Quick Hit: Diddy Money Come Home to NYC (Concert Coverage)

What is your idea of a great concert? While your answer depends on many different deciding factors, including personal preference, it’s probably based off the following criteria:

• Artists/Bands
• Venue (Acoustics)
• Music
• Performances (Showmanship)
• Crowd Reaction
• Element Of Surprise
• Stage Set-Up (Display)

As a journalist, I have the privilege of attending many live performances throughout the year. Each of them appear to be entertaining, exciting and unique in their own rights. However, I can only recall a select few that are actually worthy of being called “great”. Whether this is because I am very hard to please or because I just haven’t been attending the right ones, I’ll never know. What I do know is that Diddy-Dirty Money comes fairly close to being dubbed as such.



On April 22, the hip-pop trio made a stop at New York City’s historic Hammerstein Ballroom as part of the Coming Home Tour. Joined by Young Money’s Tyga and Atlanta-based R&B singer Lloyd, it turned out to be a very “Good Friday” for the 3,900 fans who came out to support the Bad Boy general, his friends and family. For the next three and a half hours, concertgoers experienced quite a few surprises. California-bred rapper Tyga put on for his Young Money/Cash Money crew as he breezed through “Roger Dat” and minutes later, the Louisiana-born ATLien serenaded the ladies with his velvety voice as he echoed lyrics to his chart-topping singles “You” and “Get It Shawty”. With a few tricks up his sleeve, the R&B crooner wowed fans as his former label mate, Ashanti, stepped on stage to assist him on his breakout single “Southside”.



The first half of the show quickly turned into a Murder Inc. reunion, as Ja Rule stunned the entire audience with a surprise performance. Energy levels were on a thousand trillion as the crowd sang in unison to “Always On Time”. The Queens-bred MC who is about to serve a two-year prison sentence (stemming from 2007 gun-possession charges) also debuted his new single “Real Life Fantasy”. Shortly after, the crowd’s reaction dropped significantly as BET’s DJ Prostyle experienced some technical difficulties with his set. About ten minutes later (after a few boos), the lights when out and smoke filled the air as flashing LED screens set the tone for the night’s headlining act Diddy-Dirty Money.



Diddy, along with fellow counterparts Dawn Richard and Kalenna Harper, quickly turned Hammerstein into one of his famous all white parties he’s known for throwing every year in The Hamptons. Taking the stage in typical DDM fashion, the DDM divas preceded their front-man to the stage in outfits that resembled Grace Jones: Dawn in a thigh-revealing cutout dress and Kalenna in a glittery booty-shorts ensemble, complimenting the cream-colored palette with Combs, who was dressed in a sporty, all-white suit. Kicking things off with "Yeah, Yeah You Would" (which features Jones), A lip syncing Diddy then emerged for the club-banging "Ass on the Floor," with Swizz Beatz delivering the hook via a video clip that was mounted on enormous screen projectors – a creative stand-in prop used throughout the night for other LTTP cuts including “Angels” (Remix) featuring Rick Ross, “Strobe Lights” featuring Lil Wayne, the Chris Brown-assisted “Yesterday” and “I Hate That You Love Me”.

After a breathy cover of Sade’s “No Ordinary Love”, the latter part of the show served as trip down memory lane. Celebrating past successes, the end of the night time-warped back to circa 1990’s. Remembering his long deceased brethren, the Notorious B.I.G., a video montage swooped down the mid-size stage as memorable images of the Brooklyn MC flashed across the screen, reflecting on his short-lived career. Dawn and Kalenna ceded the stage to Diddy entirely as he launched into his contagious shiny-suit era smashes, from "All About the Benjamins" to "Mo’ Money, Mo Problems." The New York audience lost interest for the vintage classics, but went 'ham for the familiar faces. Formerly incarcerated Black Rob, wearing his indispensable black hoodie, turned up for "Whoa"; former first lady of Bad Boy, Faith Evans sang a silky version of her "Love Like This"; and Junior M.A.F.I.A.'s Lil' Cease made a brief appearance.

"I was looking for inspiration before 'Last Train to Paris', and I was walking in Central Park one day and I heard this song," Diddy recalled, introducing A Tribe Called Quest MC and longtime friend Q-Tip. The duo treated fans to a spirited dance-off as they ticked off Tribe classics like "Check The Rhyme" and Q-Tip's "Vibrant Thing." But the presence of the late Christopher Wallace remained present. Now rocking a vintage Versace shirt, Puff copiously thanked his fallen brother as more B.I.G. videos played on an overhead screen to cheers and shouts. The standing-room crowd, waving hands and phones in the air, was fired up for the nostalgic trip. Finally, things came to an end as the other two thirds of DDM took their places onstage again for the triumphant, "Coming Home," followed by show closer "Hello, Good Morning." While the Madison Square Garden worthy show occasionally violated Sean Combs standards, he definitely proved that no one could throw a party like he can.

(Photo credit: Getty Images)