“Puff Daddy brings out the hypocrite in me. He is the man I love to hate. I dis him by day, and dance to him by night. He can’t rap and he lives off samples like water, but when his music comes on the radio, I’m not thinking about all that. I’m thinking about how much this song is making me dance. Yet, is it really Puffy that’s making me dance? Or is it Grandmaster Flash (who he sampled from in “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down”)? Is it David Bowie and Lisa Stansfield (who he sampled from in “Been Around The World”)? It is really hard to enjoy somebody’s music when it is not theirs at all.
There is no doubt that Puffy is a worthy producer, working with Mary J. Blige, Brian McKnight, Busta Rhymes and pretty much every other musician on the planet. According to Billboard charts, Puffy was responsible for 60 percent of 1997’s pop/hip hop songs. Impressive. He’s also a good businessman. But the talent stops there.
Listening to Puffy’s songs, I notice that there is no variety. Almost the same lyrics have been duplicated in every track, while a different beat has been added on. Not a new beat, just a different one, sampled from somewhere else. But the most tired part is the whole “bitches, ‘benzes and benjamins” routine. Who cares how many women he slept with, in which car and how much he made in the process?
He makes out like he’s from the “hood” in his song “Been Around the World” when he says,
“I was in one bedroom, dreaming of a million… a gentleman, living in tenements…”
Yet he told Rolling Stone magazine that he grew up in one of the better parts of Harlem and his mother also owned a house in Mt. Vernon. Whatever happened to keeping it real? I guess that phrase is as played out as Puffy’s lyrics. But maybe Puffy would say that he is not at fault because he doesn’t write all his own lyrics.
As a matter of fact, “I’ll Be Missing You,” was written entirely by others: the music by The Police, and the lyrics by Sting, T. Gaither and Faith Evans. If he had to write one single song in his entire career span, it should have been this one. That was the biggest slap in the face that Biggie could have ever gotten. If Puffy really cared about B.I.G. as much as he repeatedly says he does, if he felt so utterly hurt that his best friend was slaughtered in front of his own eyes, how hard would it have been for him to pour his heart out on paper? Most people would do it in a heartbeat. And how was he supposed to have shown respect in the video? How do riding motorcycles and dancing in the rain create a tribute to a man’s legacy? As a member of Jr. Mafia told Vibe magazine, “It ain’t all good like you see on the video—all that pretty shit. How many times you gotta watch Duke [Puffy] fall off that motorcycle?”
The media is in love with Puffy
After Death Row Records founder Suge Knight got incarcerated for nine years, and Biggie died, Puff Daddy ironically emerged into the limelight from the shadows. It seems as if he is using Biggie’s name, and his relationship with Biggie to promote his own career. And the media seemed to fall in love with this new so-called star. Vibe compared him to Bill Cosby, The Source called him “The Last Man Standing,” and Rolling Stone crowned him “The New King of Hip Hop.” Are they all blind? Or are they just afraid to say what they really think because Puffy is powerful in the industry?
One of the only writers who is willing to say a negative word about Puffy is Darryl James, editor of Rap Sheet, who wrote an explosive, raw piece about Puffy’s lack of originality in the December issue entitled “Puffy: Why is this man on the mic?” He told me, “It’s a case of too much hype. He doesn’t deserve all the media play he’s been getting. His rhyme style is boring and his attitude disturbs me. He thinks he’s the best. He is not the best. He is not even one of the best. There are a lot of really, really good recording artists, rappers, dancers and producers more talented than him.”
Puff Daddy’s popularity is just a fad
In the long run, nobody will remember Puff Daddy’s name 10 years from now. People will have moved on to the next fad. That’s all Puffy is, simply a fad. He can never go out on the streets and battle—he’ll lose. He can never get respect from a real MC because he’s fake. He can never get props from a true hip hop fan because, after all, he is not true hip hop. And those crucial things are what “the man who has it all” desperately needs—but will never have. “