Diddy Didn’t Want The Notorious B.I.G.’s Hit Song ‘One More Chance’ to Be Released As a Single

In 1993, Sean “Diddy” Combs founded Bad Boy Records and signed his friend, up-and-coming rapper The Notorious B.I.G., as his first artist. The following year, Biggie released his smash debut album Ready to Die, fronted by hit singles such as “One More Chance.” And while “One More Chance” helped bolster Biggie’s rising success, Diddy wasn’t convinced at first that the song could be a successful single.

The Notorious B.I.G. blew up with hit songs like ‘Juicy’ and ‘Big Poppa’

The Notorious B.I.G. was introduced to many people in 1994 with his hit singles “Juicy” and “Big Poppa,” and each which showed a different side of Biggie. When it came to choosing the next single, Biggie and his team were at a crossroads.

Biggie’s star continued to rise as he collaborated with artists from Total to none other than Michael Jackson. Diddy was ready for Biggie to release another single, and Arista record executive Rob Stone thought that “One More Chance” — on which Biggie begs a girl to give him another chance — would be the best option. Diddy, for his part, felt that it should be “Machine Gun Funk.”

Diddy wasn’t convinced The Notorious B.I.G. should release ‘One More Chance’ as a single

While Stone liked “One More Chance,” the song was far too explicit for it to have a chance of ever getting played on the radio. Still, he felt strongly about his choice, and told Diddy his thoughts in a tense phone call, as described in Justin Tinsley’s 2022 book It Was All a Dream: Biggie and the World That Made Him.

“I think you’re making a mistake with ‘Machine Gun Funk,” Stone told Diddy honestly. Diddy didn’t respond to his idea well.

“All you motherf***ers think you know what the f*** I should be doing!” he screamed. “What the f*** you should be doing is getting my s*** played on the radio! And I’ll worry about what the f*** Puff needs and does.”

Stone went on to describe his thought process to the Bad Boy Records executive.

“Yo, Puff, you gonna scream at me or you want to hear my idea?” Stone remembers asking. “Look, Puff, you came with ‘Juicy.’ Anyone could understand that struggle. It was very relatable. Then you have Big becoming ‘Big Poppa.’ He’s now got that style and pizzazz, and he’s in the clubs and the girls are loving him. And then you come in with [‘Machine Gun Funk”s] ‘I live for the funk, I’ll die for the funk.’ It’s a really cool record. I just don’t think it’s telling the story like you should be.”

“I think it should be ‘One More Chance,'” he added. “You go from ‘Juicy’ to Big Poppa’ to now women begging him for one more chance.”

Diddy protested that its explicit nature would prevent the song from getting radio play, to which Stone responded, “Go make a remix to this and put Janet Jackson, Madonna, Aaliyah, Total, Faith, Mary J. Put every big-name woman in the industry, begging this guy for one more chance.”

Diddy realized the potential of what that remix could be. “Oh s***, he said. “‘I got that good love girl, you didn’t know.’ I’ll call y’all right back.”

Two weeks later, “One More Chance / Stay With Me (Remix)” was delivered.

‘One More Chance’ became a smash hit

“One More Chance” ended up becoming Biggie’s biggest song to date, reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and tying Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson’s “Scream” as the highest-debuting song on the Hot 100 at the time at No. 5. The song would achieve platinum certification with over one million copies sold.