P. Diddy and the Bad Boy Family: The Saga Continues

1	The Saga Continues featuring P. Diddy, G. Dep, Black Rob & Loon
2	Bad Boy for Life featuring P. Diddy, Black Rob & Mark Curry
3	Toe Game (Interlude) featuring Black Rob and P. Diddy
4	That's Crazy featuring Black Rob, P. Diddy & G. Dep
5	Let's Get It featuring Three The...featuring G. Dep, P. Diddy & Black Rob
6	Shiny Suit Man featuring P. Diddy
7	Diddy featuring the Neptunes
8	Blast Off featuring G. Dep, Mark Curry & Loon
9	Airport (Interlude)
10	Roll With Me featuring Eightball & MJG, P. Diddy & Faith Evans
11	On Top featuring P. Diddy, Loon, & Marsha
12	Where's Sean? featuring P. Diddy, Big Azz Ko, Black Rob, Kain, Loon, Mark Curry & Bristal
13	Child of the Ghetto featuring G. Dep
14	Incomplete (Interlude) featuring P. Diddy & Cheri Dennis
15	So Complete featuring Cheri Dennis
16	Smoke (Interlude) featuring P. Diddy
17	Lonely featuring P. Diddy, Kain, Mark Curry & Kokane
18	I Need a Girl (To Bella) featuring P. Diddy, Loon, Mario Winans, Lo & Jack
19	Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now (Interlude) featuring Faith Evans, Mario Winans & P. Diddy
20	If You Want This Money featuring P. Diddy, G. Dep & the Hoodfellaz
21	I Don't Like That (Interlude) featuring Bristal & Mark Curry
22	Back For Good Now featuring P. Diddy, Black Rob, Loon & Cheri Dennis
23	Can't Believe featuring Faith Evans and Carl Thomas
24	The Last Song featuring P. Diddy, Mark Curry, Big Azz Ko & Loon

Barnes & Noble

Since the lukewarm sales of 1999's boastfully titled Forever, Sean Combs has had a hard-knock life. His starlet girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez, dumped him, he fought the law and narrowly won, and he lost his protégé Shyne to the prison system. What's a ghetto-fab, Teflon Don to do? Well, for starters, he changed his stage name from Puff Daddy to P. Diddy, retreated to his Upper East Side digs, and regrouped with a new stable of rappers and singers on The Saga Continues. Combs's new crew of rhyme jacks, which includes Mark Curry, Loon, and Eminem wannabe Kain, may not win over diehard hip-hop heads, but it's clear that the man responsible for launching the careers of Jodeci and Mary J. Blige still has the Midas touch when it comes to hip-hop soul. The disc's best tracks feature the breathy vocals of Mario Winans and the street-pixie melodies of Cheri Dennis, who sparkle, respectively, on the J. Lo ode "I Need a Girl (To Bella)" and the upright bass-heavy groove "So Complete." With these two rising stars aboard his latest ship -- not to mention familiar passengers Faith Evans, Carl Thomas, and Black Rob -- Captain P. Diddy proves that his hit-making radar is still finely tuned. Brett Johnson

All Music Guide

A lot happened to Sean Combs during the two-year gap between Forever and The Saga Continues. Besides the obvious name change to P. Diddy and his daily appearances in the news, the overdramatic rap artist saw his popularity drop considerably during those two years -- a serious issue for someone as attention-hungry as Combs. So The Saga Continues signals to everyone that his Bad Boy empire is in fact still an empire. "Bad Boy for Life," the album's big, opening anthem, perhaps sums up the situation best: "We ain't going nowhere/We can't be stopped." It's a fairly simple claim, but this pretension towers largely over every single second of this album. Combs isn't just trying to make great music anymore; he's trying to reclaim his credibility. In his mission to do so, he has recruited the latest roster of Bad Boy talent, anchored by two stellar rappers, Black Rob and G. Dep, who are to be viewed as the successors to the departed Biggie Smalls and Shyne. Combs gives these two plenty of time in the spotlight here -- as much as himself -- and they definitely showcase their talent commendably, as do many of the other Family members. It's nice to see Combs stay in-house for this album rather than assembling a disparate best-of-the-best roster like he did on Forever. This decision helps give the album more of a cohesive feel, as these Family members, and also the often daring production, make this an impressive album at times. It's Combs himself, though, who mars what could be a solid album with his rhetorical swagger. When he's surrounded by his crew, he's fine, though you wish he could rap as well as he can present the talent of others. Rather, it's when Combs steps into the spotlight, particularly during the numerous interludes, that his swaggering often goes too far, teetering on the fine line between self-assurance and unintentional farce. Jason Birchmeier