Product Description

'Press Play' is the fifth album from American hip hop superstar Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs. The album sees Combs continue with the slick mainstream hip hop that has graced his previousalbums, and he is joined once again by a large amount of guest vocalists and producers including Jamie Foxx, Christina Aguilera, Brandy, Mary J. Blige, Kanye West, Will.I.Am and Havoc. The singles 'Come To Me' and 'Tell Me' are included.

Track Listing

1. Testimonial (Intro)
2. We Gon' Make It featuring Jack Knight
3. I Am (Interlude)
4. The Future
5. Come To Me featuring Nicole Scherzinger
6. Tell Me featuring Christina Aguilera
7. Wanna Move featuring Big Boi, Ciara and Scar
8. Diddy Rock featuring Timbaland, Twista and Shawnna
9. Claim My Place (Interlude)
10. Everything I Love featuring Nas and Cee-Lo
11. Special Feeling featuring Mika Lett
12. Crazy Thang (Interlude)
13. After Love featuring Keri
14. Through The Pain (She Told Me) featuring Mario Winans
15. Thought You Said featuring Brandy
16. Last Night featuring Keyshia Cole
17. Makin' It Hard featuring Mary J. Blige
18. Partners For Life featuring Jamie Fox

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14745 in Music
• Released on: 2006-10-16
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics

Amazon.co.uk Review
Heralding yourself as "the man who provided more jobs for blacks than armed service" takes some sort of ego, but if Press Play - the first album in five years from music business CEO turned rapper/producer Sean 'P Diddy' Combs - suggests he's as lacking in modesty as ever. But at least he's got the tunes to back it up. Forget the schmaltzy tone and sampled hooks of "I'll Be Missing You": Press Play is a hip-hop album to the core, built on a sturdy foundation of punchy beats and blippy, retro-sounding electronics - Timbaland/Neptunes-inspired, but by no means copyism. An impressive line-up of guests are deployed wisely: there's blink-and-you'll-miss-'em cameos from Outkast's Big Boi ("Wanna Move"), Nas and Gnarls Barkley's Cee-Lo ("Everything I Love"), Timbaland and Twista (the edgy, downbeat "Diddy Rock") - and even Christina Aguilera, who sounds anything but the pop puppet atop the body-rocking beats of "Tell Me". What's more, Diddy can really rap now - perhaps in part thanks to his decision to hire a team of ghostwriters ("The Future", in particular, bears the unmistakable influence of Pharaohe Monch). There's weak moments - the jazz-funk tinged "Special Feeling" is the sort of honeyed crooner Justin Timberlake could pull off, but Diddy struggles with. All the same, this is an album that'll please fans and surprise naysayers. --Louis Pattison

Customer Reviews

Surprisingly good
When i bought this album, i didn't expect much. Its Diddy, not a great lyricist but i thought it was worth a shot with all the guest appearances he has on the album. But clearly i made the right choice, because almost every song is a great hit.
Stand out tracks are Wanna Move, Thought you said, Tell me, Come to Me, Last Night, Everything i Love, Diddy Rock and Special Feeling. The rest are great tracks and some are memorable beats taken from various places similar to how Kanye West re-produced the beat for Touch the sky. Timbaland's beat on Diddy rock is fantastic.

I HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THIS ALBUM A LOT RECENTLY AND I'M ENJOYING IT
Diddy spent the five years since the release of his previous solo album making (and shelving) a gospel album, dabbling (or flailing) in dance music, running in the New York City Marathon, developing a perfume called (almost unbelievably) Unforgivable, and undoubtedly doing many other important things. His Bad Boy empire settled into a severe lull until the summer of 2006, when Yung Joc's "It's Going Down," Cassie's "Me&U," and the Danity Kane album revived the label. Press Play is well timed, and it's also well endowed: the roster of collaborators and guests is both extensive and impressive enough to entice the severely Diddy-resistant. Peculiarly enough, Diddy's practically the opening act on his own album. During the first several tracks, he's the dominant voice, dishing out the expected variations on his wildly hubristic boasts of old, and that includes a baffling gritted-teeth threat like "America, fall back, you can't stop me/Got a thing for pigeon-toed chicks who walk knock-kneed." On his own, he does not deliver. Around track six, the guests begin to take over the 80-minute program, and the album morphs into a theatrical examination of love and romance that is partly randomized but mostly tremendous. Apparently inspired by his relationships with ex-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez and his wife, Diddy and his shifting cast of fellow songwriters/producers pen a series of songs -- you could almost call it a suite -- emboldened by a round of knockout performances from several women. Multi-threat up-and-comer Keri Hilson (watch for her), Brandy, Keyshia Cole, and Mary J. Blige all take lead roles and make up the heart of the album. This last half-hour of the album, with the exception of a couple instances where Diddy could've left everything in the hands of the vocalists, teeters on the edge of brilliance. Timbaland (with partner Nathanial "Danja" Hill) and Mario Winans (with Diddy) deliver robust, imaginative productions that lay the majority of modern-day R&B tracks to waste (glints of left-field dance music and the new wave that inspired it are incorporated to great effect), while Rich Harrison expectedly and thrillingly blends the blaring with the lush behind Blige. The rest of the album is worth talking about, as it involves noteworthy appearances from Christina Aguilera, Ciara, Nas, Big Boi, Cee-Lo, and several others, but it's less risky and not nearly as remarkable as the closing stretch. All told, the number of memorable hooks on display here is surprising.

Dear God, this is awful.
First off, I gotta say I got a lotta respect for Puff back in the day. When he had guys like Biggie, Ma$e & Black Rob in the Bad Boy family, dude was hot and I would really recommend No Way Out to see what P is really capable of. This album is first class crap, and P really disappointed me.

OK to be fair, the album starts off pretty strong. We Gon' Make it with Jack Knight uses the same sample (can't recall the song) as Jay's recent joint Show Me What You Got. It's pretty good, as is The Future and Hold Up with Angela Hunt.

Then he dips down into this mainstream bull. Nicole Scherzinger dominates Come To Me, and it sounds like Diddy only features on it. Tell Me is equally bland. Wanna Move with Big Boi & Ciara sends me to sleep. P. Diddy rock is alright. I never knew Shawnna could spit before this track, and Timbaland did ok. Everything I Love with Cee-Lo (of Gnarls Barkley, Goodie Mobb) and Nas is a decent track but you can tell Nas wrote Diddy's lines. A good track.

I really like what will.i.am did on Special Feeling, he really makes upbeat tracks and this one is no different. Another good track. The next four tracks are pretty samey and boring. I skipped them all; pretty unlistenable. Making It Hard is one of the highlights of the album! The old duo, Puff & Mary rock this track and I bought the album based off this. The last track with Jamie Foxx is pretty crap as well.

Overall I was really disappointed with this album. Puff has really fallen off and just buy No Way Out instead. Infinitely better.