by Andy Dunn
Staff Writer

The artist formerly known as Sean Combs, Puffy, Puff Daddy, and P. Diddy is back with a new name and a new album-Last Train to Paris by Diddy and Dirty Money.

Diddy makes his comeback from his last album which got mixed reviews, Press Play in 2006.

He co-stars in the album with the group Dirty Money, composed of Kalenna Harper and Dawn Richard.

Diddy is one of the most successful rap artists ever. Even when he pushed across his arguably weakest album Press Play he still hit #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 with it.

Diddy’s real success came through his debut album No Way Out when he won the Grammy for “Best Rap Album” in ’98.  Diddy also dominated the Grammy category “Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group” with 3 nominations and a win, with the hit, “I’ll be Missing You.” This song was also Billboard’s #84 best all-time song on Billboard’s Greatest Songs of All Time list.

The album follows Diddy’s alter-ego as he travels from London to Paris to find a lost love, hence the name Last Train to Paris.

The album is packed with star-power, featuring mega-stars like Drake, Swiss-Beatz, Usher, Chris Brown, T.I., Trey Songz, Lil Wayne, Notorious B.I.G., and Justin Timberlake, among others.

But in a year full of blockbuster CD releases including albums by Drake, Eminem, Kid Cudi, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and T.I, how does Diddy’s brand-new CD stack up?

Diddy needed to return to his beginnings with Dirty Money. He may have come darn close to doing so in Last Train to Paris.

The hype for the album is unprecedented and has been alive for years. Recently, the anticipation for the release was raised thanks to his recent musical act on Saturday Night Live with actor Robert De Niro (picture below.) They performed currently released single “Coming Home” and not-yet-released single “A** on the Floor (feat. Swiss Beatz)”.

Also pumping up the hype is how Diddy has manipulated social media to work for him recently. With over 3 million Twitter followers, Diddy has been consistently pushing the album via tweets for weeks and even promised to follow anyone on Twitter who changed their avatar to the Last Train to Paris album cover and help promote the album.

The mega-hit of the album right now is “Hello Good Morning” featuring T.I.. The song has gained massive popularity and has a catchy chorus as well.

But what makes Diddy so good is his ability to make multiple mega-hits on all of his CD’s. He figures to achieve that again with a instant-classic club beat “A** on the Floor (feat. Swiss Beatz)”.

“Shades” and “Angels” are also to songs that have the potential to go big, and are really well done.

My personal favorite on the album is the finale, “Coming Home” where Diddy finally lets himself loose.  He confesses to nearly everything from bad parenting, to fear of marriage or commitment, and it starts with an already popular chorus and some nice rhymes.

Overall the album is a solid effort and is worth a listen. Diddy has always been a master at producing some catchy beats worth downloading. He doesn’t fail with this album at all even though overall one would want more from Diddy at the end of the day. It feels like he is holding back instead of truly releasing something memorable, like Kanye’s recent CD My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Regardless, it’s nice to see Diddy back with another successful album and in the spotlight again with Last Train to Paris.