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Diddy The Bad Boy Family: The Saga Continues Nathan Rabin 41902 12:00AM Filed to: Music Music Music Review Save Music The Saga Continues Label Bad Boy Dirty South hustler Master P and Bad Boy wheeler-dealer Sean P. Diddy Combs come from different worlds, but both played major, largely negative roles in determining the course of hip-hop in the 90s. P. Diddys crimes against hip-hop are well known; the consummate East Coast insiders influence took the genres money fetish to surreal heights while setting the art of sampling back decades. Meanwhile, P helped popularize Southern rap through No Limit Records, a label known as much for its gaudy, Pen And Pixel album covers and assembly-line production technique as for the negligible quality of its music. Once powerhouses, Bad Boy and No Limit have struggled of late, the victims of overexposure and changing commercial trends. But rather than bow out gracefully, P chases one of hip-hops sillier recent trends with Lil Romeo, the debut of his 11-year-old son. While Lil Romeo sets its sights on the lucrative kiddie market, its first single (My Baby) takes a page from the P. Diddy handbook by grounding its depiction of the joys and sorrows of a pre-pubescent Lothario in the chorus of The Jackson 5s I Want You Back. But My Baby is a work of DJ Premier-like sophistication when compared to Make You Dance, which borrows Shaggys none-too-subtle co-opting of Angel Of The Morning, then throws in a huge chunk of Thats The Way (I Like It) for good measure. Lil Romeos screechy, high-pitched voice makes Lil Romeo sound like a Master P album performed by Alvin And The Chipmunks, but where his fathers rhymes are littered with criminal behavior and illicit drugs, Lil Romeo largely sticks to PG-rated subject matter. Puff Daddy The Saga Continues... Zip Crack House AndEven P gets into the family-friendly act, putting aside urgent concerns like checking his crack house and warning listeners that Some Of These Hoes Jack to counsel Romeo to stay in school and not use drugs. While Lil Romeos squeaky-clean rhymes (some of which boast of his above-average GPA) lend the album a welcome innocence, Lil Romeo is mostly just standard-issue Master P product: padded and busy, indifferently produced, and lyrically undernourished. Its difficult to say which is more dispiriting: that Romeo aspires to be nothing more than the poor mans Lil Bow Wow, or that he fails to achieve such a modest goal. Modesty is a word seldom used to describe the artist formerly known as Puff Daddy, under whose reign mainstream hip-hop became as big and dumb as a Las Vegas stage show. Diddy has left an indelible mark on popular culture, but on the mic, hes an eternal amateur, forever sounding like a slumming executive enrolled in the worlds longest hip-hop fantasy camp. Diddys vow to change his ways following his recent legal troubles, but The Saga Continues pretty much sticks to the Bad Boy formula, with materialistic rhymes that emanate brusque street swagger and beats that aim squarely for the dance floor. ![]() Diddy keeping it in the family, showcasing the Bad Boy roster, particularly Black Rob, G. Dep, and Mark Curry, all of whom consistently upstage their mealy-mouthed boss. P. Diddys tough-guy posturing is as laughable as everits all but impossible to respect a guy who brags about the checks he cuts for his ghostwritersbut his instinct for what gets bodies moving remains strong. Puff Daddy The Saga Continues... Zip Free Blast OffThe P. Diddy-free Blast Off and Kokane-assisted Lonely take Afrika Bambaataa-style electro-funk to shiny new places, while the Faith EvansCarl Thomas collaboration Emotional is a solid piece of hip-hop soul built around Dr. Dres sinister, hypnotic beat for The Firms Phone Tap. References to P. Diddys recent scandals pop up throughout, but nowhere does the mogul-turned-rapper seem more vulnerable than on I Need A Girl, in which the Puffster pledges his love for Jennifer Lopez with the slightly pathetic earnestness of a junior-high jock penning his first love letter. Though The Saga Continues marks a step up from the abysmal Forever, P. Diddy is still peddling some of the flashiest, biggest-budgeted mediocrity around. Advertisement Share This Story Get our newsletter Subscribe More from The A.V. Club The Great British Baking Show ups its challenge game for Chocolate Week Tatiana Maslany says shes not Disneys She-Hulk, actually The Haunting Of Bly Manor devastates and disturbs in its dizzying time-jump episode Estate of Holocaust survivor files legal complaint against Amazon over Borat sequel.
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