"Before Bad Boy/Interscope, It Was A Major Label Bidding War"

 

[Breaking the news about signing to Diddy's iconic Bad Boy Records via a viral video this week, newly signed rapper Machine Gun Kelly reflects on how he ended up with Puff Daddy.]

The way it all started was before Bad Boy/Interscope, it was a major label bidding war. At the end of the day, surprisingly to what people may think, Puff was the one person who said, "I don't want to touch or change your movement. I just want to get that machine."

Bad Boy recently inked with Interscope and he brought me to Jimmy Iovine one night in the hotel room on a fluke though. He was like, "I gotta go run an errand." I think this was either my first or second time meeting Puff and I was like, "OK, this is kind of random. It's 2 AM in the morning. Who has to run an errand at 2 AM?"

We ended up going to a hotel room and Jimmy Iovine ended up turning around and I think I just shat my pants. I'm just in there at the hotel room with shatted pants. And so Puff told me to tell Jimmy about the idea and I showed him the fans and the movement. Puff just really believed in the idea. Puff pushed for it, we told the other labels what was going on and what we had offered on the table and it was such a game-changing type offer that it's like, "No way. Not possible."

We tried to tell everyone, "Trust me." But they were like "OK. Whatever." They didn't believe it and here we are. I'm so proud that we used a video to announce my signing. It's not for corporate, it's not for the industry guys. It's honestly to make people feel like they want to [get down].

Me and a really good friend of mine that's also an EST boy like myself, we sat on a couch in LA for countless nights just gathering all of the footage and thinking about the best way we could present it. The video turned out crazy. I teared up the first time I watched it. Hopefully we got some tears jerked out of you.

Machine Gun Kelly earned his rap name from his ability to spit rapid rhymes. The Cleveland, Ohio rapper, who has been rapping since 2004, has took his hometown by storm on the underground market and with live performances. After gaining a huge buzz at the start of 2011, Machine Gun Kelly looks to take his talent to the next level by signing to Diddy's Bad Boy Records.

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