Jadakiss Reflects on Knowing 'Something Wasn’t Right' With Diddy Deal

Jadakiss joined Melyssa Ford for a nearly hour-long conversation on the season finale of Hot & Bothered that was released this week.

Around 16 minutes in, the Lox alum looked back on the important role radio played amid the group’s contractual dispute with Diddy’s Bad Boy Records. As Kiss explained, the group was “smarter than we appeared” at the time.

“We just knew, we just felt something wasn’t right within our contract,” the Ignatius artist said. “We knew going against them at the time would be a very big risk. … Very expensive or very time-consuming, or both. And then your career is finished.”

While the group’s 1998 album Money, Power & Respect was indeed released on Bad Boy, its follow-up, 2000’s We Are the Streets, saw them working with Ruff Ryders and Interscope.

The reason the legendary group released their sophomore album on another label was due to the contractual dispute with Diddy and Bad Boy Records. It all started once the group got tired of the trajectory of their careers under Diddy. The Lox had more of a street-centric sound, and Diddy wanted to substitute that with a shiny, pop aesthetic.

In the late 1990s, The LOX took matters into their own hands and launched the “Free The LOX” campaign, demanding Diddy release them from their contracts and find a label more fitting of their hardcore sound. The issue spilled over into the New York radio waves, and Styles even threw an office chair at Diddy at one point.

Elsewhere in the new interview, Kiss reflected on soon turning 50, playfully suggesting that he be honored with a Men’s Health or GQ cover to commemorate the occasion.

“Are you crazy? This is a young man’s sport,” Kiss said. “I got no business being here at 50.”

He had a similarly measured take on the feelings brought on by being referred to by some fans as an “icon” or “legend.” From Kiss’ perspective, those types of distinctions are made too often in the current climate, thus diluting their impact.

“I appreciate it but I think they throw a lot of them kind of words around too loosely nowadays,” he said. “There’s too much looseness with some of these words that shouldn’t be used so easily. But me, I appreciate it. But I feel like I got a lot more to give people. Hold off on your titles until I finish preparing the meals.”

See more from Jadakiss and Melyssa Ford above.