Can Diddy Make a strong return by just pressing Play?

Here we go again, another soup of names put together by the man with the most connections in the business. Nineteen tracks of which four are solo including two interludes and the intro, the rest feature a few of Diddy’s MTV friends Twista, Shawna, Timbaland, Jack Knight, Nicole Scherzinger, Christina Aguilera, Big Boi, Ciara, Scar, Avant, Nas, Cee-Lo, Mika Lett, Keri, Mario Winans, Brandy, Keysha Cole, Mary J. Blige and Jamie Foxx. To promote the new project “Press Play” I have heard radio personalities go as far as saying “artists used to ask for your money, now they are giving you money to buy there albums” . No it’s not the old school tactic of fooling the sound scans (I would never imply that, although it is a thought, hmmm?). Promo gimmicks of giving away cash on the radio every hour on the hour till D (Diddy) Day. Could this be due to the drastic slow down of record sales or a new form of write off on for taxes? (more to come on that)

In my opinion, to date Diddy’s best solo album was executive produced by The Notorious Big, “No Way Out”. Now who knows if it was a way for them to keep the dough between them but coincidently it was a well composed project. I can’t say the same for the rest. For the same reason I have chosen to critique this album in the manner I have, I did not purchase the “Notorious BIG Tributes” album. Attempting to drag out the success of BIG by re-releasing tracks featuring artists who weren’t around during BIG’s reign is a lil weak.

Since day one rumors were spread that his talent was boroughed/ bought from unknown interns who were undoubtedly well paid but also played once there services were no longer needed or their heads got too big. As an early consumer of the hip-hop culture it was easy to confuse it with the music pouring out of Def Jam and other true Hip Hop labels by sneaking in Biggie Smalls, a Craig Mack and Mase with a sprinkle of Black Rob on top, to further confuse the hood. The Lox couldn’t take it anymore and lashed out with the “Free the Lox” campaign. This is one of the reasons why I consider Diddy to be a “Hip-Pop Mogul”. For what it’s worth I think the man found his hustle and stuck to it by creating a new genre. Not at all am I hating on a brother doing his thing (cause I’ve found myself many times boppin to a Diddy song). But it’s a lil weird to see a man that does nothing but boss people around, through money at situations to see if they go away, while acting like a gangsta and make money doing it. But it is dam entertaining to watch him do it and have a portion of his life played out in the media, that ladies and gents…is show bizz!!!