Music Reviews
Puff Daddy "FOREVER" Rated= Explicit

Puff Daddy, that paradigmatic hip-hop producer and impresario of the mid-'90s, has long suffered from a chronic case of hitmaking-itis. He managed to make Biggie Smalls (a.k.a. Notorious B.I.G.), a round-the-way thug from Bed-Stuy, into a sexually desirable player, all through the power of recycled '70s funk.

Yet on this, his second solo effort, the magic touch seems to have worn somewhat thin. Rather than the guaranteed boogie of his debut album, No Way Out, Puff instead fakes the funk, taking cues from Southern bounce and churning out derivative songs that generally fail to capture the free-for-all attitude embodied by more capable producers like Mannie Fresh.

Puffy shines most when he sticks to the NY protocols he was crucial in establishing -- the morbid thug narratives of "Journey Through the Life" and, alarmingly, on the lead single "P.E. 2000," where the Bomb Squad gets filtered through sieves both musical and political. But unlike the classic soul Puffy loves so much, these samples wanna make you wince.

Susan Arnell
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