Down Bad Records

Down Bad Records was an indie Los Santos based record label from July 2021 to December 2022.

About
Down Bad Records was a primarily underground record label owned by local music artist Dick Chiclets. The DBR studio was only 1 of 4 record labels in the city to own a tape press (with its own merchandise creator), the other 3 being Creampie Creations, MDM Records, and Wu-Chang Records. The company focused their attention on a handful of indie artists rather than a dime a dozen of them. Although DBR managed to dominate the music scene and music charts (including a one and a half month streak) in its heyday, the DBR executives long accepted that their "down bad" company couldn't compete with the mainstream mega labels--often joking that the DBR artists they sign would inevitably defect to Wu-Chang Records.

Season 1
Down Bad Records was created by Dick Chiclets and Lil Cap after leaving their former record label Wu-Chang Records. They signed and ran concerts for hot local artists such as themselves, Zarina Vega, Hubcap Jones, and Peren Meliamne. Concert venues included Split Sides, Cerberus Arena, Maison Ricard, and the yacht. Lil Cap amicably left to MDM Records during his beef with Outto-Tune Tyrone, a beef which had angered OTT into temporarily revoking Dick's tape press access.

From July 2021 to February 2022, Down Bad Records operated out of the Maison Ricard office property in Legion Square. Carmella Corset and later Liz Anya decorated the DBR's office and recording studio. Creampie Creations gave Dick permission to use their tape press in the Diamond Casino and Resort penthouse while DBR waited for construction. However, OTT eventually revoked DBR's tape press access permanently when he found out Dick had joined the enemy of his Brouge Street Kingz gang, The Families.

Exasperated by the lack of soundproofing from the constant noise of sirens, Dick finally sold the Maison Ricard office property for $208,000 on February 16, 2022, and immediately purchased a foreclosed mansion as the new home for Down Bad Records. DBR worked out a deal with Wu-Chang Records to pay them $50,000 for a month-long rental of their tape press.

Season 2
The relaunch of Down Bad Records centered around self produced artists, indie styles, and those who otherwise didn't fit into the Los Santos music scene, as Season Two of Down Bad Records. On February 26, 2022, Down Bad Records hosted a "DBR Artist Showcase" at the Cerberus Arena. Kirk Jerkems accepted Dick's olive branch and invitation to the event, and ended up winning the $70,000 prize in the go kart competition where the racers had to drive drunk on absinthe.

After months and months of Dick longing for a tape press, Dean Watson finally installed one (and an outdoor microphone) in the DBR mansion's backyard on March 3, 2022. The tape press came equipped with a merchandise creator. To christen the press, Dick created his first music tape on it, "Boozin" (the first song he ever made in the city). Two days later, Lil Cap looked over the tape press and congratulated Dick.

Nancy Drew and Sabith Cohen each paid $75,000 to Morph Interiors to decorate the inside of the DBR mansion. Liz Anya and Carmella Corset created the mansion interior's vinyl record logo, dive bar with a stage, giant meeting room, TV lounge, and spacious downstairs recording studio. The employees also stored music tapes and walkmans in their mailbox at the Cerberus Business Center, where DBR has an office. Unfortunately when the Senate permanently closed the farmers markets on April 19, 2022, DBR's entire marketing team got displaced.

During a mayoral meeting where Wu-Chang Records general manager Harry Martinez, MDM Records co-owner Tommy T, and Chang Gang pitched that the state automatically pay the music studios payroll receipts and radio play royalties, Harry and Mr K offended Mayor Bunny and Deputy Mayor Jeffy Coldiron by inexplicably dissing their company DBR. Harry also commented that Wu-Chang wanted to poach DBR's Vision Director Giles Dickinbottom. Despite Bunny's dismay that Wu-Chang would ask for state handouts so unprofessionally, she proposed their idea to the Senate and was denied. Then three days after Dick granted Giles' request for keys to the DBR mansion and tape press, Giles informed Jeffy that he wanted to leave for Wu-Chang. Dick wished Giles well and secretly masterminded a plot to stab him.

Wu-Chang Records eventually received construction of an automated wage system where artists could simply clock in and loiter inside of the building to collect work receipts--spelling doom for DBR.

Season 3
After CEO Bunny moved in with her new cop boyfriend Sgt. Sexton Hardcastle and had Jeffy remove her keys to his yellow house via text, Jeffy wanted to transfer his 49% ownership share of DBR to her and Peren. On June 16, 2022 when Bunny publicly released her new single "always", she finally revealed her secret identity as the music artist Doe to the world.



On June 29, 2022, Jeffy relinquished his 49% ownership share of DBR back to Dick and stayed on as a regular DBR employee (with tape press access). Peren pushed for selling tapes, merchandise, and live performances to storefronts. Bunny cleaned out all of DBR's marketing "street team" in preparation for a new DBR hiring spree, where they hire event coordinators and pay them with a percentage of their events' profits. Dick then shared 20% of the DBR ownership with CEO Bunny and 20% of the DBR ownership with Chief Top Hat Peren, leaving Dick with 60% ownership.

On July 13, 2022 as a sacrifice for "Operation: Save DBR", down bad Dick sold his Ocelot Locust to Otto's Autos for $240,000. Dick gambled $36,000 of it on the wheel, roulette, blackjack, and an omega spin to win $31,554. He then bet $50,000 on 1st 12 of the roulette spin and won $100,000. After withdrawing $28,000 from the DBR business account, Dick was finally able to pay off the remaining $417,132 in debt on the DBR mansion. The next day, Peren sold DBR's first marketing package of 100 tapes with senior artist merchandise to Mojito Inn for $7500 a week. However, Senior Artist Hubcap Jones signed to Wu-Chang Records on July 19, 2022--leaving DBR down bad with only three active artists.

On August 9, 2022, Peren told Dick that he wanted to sign with Wu-Chang Records because Peren wanted to enjoy music again. Peren also relayed Wu-Chang executive Damien Tinkerman's interest in buying out DBR, the DBR mansion, and its tape press. Dick mused that their CEO Bunny becoming Mayor, Jeffy becoming Deputy Mayor, and the Farmer's Markets closures had killed the label's momentum. As an alternative to selling DBR, Peren offered to keep paying half of the asset fees on the mansion in exchange for using it. Dick vowed to "rise from the ashes" and twatted out "who wants to help me run the 4ths best label in the city". Reasoning that artists keep perceiving DBR as a stepping stone to Wu-Chang, Dick walked into the Cerberus Business Center looking for a name and backing the same way that Chang Gang backed Wu-Chang. Bunny wished Peren well and opted to stay on as a DBR artist, but admitted to lacking motivation as DBR's CEO.

On August 21, 2022, newly re-elected Mayor Mickey S paid Down Bad Records a stipend of $850,000 from the State Account for radio play royalties from July 2022 and August 2022.

The End of Down Bad Records
On September 6, 2022, Dick sold the Down Bad Records mansion back to the state for $804,000. Later that day while shopping for a Vinewood house, CEO Bunny's husband Sexton Hardcastle found the DBR mansion for sale and bought it for 1.2 million dollars. After Bunny happened to decline Harry Martinez' offer to sign to Wu-Chang Records, Hardcastle surprised her with the DBR mansion. Doe's final single for DBR was "embraces". Given that DBR employees could still create tapes with the tape press in the backyard, Bunny approached Dick about transferring ownership to her so she could create her own independent record label named Perennial Music Studios. When Dick refused--citing the time she refused to share ownership of Bahama Mamas West with him and Rocky Topps--Bunny quit the company.

On September 7, 2022, Bahama Mamas co-owner Thomas Dwayne and DBR co-owner Richard Chiclets pitched a breakthrough idea to BM co-owner Bunny and Nancy Drew to move the Down Bad Records tape press into Bahama Mamas and rebrand the record label. This merger would allow signed music artists to clock into Bahama Mamas while they made music, similar to how Wu-Chang Records and MDM Records artists could clock into their studios. That same day, Nancy secured the relocation of the tape press and DBR storage to Bahama Mamas. Starting in the next tsunami, the tape press and merchandise creator became available for use on the Bahama Mamas DJ station. However, Thomas left the city and never followed through on their planned Barnote Studios record label.

After Wu-Chang Records CEO Harry Martinez convinced Bunny to join Wu-Chang as an artist, he bought and acquired Down Bad Records from Richard Chiclets on December 8, 2022 for one million dollars as a sister record label for their Wu-Chang interns. However, Harry wound up leaving Wu-Chang and the city before a judge could formally transfer ownership of DBR to him. Harry's intended ownership subsequently transferred to Wu-Chang owner Mr. K and the company has been inactive since. K was not aware of his co-ownership of Down Bad Records until he was made aware of it by Molly Rollin on July 2, 2023.

On September 27, 2023, Bunny, Isabella Long, and Thomas Dwayne sold the Bahama Mamas nightclub to Pitchers, Nicholas Simone, and Michael Simone. Subsequently when the interior of the nightclub got completely remodeled, the Down Bad Records tape press got removed.

Released Songs
Official Down Bad Records Catalogs on SoundCloud: Season 2 | Season 3