Diddy - Press Play
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arts.guardian.co.uk Rating: 0
It might be deduced that Combs does not really have a way with words. That is not necessarily a problem in professions such as recording executive, fashion designer, television producer, restaurateur, or indeed, if the US sales of Unforgivable are anything to go by, perfumier. But it's a bit of a shocker if you persist on supplementing the income from your record labels, fashion houses, television shows, restaurants and perfumes by forging a career as a rapper. The five years that have passed since his last album, The Saga Continues, suggested that Combs himself had noted his own shortcomings as a hip-hop artist and decided to shift his musical focus elsewhere. There was a putative attempt at a gospel album. After visiting Ibiza with legendary musical avatar Lady Victoria Hervey, Combs announced his new dance-inspired direction, but a single, Let's Get Ill, scraped to No 25, while an album featuring contributions from Felix Da Housecat and Madonna collaborator Stuart Price remains unreleased.To add insult to injury, a dance producer launched a legal attack on Combs's stage name: it has been shortened to Diddy in America but not in the UK after objections from handbag-house producer Richard "Diddy" Dearlove. Given that Combs has been responsible for more than $100m in total record sales and that Richard "Diddy" Dearlove made No 52 for one week in 1994 with a single called Give Me Love, Combs's decision to settle out of court seemed surprising: where was the ruthless spirit befitting a global media mogul? A rash rumour abounds that he may have been scared off by the threat of a more serious lawsuit, this time claiming trademark infringement, from a large jam butty mining conglomerate based in Knotty Ash.Any fears that these incidents may have dented Combs's famed self-confidence are dispelled by Press Play's spoken-word introduction, Testimonial, which features Combs congratulating himself for being born. "Who else put flows out and put clothes out?" he demands on We Gon' Make It, an odd choice of boast given that the answer is, well, virtually everyone. Most rappers have barely picked up a microphone before they start planning their own clothing range; Nelly has his own energy drink. "So there you have it," says a female voice at the song's close. "Words from a wise, great king."A wise, great king can afford the best equerries, so Press Play boasts a glittering cast of producers and guest artists, including Kanye West, Timbaland, the Neptunes, OutKast's Big Boi, Nas, Christina Aguilera and Mary J Blige. Their contributions are largely spectacular: in marked contrast to Combs's pop-fixated previous efforts, Press Play sounds like genuinely forward-thinking music. West's Everything I Love is fabulous, the bombast of its brass riff and Hammond organ vamping undercut by a mournful backing vocal from Gnarls Barkley's Cee-Lo. Making It Hard multitracks Mary J Blige's vocals to thrilling effect. The Future bears a faint hint of Combs's interest in techno in its relentless, clattering backing track. Hold Up features children's vocals cut up into hypnotic, staccato abstraction, almost captivating enough to divert attention from Combs's rotten metaphors (at one point he appears to praise "chicks" who, bafflingly, "make a nigger's dick hard like a Guinness"). And that's the album's fatal flaw. The musical brilliance that surrounds him only serves to...
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