Da Band’s Chopper Signs With Cash Money; Disses P. Diddy

Da Band’s Chopper Signs With Cash Money; Bashes Diddy

By: Liz “Red” Thomas

Chopper (a.k.a. Young City), formerly of Da Band, has disbanded from Diddy’s Bad Boy label to join Baby and Cash Money Records. According to the rapper, the reason for the split being Diddy didn’t look out for him, when he was in his time of need.

The rapper, who was featured on MTV’s “Making The Band 2,” suffered a huge setback when Hurricance Katrina blew through New Orleans last year. He lost his house, his mother lost her home and his family was in need of aid. That’s when Cash Money Records co-founder Baby provided for him, according to MTV. Not Diddy.

“Puff is a multimillionaire, I’m a thousand-naire at that time, grinding,” Chopper told MTV. “I shot the ['I See You Lil' Daddy'] video and the remix with Lil Wayne and Jody Breeze without him even giving me an advance check. I did that thinking it was all love. [Then] Katrina hit, boom, took away my house, my mama’s house, took away a lot of stuff from my family.

“When that happened, I didn’t get no phone call [from Diddy],” Chopper continued. “He didn’t call me and say, ‘Are you all right?’ He didn’t say, ‘I got these Sean John clothes and can make sure your family at least has clothes on its back.’ He didn’t do none of that. So at the end of the day, I felt played. That’s why I wanted to disband myself from the Bad Boy situation.”

Diddy saw the situation in a different light, calling Chopper a disgruntled employee of his label. “[He] is a former disgruntled artist of Bad Boy who obviously has an ax to grind. We wish him well in his future career,” he said in a statement released to MTV News.

Bad Boy spokesperson disputed Chopper’s claims, stating Diddy promoted Chopper as the first breakout artist from Da Band, and that Bad Boy and its distributor, Atlantic Records, funded both of Chopper’s videos. Additionally, she commented that Diddy, with Jay-Z, contributed a sizable donation to the American Red Cross for the Katrina relief efforts.

Nevertheless, Chopper didn’t feel the Bad Boy deal was right for him. According to MTV, a month after leaving Bad Boy, Chopper ran into Baby, who asked about his status with Bad Boy. When the rapper said he had left the label, Baby immediately offered him a spot on the Cash Money roster and threw some money his way.

The rapper is currently in Miami working on his solo debut, Fast Life, which will include collborations with Lil Wayne, Chingy, Soulja Slim and Princess of Crime Mobb, according to MTV. Chopper hopes the album will help him step out of the shadow of his reality TV past and showcase his ability as a legitimate artist.

In other Chopper news, his lawyer Paul Gardner says the rapper is facing 90 years in prison for an armed-robbery charge, stemming from an incident in Baltimore from 2001. He is scheduled in court February 28.