In the fall of 2006, I had just turned 15 and was a sophomore in high school. The kids I went to school with would all freely admit to listening to hip-hop but none of them outside literally one or two people whom I wouldn't befriend until much later actively paid attention to anything going on within the genre. As a result, the albums that I grew attached to at the time – Hell Hath No Fury, King, Doctor's Advocate, Blue Carpet Treatment, Like Father, Like Son, and obviously Press Play – were all ignored by my peers. That wasn't a bad thing. I nerded out in my own way. Press Play though wasn't exactly acknowledged by the culture, maybe because the hits weren't hits or because it was too experimental. What I'm trying to get at is even at the time it felt a little cult classic-y. That sentiment was never confirmed to me until I joined Twitter years later.
By 2006 the early 2000s Bad Boy roster had more or less dissolved. Press Play was a reintroduction for Diddy. The weird thing is the more I listen to it, the more I feel like there's nothing I could really fix. At least not at that time. This was before Lil Wayne got hot, so his verse didn't even make the album (but did stream on Diddy's MySpace page). But look at the lineup: Havoc, Just Blaze, Sean C & LV, Kanye West, Timbaland, Will.i.am, Rich Harrison. The man was trying to make a classic. I think the first misstep was the first two singles. "Come To Me" was pretty ehh. "Tell Me" was better but didn't really connect. We were just transitioning from that kind of sound working at all in the club. In retrospect, the features didn't jump off the page at the time but man: Big Boi, Ciara, Shawnna, Twista, Nas, Brandy, Mary J. Blige, Keyshia Cole! There was something there. There was magic there. The timing and the output just didn't quite match.
The purely rap songs are admirable, but I don't want to hear Puff rap words written by Pharoahe Monch and Nas. You have your uptempo section featuring some of Danja's first solo production credits. Then you have the truly experimental section, which was hit and miss both then and now. I think then part of the critique was that music did not allow for this due to general conservatism and maybe even some slight homophobia and masculine issues. If there's one clear miss, it's "Special Feeling." Will.i.am was on a roll but he also religiously underproduces and this one feels like it's at 40% of what it could have been.
The highlight in my opinion is the "Through the Pain (She Told Me)" - "Thought You Said" - "Last Night" arc. All produced by Diddy and Mario Winans, a team that is so under appreciated. Production-wise, melodically, the transitions between them, the gall to have Diddy sing on "Last Night," which peaked at #8 on the Hot 100. They were incredible. Like literal genius. That should have been in the album and in 2016 could be. People front like 808s invented singing when "Last Night" came three years prior.
The sad thing is that Diddy's later albums seem to hit right before they're meant to. Was this as good or at least as progressive as Last Train To Paris? Probably not. But if it came later it would have been a different album, an arguably better album and a much more appreciated work of art.
