HIP-HOP
It must be nice to have a BlackBerry contacts file like Diddy's. On this, his first album since 2001's lackluster The Saga Continues ..., the hip-hop mogul gets by with a ton of help from friends like Christina Aguilera, Jamie Foxx and OutKast's Big Boi. In fact, aside from the disc's intro and an interlude, there are only two tracks credited solely to Diddy ("The Future" and "Hold Up"), and both of those will have you pressing the skip button. Elsewhere, though, he largely compensates for his shortcomings as a rapper thanks to a fresh infusion of electronica beats and faster tempos—somebody's clearly been listening to Gnarls Barkley—as well as some inspired guest turns. Three R&B divas—Brandy, Keyshia Cole and Diddy protégée Mary J. Blige—effectively hijack the CD on consecutive cuts "Thought You Said," "Last Night" and "Making It Hard," respectively.
DOWNLOAD THIS: "Last Night"
