Jay Z and Puff Daddy Beef
Music
A Rapper Returns; And so Does a Hustler
In the late 1990'due south Jay-Z and Puff Daddy (as he was then known) were ii of the biggest names in hip-hop. And to nonfans who only glimpsed them on magazine covers or when flipping by MTV, they probably seemed pretty interchangeable: a couple of flashy New York stars whose ubiquity was proof of hip-hop's standing rise.
Just fifty-fifty then, no casual listener — let lonely an uncasual one — would ever take confused the 2. And since then, they have come to occupy most opposite positions in the hip-hop universe. Jay-Z long ago proved himself to exist one of the greatest rappers of all fourth dimension; fans pore over his meticulous rhymes. Diddy (every bit Sean Combs is now known) doesn't get the same sort of respect: he's an nth-rate rapper but a outset-rate hustler; he helped turn the Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige into stars, and more recently he has expanded his definition of hip-hop mogulhood to include running the New York marathon, appearing on Broadway, overseeing MTV reality shows and advertising fast food on YouTube. (From a recent video: "It's your boy Diddy, I'k here at my local Burger Rex, about to order me a Whopper.")
Even so, their careers take often intersected, and now they're intersecting once more. Later on a few years off, both Jay-Z and Diddy are releasing new music, both hoping to engineer triumphant comebacks. Clearly they're non in the same league. But information technology's no coincidence that nearly a decade after both of them became stars, they're yet in the same game.
Prototype 
Jay-Z's retirement began in 2003, after the release of "The Black Album." Though it didn't, really: the collaborations kept coming, and his new position as president of Def Jam Records helped continue him visible. More remarkable is the mode other rappers go on talking well-nigh him.
The Atlanta rapper T. I. paid tribute by sampling Jay-Z'due south voice for one of his breakthrough hits, "Bring 'Em Out." (Vibe magazine reaffirmed Jay-Z'southward role as a hip-hop yardstick by putting T. I. on the embrace, accompanied by the question, "Is he the Jay-Z of the Southward?") Lil Wayne, the surging New Orleans rapper, sprinkles his rhymes with Jay-Z quotations, hoping some of Jay-Z's reputation volition rub off on him. (A chip of it has, and equitably so.) The Compton rapper the Game has followed a greasier strategy: he says things that could be construed every bit disrespectful, then quickly backtracks. On his new unmarried, "It's Okay (One Claret)," he announces nevertheless over again — and out of nowhere — that he has "no beef with Jay."
So when Jay-Z finally returned, a few days earlier than his record company expected, information technology was like hearing a hip-hop stock character coming dorsum to life. His new album, "Kingdom Come up," isn't due in stores until November. 21, and he is on a world tour. (He is in South Africa this week, though a scheduled gig in Shanghai was recently canceled; the promoter said Chinese officials cited Jay-Z's vulgar language.) But his new single, "Testify Me What You Got," leaked to Web sites and radio stations last Fri. This week the album'due south title rail started circulating. And judging from the message boards and radio station callers, the principal reaction was relief.
Relief, that is, considering the songs are hard and witty and unpredictable and nimble; he still sounds like the guy all the other rappers want to be. In "Show Me What You Got," Just Blaze provides a blizzard of sampled drum beats and horn blasts, while Jay-Z rhymes near a new car and a newer friend: "Truth or dare, mami, heed and learn/I got a drop, I just took off the top — it's your turn." And in "Kingdom Come" he slyly alludes to the Bankhead, the Atlanta neighborhood that has spawned a series of hip-hop dances: "I got 'em dancing on the banquette/ Similar they from Bankhead."
When Diddy is mentioned in someone else's rhyme, information technology's non always a compliment. Rappers adore his perceived wealth, only they don't envy his reputation. Diddy produced the soundtrack to the motion picture "Bad Boys Two," which included a fifty Cent rail known for short as "Realest." Just fifty Cent mocked him anyway: "I run the city/And I don't dance effectually like Diddy."
Diddy hasn't released an album in five years. And although he helped push his teen-popular grouping, Danity Kane, to the top of the album charts, he has besides learned to lie depression. Two acts on his label, Bad Boy — the R&B singer Cassie and the popular-friendly rapper Yung Joc — scored summer hits without much visible interest from him.
Diddy'due south 4th anthology, "Press Play" (Bad Boy/Atlantic), hits shops on Tuesday. It ranges from "The Time to come," an oddly dour rail produced by Havoc of Mobb Deep, to "Last Night," which Diddy sings — sings! — alongside Keyshia Cole. The all-time songs environment Diddy's clumsy verses with inventive beats: Timbaland helps concoct the moody, mechanical-sounding "Later on Love"; Mario Winans creates an airy double-speed rhythm for "Thought You lot Said," featuring Brandy. The worst ones lean also heavily on Diddy'due south rhymes or, more wincingly, his lyrics.
This is a garish, puzzling album, and it isn't the sort of CD people pick upward when they desire to explicate what'southward not bad most hip-hop. But if Diddy has stuck around, it's because the genre needs him. Hip-hop exists not merely because of virtuosos like Jay-Z but likewise because of hucksters like Diddy, entertaining and stubborn self-promoters who simply refuse to go abroad or shut up, at least for very long.
Role of what'south interesting near Jay-Z and Diddy is that they sometimes seem eager to switch places: Jay-Z is always reminding listeners that he's a hustler, non just a recording artist; meanwhile, on Diddy's Web site, at that place'south a section devoted to Diddy "the artist."
Beneath this odd function reversal lurks the sneaking suspicion that the two roles are related, and that every rapper is a bit of both. Jay-Z is rightly historic for his boggling breath control, while Diddy just huffs and puffs near his own Diddy-ness. (And, these days, well-nigh Burger Male monarch as well.) In more than ways than 1, hip-hop runs on hot air.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/12/arts/music/12sann.html
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