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Regardless of how you feel about his music, nobody can deny the business man and walking promotion machine that is Diddy. Truth of the matter is, many out there don’t really love Diddy musically, beyond the original Biggie Bad Boy era, but we follow him regardless to see if he will strike gold once again. Not to sound cliche, but he can’t stop, won’t stop.

With his latest LP, Last Train To Paris, Diddy attempts to create a concept album, a sort of off-the-beaten path musical experiment similar to Kanye’s 808 & Heartbreaks, with the mellowed out vibe of Drake’s Thank Me Later. That being said, he still subscribes the usual Diddy formula – getting top tier talent to write and produce most of the album for him – which ends up with mixed results. The main difference this time around that this is a collaborative effort with R&B duo, Dirty Money.

At times, they completely nail it. We saw this on the group’s breakout single, “Angels”, which took the early 90′s Bad Boy formula of rocking over a classic instrumental, in this case Jay-Z’s “Where I’m From”, with added verses from Rick Ross and B.I.G. The same could be said for their second single, “Hello, Good Morning”, the up-tempo club-knocker with T.I. where Diddy almost plays hype man to his guests. On some of the album’s mellower selections, he also prevails, such as the piano driven “I Hate That You Love Me”, which is only missing a verse from Common, or the bedroom-ready “Shades” (feat. Lil Wayne, Justin Timberlake, Bilal, & James Fauntleroy), that could have easily been on J.T.’s Futuresexlovesounds.

Granted, drawing on the strengths of his collaborators his always been his downfall, making this record – like many of his others – sound like a compilation. “Your Love” could have easily been Trey Songz single, “Loving You No More” Drake’s, or “Someone To Love Me”, Usher’s, as each sound like bonus tracks from their respective LP’s. Other times, things just come off as plain corny, such as the introspective “Coming Home” or the over-”motherfucker”-ed “Ass On The Floor”. Diddy’s contributions to any of the above mentioned songs show his limits as both a performer and a lyricist.

Despite this not being the best album of the year, Diddy tried, making this his most ambitious LP yet. It’s no fault of Dirty Money (there’s some talent there) or any of the producers/ghost-writers involved, as Diddy has the resources to get the best production money can buy. But at the end of the day, we all know how these things are put together, and just can’t be fooled.

In association with TWV.

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7 Responses to "Diddy + Dirty Money – “Last Train To Paris” – @@1/2"
  • DJ TEKNISION says:

    WOW.. This review is surprising. I thought hiphopsite was quickly becoming the place where wack rappers and bad albums can get that CLASSIC status.

  • Da streetz says:

    I’m sure puffy’s shit is whack. It’s still nice for y’all to bring 97 back and hate on this clown. Too bad y’all gave drake classic status.

  • SR says:

    the albume cover looked promesing, as a serious album and not some club banger crap… to bad it’s not.

  • d-bo says:

    Haven’t heard the album and don’t care if I ever do. Puff been wack since he came out. I never copped any of his shit. Bad Boy was like the Young Money of the 90s… and that’s not a good thing.

    On a side note, Ghost’s album was dope. Even Cappadonna and U-God sounded good on those beats. Cop that shit.

  • IllicitMC says:

    I hate to be that guy, but Diddy’s album isn’t that bad. And honestly Puff isn’t whack. Okay, he is never going to get 5 mics in The Source (well, he may, The Source is pretty whack), but Puff changed the hip-hop landscape back in Bad Boy’s Golden Era. On LTTP he attempts to do it again, but with mix results.

    The people who hate on Puff are still going to rock to his music in the club, or when they’re with a lady. Puff is trying to make you think, he is trying to move your feet, and even when he attempts to be serious, or make a serious song i.e. ‘Loving You No More’, he still makes it so you can rock to it too.

    I’m not dissing the review or reviewer, I am just saying, Puff isn’t whack…well except for when he came out with that ‘Forever’ album. That was weak.

  • Comments (7)

    DJ TEKNISION

    December 22nd, 2010 at 12:04 pm