G. Dep joined the Bad Boy family during the rebuilding years following
the Notorious B.I.G.'s death in the late '90s. Hailing from the same Harlem streets of fellow Bad Boy rapper
Black Rob,
Dep, aka the Deputy, first appeared on
Rob's 1999 debut album and subsequently continued to make cameos with other Bad Boy artists. Following
Puff Daddy's conversion to
P. Diddy, Bad Boy entered its
Saga Continues era, beginning with
Diddy's album of the same name.
Dep played an important role in this Bad Boy era, being second only to
Black Rob as
Diddy's right-hand man.
Dep's debut album,
Child of the Ghetto, appeared in late 2001, featuring "Let's Get It," one of the better songs on the previously released
Saga Continues, along with the lead single "Special Delivery."
Child of the Ghetto, like most Bad Boy album releases of the time, didn't make a lasting impression, however, and
Dep fell by the wayside. He eventually resurfaced in 2007 on
Bad Boy, an independently released album also featuring
Loon, another Bad Boy casualty. ~ Jason Birchmeier