by replacing the instrumental entirely (typically with a well-known hip hop or 1980’s callback with a built-in fanbase), adding a rap verse no matter how little it fits the proceedings, or, most of the time, doing both. While We Invented The Remix does showcase these tendencies, it does so at the expense of any songs Puffy would benefit from being a part of his argument. Which is where I come in.

I understand that some of you may have reservations about listening to anything related to Puff Daddy. I mean, I get it: it’s Puff Daddy. He generally sucks. However, he did, at one point, have a good ear for a sample’s potential; he was popular for a long stretch of time within not just our chosen genre, but also R&B and even the mystical realm of pop music (you could say he’s still popular to this day – you’d be wrong, but you could say it, I wouldn’t stop you); and, like it or not, a lot of his remixes were fairly ubiquitous hit songs. So I encourage each of you two to listen to today’s mix with an open mind, treating it as the reimagining of We Invented The Remix that it is, as opposed to a collection or remixes you’d never give two fucks about otherwise. Besides, some of the tracks here are really fucking good, whereas others are simply better examples of what Puffy and company brought to the table than what the man himself had conjured up.

Bad Boy Invented The Remix, like Wu-Massacre 2 (another "fake" album you two should listen to if you hadn't already) before it, was a project that I treated seriously, rules and all. Try as I might, I couldn’t not split it into two parts: one disc focusing on how Puffy’s remix skills affected the music industry (including the very song that he claims kicked off this side hustle of his – I mean, it was a fucking gimme, how did We Invented The Remix not think to try to get that Jodeci track?), and one disc acting as the label sampler Puffy had intended it to be all along, except with much better examples presented (including at least one really fucking obvious one, one you likely don't really think of as a remix in the first place, and one you two may have forgotten about). Since We Invented The Remix was released in 2002, I limited myself to tracks from up to that year only. Every remix presented had to have been produced by either Puffy or one of the various Hitmen (usually both), which is pretty obvious, right? And finally, each disc could only feature 14 tracks (the same number that We Invented The Remix had), and since I retained the interludes from Puffy’s project as a way to separate the two halves, that left only thirteen slots on each side.

I think I knocked it out of the park, but I would think that, as I’m pretty proud of everything I write or record until I do the next thing. Press ‘play’ on each “disc” below as you browse through the tracklistings, and I think you’ll agree, I had too much time on my hands. Oh, and also that my Bad Boy Invented The Remix should have been the official release. Puffy, hit me up – I’ll let this idea go for a good price.

BAD BOY INVENTED THE REMIX [DISC ONE]:

1. Intro – P. Diddy
2. Come and Talk To Me (Hip Hop Remix) – Jodeci feat. Phat Doug
3. You Remind Me (Daddy Hip Hop) – Mary J. Blige feat. Greg Nice
4. All Men Are Doggz? (Puffy’s Bad Boy Mix) – Bandit feat. Keisha Black
5. Fantasy (Bad Boy with O.D.B.) – Mariah Carey feat. Ol’ Dirty Bastard
6. I’ll Be There For You / You’re All I Need To Get By (Puff Daddy Mix) – Method Man feat. Mary J. Blige
7. Step Into A World (Rapture’s Delight) (The Remix) – KRS-One feat. Puff Daddy
8. Real Love (Remix) – Mary J. Blige feat. The Notorious B.I.G.
9. Cold Rock A Party (Bad Boy Remix) – MC Lyte feat. Missy Elliott
10. Nothin’ Move But The Money (Remix) – Mic Geronimo feat. Black Rob & DMX
11. The Things That You Do (Bad Boy Remix) – Gina Thompson feat. Missy Elliott
12. Every Little Thing I Do (Puff Daddy Mix) – Soul For Real feat. Lil’ Shawn
13. Floatin' On Your Love (Float On Bad Boy Remix) – The Isley Brothers Featuring Ronald Isley and Angela Winbush feat. 112 & Lil’ Kim
14. Dolly My Baby (Bad Boy Extended Mix) – Super Cat feat. 3rd Eye, Mary J. Blige, Puff Daddy, & The Notorious B.I.G.

BAD BOY INVENTED THE REMIX [DISC TWO]:

1. The Remix Phenomenon (Interlude) – P. Diddy
2. Flava In Ya Ear (Remix) – Craig Mack feat. The Notorious B.I.G., Rampage the Last Boy Scout, Busta Rhymes, & LL Cool J
3. Can’t You See (Bad Boy Remix) – Total feat. Keith Murray
4. You Used To Love Me (Puff Daddy Mix) – Faith Evans feat. Puff Daddy
5. It’s All About The Benjamins (Remix) – Puff Daddy feat. The Lox, Lil’ Kim, & The Notorious B.I.G.
6. Only You (Bad Boy Remix) – 112 feat. The Notorious B.I.G. & Mase
7. No One Else (Puff Daddy Remix) – Total feat. Foxy Brown, Lil’ Kim, & Da Brat
8. One More Chance (Hip Hop Mix) – The Notorious B.I.G. feat. Total
9. Peaches & Cream (Remix) – 112 feat. Ludacris
10. Never Knew Love Like This (Remix) – Faith Evans feat. Black Rob
11. It’s Over Now (Remix) – 112 feat. Prodigy
12. Special Delivery (Remix) – G-Dep feat. Ghostface Killah, Keith Murray, & Craig Mack
13. This Is Me (Remix) – Dream feat. Kain
14. You Gets No Love (Remix) – Faith Evans feat. G-Dep

I think that you’ll both agree Bad Boy Invented The Remix fills that void that We Invented The Remix fails to – even if you don’t care about any of these remixes, there’s no question that these two “discs” are much better representations of exactly what Puffy brought upon our chosen genre, for better and for worse. Give each a spin and leave me your thoughts, and maybe I’ll keep trying to put together these fake albums when the mood strikes.

-Max