For old-school hip-hop fans, raised on Run-DMC and Public Enemy, this is the equivalent of Chinese water-torture: a 17-track collection of tepid beats, lame, solipsistic rhymes and numbingly obvious 80s-pop references--mostly performed by the music's reigning majordomo: a man who, to all appearances, can neither rap, sing nor dance. What's indisputable, however, is that Sean "Puffy" Combs' success demonstrates a profound rupture in the hip-hop firmament. As the style … mehrintruded upon the commercial mainstream, its makers sensed the lucrative opportunities on offer, and became more blatantly aspirational; consequently, the lyrics changed--their subject-matter shifting from revolution to acquisition, from AKs to Versace--while the music became less dense and more buyer-friendly. And despite (or, more precisely, because of) his artistic failings, Combs was the perfect exemplar of where the genre was at, post-Tupac, post-Biggie. He'd like to claim credit for remaking hip-hop in his own image, but in fact, he's merely a symptom of its decline. --Andrew McGuire weniger

1 - No Way Out - Puff Daddy
2 - Victory - Puff Daddy & Notorious BIG/Busta Rhymes
3 - Been Around The World - Puff Daddy & Notorious BIG/Mase
4 - What You Gonna Do - Puff Daddy
5 - Don't Stop What You're Doing - Puff Daddy & Lil' Kim… mehr
6 - If I Should Die Tonight - Puff Daddy & Carl Thomas
7 - Do You Know - Puff Daddy
8 - Young G's - Puff Daddy & Notorious BIG/Jay-Z
9 - I Love You Baby - Puff Daddy & Black Rob
10 - It's All About The Benjamins - Puff Daddy & Notorious BIG/Lil' Kim/The LOX
11 - Pain - Puff Daddy
12 - Is This The End - Puff Daddy & Ginuwine/Twista/Carl Thomas
13 - I Got The Power - Puff Daddy & The LOX
14 - Friend - Puff Daddy & Foxy Brown
15 - Senorita - Puff Daddy
16 - I'll Be Missing You - Puff Daddy & Faith Evans/112
17 - Can't Nobody Hold Me Down - Puff Daddy & Mase weniger