in 1993, after being fired from uptown, combs established his new label bad boy entertainment as a joint venture with arista records, taking then-newcomer the notorious b.i.g, also known as biggie smalls, with him. both the notorious b.i.g. and craig mack quickly released hit singles, followed by successful lps, particularly notorious b.i.g.'s "ready to die". combs signed more acts to bad boy, including carl thomas, faith evans, 112, total, and father mc. the hitmen, his in-house production team, worked with jodeci, mary j. blige, usher, lil' kim, tlc, mariah carey, boyz ii men, swv, aretha franklin, and others. mase and the lox joined bad boy just as a widely publicized rivalry with the west coast's death row records was beginning. combs and notorious b.i.g. were criticized and parodied by tupac shakur and suge knight in songs and interviews during the mid-1990s. during 1994–1995, combs produced several songs for tlc's "crazysexycool", which finished the decade as number 25 on billboard's list of top pop albums of the decade.