Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Refused to Put the Notorious B.I.G. on a Magazine Cover After His Death

In the months after the Notorious B.I.G.’s death, the people around Sean “Diddy” Combs were taken aback by his callousness. The rapper’s murder left people devastated, but some thought Diddy used it as an opportunity to promote himself. When his record label, Bad Boy, had an opportunity to put an artist on the cover of Rolling Stone, the label’s president, Kirk Burrowes, advocated for Biggie to take the spot. Diddy took it for himself instead.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs wanted to put himself on a magazine cover over the Notorious B.I.G.

Two weeks after Biggie’s murder, his second and final album, Life After Death, came out. Diddy put all his effort into promoting it. According to Bad Boy employee LaJoyce Brookshire, he denied her request to take time off to grieve. 

Several months later, Rolling Stone offered Bad Boy Records a cover opportunity. Burrowes thought Biggie was the obvious choice given his recent death and successful record. Diddy disagreed. He wanted the cover spot for himself.

“I was telling Sean, ‘Let’s make it Biggie. You still have a chance [for a cover in the future],’” Burrowes later told Rolling Stone. “He’s like ‘No, he’s dead. I’m putting out [Combs’ debut album, No Way Out] in July. I need to be on the cover of Rolling Stone.’”

He admitted that Biggie’s death benefitted the sales of his debut album.

“I think his passing added to the fame,” Combs told Rolling Stone in 1999. “At least 2 million [of the nearly 5 million copies of No Way Out] sold were due to [his death], straight up. And that doesn’t necessarily feel good, but that’s the reality.”

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs said he felt some responsibility for the Notorious B.I.G.’s death

While DIddy admitted he profited off Biggie’s death in some ways, he said he also felt responsibility for it.

“I think I’ll always feel some sort of responsibility because I’m in this thing with him,” he said on The Wendy Williams Show in 2017 (via ABC News). “He’s my artist.”

He added that Biggie was supposed to fly to London that night. Instead, he remained in Los Angeles, where he was killed in a drive-by shooting.

“He was supposed to go to London that night and I let him talk me into not going to London and staying in L.A.,” Diddy said. “That’s something that really bothered me throughout my life. Sometimes you have to really go with that decision in your gut and in my gut it was like, ‘You need to get on the plane.'”

He added that he still regrets not making Biggie take the flight.

He gave the rapper his publishing rights in 2023

Over two decades after Biggie’s death, Diddy relinquished his publishing rights. Many Bad Boy artists said they did not get a fair deal and Diddy moved to change this in 2023. The assets returned to Biggie and other artists were reportedly worth hundreds of millions.

“Combs sees it as part of a broader goal of promoting economic empowerment for Black artists and culture,” a source told Variety.