Bad Boy Package Will Be B.I.G. Deal

Puff Daddy’s at it again.

Able to turn just about anything to gold (and platinum) in recent years as one of the hottest artists and entrepreneurs in hip-hop and R&B;, Sean “Puffy” Combs now thinks he has found a way to turn gold into, well, more gold.

Record companies have been squeezing out extra profits for years by releasing greatest-hits albums from individual acts, but Combs is too impatient to wait around for the mostly new artists on his Bad Boy label to produce enough hits for him to release individual “best of” packages.

So, he’s creating his own “Bad Boy’s Greatest Hits” album by putting together in one package nine singles that have already sold a cumulative 9 million copies. These aren’t songs covering a long career, a chance for an old fan to relive memories or a newer fan to catch up. These are all recent hits, songs that most serious hip-hop fans have heard steadily on the radio--and which many already have bought on albums and/or singles.

So who’s going to put down the Benjamins to own this?

A lot of people, predicts Violet Brown, new music buyer for the Wherehouse retail chain.

“Most fans definitely have a few of the songs already,” says Brown. “But since it’s all on one album, they may still want this so they just put it on and hear all the hits.”

That’s exactly the idea, says Bad Boy General Manager Jeff Burroughs.

“It’s a perfect party record,” he says of the Oct. 13 release. “You don’t have to worry about changing the CD.”

Further enticement, Burroughs says, is in the fact that the four tracks on the album featuring the late Notorious B.I.G. are heard here in rare remix form: Biggie’s own “One More Chance,” Craig Mack’s “Flava in Ya Ear” (with Biggie guesting along with Busta Rhymes, Rampage and LL Cool J), 112’s “Only You” (also featuring Mase) and Puff Daddy’s “It’s All About the Benjamins” (also with Lil’ Kim and Tha LOX). Other artists featured are Total and Faith Evans, with a new introduction and linking “interludes” by the Mad Rapper, a regular presence on Bad Boy releases.

How big can an album like this be? SoundScan CEO Mike Shallett says that it’s somewhat “uncharted waters.” The closest antecedent is “Death Row’s Greatest Hits,” a 1996 two-CD set from Suge Knight’s troubled label featuring work by such stars as Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tupac Shakur.

Released in November that year, it was a steady seller during the Christmas season, tallying about 50,000 copies a week and ultimately totaling sales of 800,000--not bad for material that had already turned a healthy profit.

Expectations are that with this just being a single CD and with Bad Boy’s roster having wider appeal in the R&B; and pop realms than the more gangsta-oriented rap of Death Row, sales could be considerably higher. And that will give Bad Boy even a bigger bonus, as everyone who buys this for the old singles is also going to hear a track by a new artist, 11-year-old singer Jerome, Combs’ latest discovery. His “Too Old for Me” is the only new song on the collection, providing a solid setup for his debut album, due early next year.

Of Jerome’s good fortune, Brown says, “Anything on Bad Boy is seen to happen.”

YOU GO-GO, GIRLS: Girl Power didn’t begin with the Spice Girls. Nearly 20 years ago, the Go-Go’s rose from rank--if enthusiastic and determined--amateurs in L.A.’s punk scene to become one of the early-’80s top pop groups with such chart-topping songs as “We Got the Beat” and “Our Lips Are Sealed.”

It was new territory for an all-female rock band that actually played its own instruments. And in the process, the five members (Belinda Carlisle, Charlotte Caffey, Jane Wiedlin, Gina Schock and Kathy Valentine) faced a variety of personal crises and traumas and career hurdles and setbacks, ultimately fading and breaking up as quickly as they ascended.

Ted Demme--the director of “The Ref” and “Beautiful Girls” and the upcoming Eddie Murphy-Martin Lawrence comedy “Life”--thinks the story would make a great film. So he and his wife, a film music supervisor, have made a deal for the group’s story.

Demme hopes to direct it himself, with his wife producing, though it’s still early days on the project--no script or thoughts toward casting have been initiated.

Demme says that his wife was approached by an agent friend with the project, and being “all about girl power,” was thrilled. The two met with band members, discussed the idea and a deal was made.

“We all got together in L.A. and had a party to celebrate,” says Demme. “We’re really psyched about this.”

Can’t wait to see who the Go-Go’s would want to play their roles.

RAVE ON: The disturbance at the Nocturnal Wonderland rave last weekend at the National Orange Show facility in San Bernardino--with police having to use tear gas to disperse a crowd of about 3,000 pressing against the gates--apparently will not have any serious impact on future electronic dance music events at the site.

The locale, with three pavilions around a lagoon, has become a regular host for raves over the past two years, and General Manager Corey Oakley says he doesn’t think last week’s incident will change that. However, he says that the entrance procedures that led to a bottleneck at the lone entrance gate used for the event are being reevaluated and that a few small raves that were in tentative discussion to be held in the next few months will likely be canceled while new plans are implemented.