Craig Mack: Biography

• Overview
• Discography
• Biography
• Related Artists

• Videos
• Photos
• Groups/Boards
• Fan Sites

• Busta Rhymes
• The Notorious B.I.G.
• Foxy Brown
• Junior M.A.F.I.A.
• Diddy
• Lil' Kim
• EPMD

• Blvd Benny

• Rashad Smith

Genres:

Rap & Hip-Hop Music, East Coast Rap Music

Decades Active:

1990's|2000's

Artistic Quality

Low

Cultural Impact

Low

Popularity

Low

Ratings Guide

An above-average rapper blessed with a bit of luck and connections as well as talent, Craig Mack practically made Puff Daddy's Bad Boy label with a remix of his 1994 hit "Flava in Ya Ear." Based in Brentwood, Long Island, Mack cut his first single while still a teenager, though nothing came of it. He was working as a go-fer for hometown heroes EPMD when he hooked up with Sean "Puffy" Combs, who offered him a spot on a Mary J. Blige remix in 1992. Impressed, Combs offered him a contract on his Bad Boy label, distributed through Arista. What really sold the LP, however, was a platinum remix of the top single "Flava in Ya Ear." Featuring a parade of East Coast talent -- the Notorious B.I.G., Rampage, LL Cool J, and Busta Rhymes -- it ranked as one of the first posse tracks to go overground in a big way; a Top Ten pop hit, and number one on the rap and dance charts. Mack returned in 1997 (after having severed relations with Combs) with Operation: Get Down, an executive production of longtime East Coast head Eric B. The album didn't even make the Top 40, and Mack struggled for a contract during the rest of the decade. After recording a few white labels, he returned to Bad Boy with an appearance on Combs' We Invented the Remix LP ("Special Delivery" featuring Ghostface Killah and Keith Murray) and announced plans for a new Bad Boy LP.

- John Bush, All Music Guide