Forever
WhenMC Lyterapped "Beat biter / Dope style taker / Tell you to your face you ain't nothing but a faker," she wasn't referring to Puff Daddy, but those words may have echoed in the brains of many non-NY producers--especially those from New Orleans and the Bay Area--upon hearing the bad boy don's second solo effort,Forever. For much of the latter part of the '90s, many New York rappers have included a couple of token G-funk or bounce-influenced tracks on their albums, but onForever, Puff takes it to extremes, with almost half the album falling into that category. One would think that Puff's lazy, unskilled drawl would fit perfectly with the foreign sonics, but instead, his mumbling is more blatant, twitching erratically like the proverbial fish out of water, especially on cuts like "What You Want" and "Satisfy You" (where he loops theLuniz' classic "I Got 5 On It").  Where he sticks to the usual plan, he pulls it off steadily, and on "Journey Through the Life," a powerful posse cut withNas, Beanie Sigel, andLil' Kim, he's created a NY thug cut par excellence. Just goes to show you can't teach an old producer new beats--even if he pays royally for them.--Jon Caramanica