REVIEW: DIDDY - THE LOVE ALBUM: OFF THE GRID

4/5

Certified Lover Boy.

What is love? The artist formerly known as the 'Shiny Suit Man', Sean John Combs has renamed himself more times than he's retired from the game he helped revolutionize like the MJ of his times. Jordan or Jackson. They used to call the hip-hop entrepreneur and designer "Puffy" for the way his chest stuck out when he was playing basketball. Now, the Notorious best friend of B.I.G. has changed his government name to Love. And you can't help but feel heart to that. Especially after debuting the change in a definitive Vanity Fair cover story last calendar. The former Bad Boy for life P. Diddy is back on Motown and his own self-titled record label to give us 'The Love Album: Off The Grid' (still under the name Diddy, because you know how people get confused these days). This is his first album since 2010s 'Last Train To Paris', as a part of the Diddy Dirty Money collective. And his first solo since the club 'Press Play' of 2006. Although we must say 2015's 'MMM (Money Making Mitch)' mixtape feels like an actual album and one of his best ever too.

All-stars? The-Dream, Herb Alpert, Nova Wav, Busta Rhymes, Dawn Richard, Kalenna, Nija, Jozzy, Jacquees, Fabolous, Swae Lee, Summer Walker, French Montana, the Weeknd, 21 Savage, Justin Bieber, Jazmine Sullivan, Ty Dolla Sign, Kehlani, Coco Jones, Kalan.FrFr, K-Ci, Mary J. Blige, Teyana Taylor, Jeremih, Burna Boy, Babyface, John Legend, and H.E.R. They're all here. But none of them shine as bright as the most famous face in all of hip-hop, celebrating its 50th anniversary and a wonderful weekend that sees Nas complete his 'Magic' trilogy with Hit-Boy like a 'King's Disease', not eight weeks after the last one. The era of Love is here as Diddy dubs this, "a journey of retreating from the craziness of the world with a partner by shutting out all the distractions to just love on one another." And how sweet it is, really smoothing itself out to become an 80+ minute playlist of the year. R&B is well and truly back with the Dream like opening of 'Brought My Love' with that aforementioned Atlanta hitmaker and Herb Alpert. All before NOVA WAV partners up with Diddy to ask 'What's Love' all about. 

Yet this album really gets going when we truly go off the grid to 'Deliver Me' with a brilliant Busta Rhymes and Dawn Richard and Kalenna of Dirty Money fame track. Love bringing back the 'I Love You Baby' lyrics off his classic July anniversary celebrating debut 'Now Way Out' with Ma$e, The Lox and the late, great Black Rob. Singing, "It took a while to peep your style/Miss out bein' workin', low profile, single house in Staten Island/I'm in Manhattan while them same cats you sent to get me, boo/Is on they way to get you, f#####' with you." A music montage like his VMA career retrospect performance. It's that Dirty Money, mother...shut your mouths. Nija 'Stay(s) Awhile' for a cool two minutes as you relax your mind and let your conscience be free, rolling with the sounds of the one who invented the remix. It's a 'Homecoming' that like Jozzy (who comes back to tell you, 'It Belongs To You') begs for the love lost with a bold and beautiful brood over a beat that warns you of those Biggie days. Fabolous and Jacquees 'Pick Up' on a track that you would trade it all for with nothing phoned in. The grid belongs to the globe. This album of actual love, belongs to you. Taking the lead to the 'Tough Love' with Swae Lee, this is the type of relationship that doesn't hide its phone from its lover. Instead, it just puts it down.

'Stay Long' like the record with Summer Walker, or walking through the actual season in question, that's still here like the shirts on your backs, and the nostalgia will take you back to the backstreets of a Blackstreet vocoder that begged you not to leave me, girl. Like the first fresh air of a summer breeze the Isleys used to sing about like jasmine in your mind. But it's the sampling of the iconic Phil Collins drums that you can really feel in the air tonight of the sensational single 'Another One Of Me' featuring favourite friend French Montana, rapper of the moment 21 Savage and what is said to be the last collaboration with Canadian and global icon The Weeknd. That is, unless, Daft Punk put those helmets back on. "Dear Heavenly Father/Yeah, I pray you find love in the pieces of me that's left (Ooh-ooh)/Feel it in your soul, it separates from your flesh (Ooh)/The nights that I cried alone, they taught me best (Ooh)/Anybody shine like this, they mighty blessed/But sometimes, you gotta go through the dark to manifest (Ooh)/Yeah, turn me up (Turn me up)/Yo, sometimes, you gotta through the dark to manifest (Ooh)/Sometimes, you gotta smile through the agony and the stress", Love tells anyone wanting to follow his blueprint to Jay-Z like billionaire boys club success. Take that, take that, take that.

As we hit Side B like your old tape decks coming out of a 50-year boom box, even Love's 'Intermissions' are inspired. Not to mention some of the most mesmerizing moments of a matured Justin Bieber, if we're talking about iconic Canadians. The B-side really wins again with the great Jazmine Sullivan as we 'Need Somebody', even if it's only for one night of love like Luther. "We both grown/We both grown, and we know how it feels when we're feelin' somebody/It's a natural thing/'Cause the body's a thing that we shouldn't be ashamed of/And no one's to blame, so we shouldn't be ashamed of it, oh", Sullivan seductively sings on a brood that burns the midnight oil as you stay up skin to skin in the sweat of the sunset. But that's between 'Bosses In Love'. 'Mind Your Business' like another hallmark highlight with Kehlani and Ty Dolla $ign. All before Jozzy returns again with another 'Nasty' interlude from the nasty boy. Dolla $ign backs on another track, back with Coco Jones, 'Reachin'' on something that sounds like his sweet 'Remember' remix with South Korean songstress KATIE. "Ain't no goodnight, without you on the FaceTime", he waxes lyrical for those who understand the love. The 'I Need A Girl' singer then gives us Part 1 of 'Stay' with Kalan.FrFr, K-Ci Hailey (of JoJo, 'All My Life' fame) and Jeremih (who also cuts a heartbreaking 'Boohoo'). But for an amazing album of accomplished collaborations, albeit with some milk carton (especially when it comes to New York's finest), what's the 411?

Mary J. Blige reunites with the 'Love and Life' of the perfect pair's best work since that album from the Queen of hip-hop soul. Baby don't go, sampling the classics, for another one on the best coast of this Compact Disc (if they still make those in your Tower Records (here, home in Tokyo, but lost in New York)) that critics will say should trim the fat, albeit we love to see it. Because the higher Diddy and Love gets the 'Closer To God' he gets with Teyana Taylor on a soulful love that feels like one of the greats. But after the 'Burna Boy' interlude and before the classic closer of 'Space' that still loves H.E.R., it's the beautiful and heartbroken tribute to the late love of Kim Porter with Babyface and John Legend that really strikes the deepest chord on this Jordan digits collection. "Seven days, and/Six nights/Waiting on your sound/That I can't quite live without, yeah/You around?/I don't wanna lose you/I don't wanna be without ya/I just wanna lay by your side/I wanna see lovе through your eyes/Tonight, just and I/For all my life/'Til thе day I die", Face feels. As Legend laments, "Swear to God when I'm near you (Swear to God when I'm near you)/It sounds like Heaven when I hear you/And it rush deep in my heart." Summoning the spirit and the heart and soul in royal red that strikes you like the blood of love. The heart never truly dies. Love is here to stay. Off the grid and off the chain. Let Love rule. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Deliver Me (Feat. Busta Rhymes, Dirty Money, Dawn Richard & Kalenna)', 'Need Somebody (Feat. Jazmine Sullivan)', 'Kim Porter (Feat. Babyface & John Legend)'.