This episode contains explicit language.

In the 70 and 80s, the founders of Death Row and Bad Boy are coming of age. In the Los Angeles neighborhood of Compton, a young Dre is spinning records before he even learns to read. Dre desperately wants to be a hip-hop DJ, but Los Angeles barely has a hip-hop scene. In New York, on the other hand, rap is popping off. And an 18 year old called Sean “Puffy” Combs has B.I.G. plans for the Big Apple.

They don’t know it yet, but their struggles and successes have already begun to shape the egos and sounds of their multi-million dollar tug of war.

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Michael Acton Smith with Richard E. Grant