Diddy is still doing it...
New entry from my blog, "Speech Is My Hammer..." (link in the sig)
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Hate on Diddy all you want. Hell, I will myself.
* With the runaway success of his Sean John clothing line, Justin's restaurant and most recently, his Unforgiveable cologne, Diddy seems to have completely forgotten about what gave him the leverage to take on all of these other projects in the first place: Bad Boy Entertainment. Whether you blame it on the artists' personal circumstances or Diddy's executive ineptitude, the label has lost damn near everybody they had that actually made dope music: G. Dep (who was Bad Boy's best MC aside from B.I.G., in my opinion), Carl Thomas, 112, Faith Evans, and others that I can't remember.
* Instead, he seems to simply prop up talentless, trend-of-the-moment artists like Boyz N Da Hood, Cassie, Yung Joc, B5 and the countless Making The Band acts. Meanwhile, dope releases that actually deserve to be heard (i.e., Black Rob's The Black Rob Report), go virtually unnoticed.
* Many believe that dude is disrespecting his old friend's legacy, releasing posthumous releases that blatantly sway from the music Biggie would have made himself. *For the record, I liked a couple songs from the Born Again and DUETS albums, but both LPs lacked the coherency that Biggie thrived off of. Still, I'll admit that it shows how versatile Biggie's material is.*
* Dude seems shady as hell. Most people who give him props as a businessman haven't extensively worked with him, and nearly everyone who has worked with him either badmouths him (Mase, The LOX, Lil Cease, Diddy) or avoids talking about him altogether. To quote Nas, "I don't like the way P. Diddy did Shyne, with different lawyers."
But Diddy's doing his thug thizzle this year. This new songstress Cheri Dennis looks promising, and Mario Winans is a workhorse producer/singer/songwriter. Diddy actually got it right by whittling down Season Two's Da Band to the trio of Young City, Ness and Babs (OK, maybe not Young City, but that's not the point). Also, I just heard a new track by G. Dep on HipHopDX! I'm not sure if he's on Bad Boy, but if he is, it'd be great to see him get a second chance - hopefully, he receives the attention he deserves this time.
And his album, Press Play, is going to be ill, too. Peruse this tracklist, and peep the four songs on his MySpace page:
1. Testimonial (Intro)
2. We Gon' Make It (feat. Jack Knight)
3. I Am (Interlude)
4. The Future
5. Come To Me (Feat. Nicole Scherzinger)
6. Tell Me (Feat. Christina Aguilera)
7. Wanna Move (Feat. Big Boi, Ciara & Scar)
8. Diddy Rock (Feat. Timbaland, Twista & Shawnna)
9. Claim My Place (Interlude)
10. Everything I Love (Feat. Nas & Cee-Lo)
11. Special Feeling (Feat. Mika Lett)
12. Crazy Thang (Interlude)
13. After Love (Feat. Keri Hilson)
14. Through The Pain (She Told Me) (Feat. Mario Winans)
15. Thought You Said (Feat. Brandy)
16. Last Night (Feat. Keyshia Cole)
17. Makin' It Hard (Feat. Mary J Blige)
18. Partners For Life (Feat. Jamie Foxx)
That's a hell of a guest list. Just like he did with his last couple albums, Diddy did a great job of bringing on established guest MCs like Nas, Cee-Lo and Big Boi, and great hook singers like Mary J. Blige, Brandy and Jamie Foxx. You know his production is going to be on point, as usual. Plus, as usual, he doesn't write rhymes, he writes checks: for Common, Talib Kweli, Pharaohe Monch, Royce Da 5'9", to pen the lyrics for him. Diddy wasn't lying when he said, "It's All About The Benjamins:" he's got the bread to be able to purchase an ill album instead of making one. But the bottom line is, he's going to be putting out a quality product, so I'm not mad.
Please, he's the macaroni with the cheese.
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