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[Off The Record]
Stars graphics
Dream
IT WAS ALL A DREAM
(BAD BOY)

Puff Daddy has always been at least as good a businessman as he is a producer, so his latest shrewd move — signing this photogenic group of singing Lolitas from LA to resuscitate his flagging Bad Boy label — should come as no surprise. And given his track record as the man behind some of the most memorable mainstream hip-hop tracks of all time, it also shouldn’t be surprising that he takes well to the fluffy rhythms and sunny melodies of teen pop.

Puffy himself had a hand in fewer than half the tracks here, assembling a capable crew of behind-the-scenes R&B vets to take care of the rest. Their biggest score is the pattering lead single, “He Loves U Not,” where Holly, Diana, Melissa, and Ashley slay the cherry-lipped competition and save all the cutest boys for themselves. Puffy dials up some frantic synth fingering and a thick bass line on his greatest contribution, “What We Gonna Do About Us,” and he throws in a paean to his own youth with a slick rewrite of New Edition’s “Mr. Telephone Man.” His engaging Quincy Jones/Nile Rodgers style of lite funk rubs off on the second-string producers, and even the ballads hold their own. Dream themselves don’t command much of the spotlight, but when the material is this much fun, it doesn’t really matter.

BY SEAN RICHARDSON

 

 
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