ROC4LIFE

What in the hell is up with Sean “Diddy” Combs? Why is he yelling in the street like a hoodlum? Oh, that’s right. He’s back on his Diana Ross steez again. Last Train To Paris is finally hitting stores next Tuesday (Dec. 14) housing 16 tracks and offering features from Chris Brown, Usher, and Drake.

To get the word out about the album, Diddy’s recently released video of him harrassing random people informing everybody about it including random white people on the street and the guy who runs ice cream truck on cold ass November nights. He’s back on his Diddy sh-t! Check him out in action below:

According to the video, Diddy had to move out to L.A. for 18 months in order to record Last Train To Paris returning just in time for the holidays to promote it in New York City. The cost of albums these days is equivalent to two buy-one-get-one-free classic chicken sandwiches and a soft drink from Burger King. And you know the country is suffering from a 9.8% unemployment rate.

Is buying Last Train To Paris really worth losing out on 4 chicken sandwiches? The answer is yes and here are the 6 reasons why:

Reason #1: Diddy Wasn’t Confident Dirty Money Could Sell Without Features

Diddy is one cocky man and with reason, but anytime you see a debut album with a ton of features, in this case 12, it’s a sign that somebody wasn’t confident about the ability of their brand. For over a year Diddy has been force feeding us the idea of this funky group called Dirty Money and fired off “Angels” and “Hello Good Morning” to prove they were worthy. But it was a slow buy. Even when Ann Wintor did Diddy a solid and did a fashion feature of Diddy-Dirty Money in a Vogue issue, the train station benches got more exposure than the other two bandmates Kaleena and Dawn! From the sound of it, the girls could really do some good damange on a track if given the opportunity— and they do throughout the album, thank God— but just in case they were rejected, Diddy called in favors to make sure the album went over smoothly. But were 12 features really necessary?

If Swizz Beatz, Usher, Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, Justin Timerbalake, Biggie, Trey Songz, T.I., Wiz Khalifa, Skylar Gray, Bilal, and Drake are all passengers on this Last Train To Paris, who and where the hell is the conductor to tell them the train is too full?

Reason #2: “Looking For Love” (feat. Usher)

When was the last time Usher and Diddy did a track together? “I Need A Girl,” right? Well this track isn’t a sequel to their epic 2002 classic collaboration, but this is definitely a 2010 version of what they both are offering in this stage of their careers. Playing around with some retro keys from the 80s, “Looking For Love” offers us a peek into what The track is calling all girls in the club who are looking for love and at the very end of the song Diddy says “Fuck ‘em!” This track does not feature the Dirty Money back-up singers.

Reason #3: “Strobe Lights” (feat. Lil Wayne):

This is auto-tune heaven! You know you missed Weezy rapping in auto-tune and he sure ’nuff delivers on this track. It’s as if “Strobe Lights” was created just for Weezy. Was this a last minute “welcome home” gift from Diddy?

Reason #4 : Diddy heard Timbaland’s Shockvalue and stole his steez

Take a close listen to Last Train To Paris and it’s 12 guest appearances from T.I., Lil Wayne (twice), Chris Brown, Justin Timbalake, Drake, etc. and you’ll soon see it’s just the cool step-sister of Timbaland’s amazing album Shockvalue. What makes Last Train To Paris even more of a comparison to Shockvalue is the Justin Timberlake collaboration and the sweet vocals of Kaleena and Dawn sounding eerily like Keri Hilson!

Reason #5 : Diddy-Dirty Money is the Krik Franklin & The Family of Hip-Hop

Diddy clearly knows what his lane is in the group and he sticks to it throughout the album. He talks/rap over the funky beats, Dawn and Kaleena carries the song with their in-sync vocals. There are exceptions, though….

Reason #6: Diddy Learns Lesson From Singing With Too Much Auto-tune On “Angels”

The exceptions are seen in the songs “Change” and on “Loving You No More” where he dramatically tones down and softens his vocals in comparison to the car wreck performed on “Angels”. Is he channeling Sting or George Michael? It’s not like they could actually hold an impressive tune, but they still made amazing music. Diddy singing soft and calculated can offer that type of sound, in the hip-hop way, of course.

This is enough evidence to prove that Diddy understood his mistake on “Angels” when he sung, in auto-tune, just to prove he could offer something electrically different in this horizontal world of Hip-Hop. [That and Jay-Z's "D.O.A."]
Make sure you cop Last Train To Paris on December 14!

-Monique “Marvelous Mo” Balcarran | Email: News@Roc4Life.com