P. Diddy’s new album Last Train to Paris comes out December 14, but you can have an exclusive first listen of it on the website that obviously best goes with that album: Vogue.com! In fact, Vogue has been behind this album from the very beginning, and even ran a fashion editorial of Diddy with Natalia Vodianova in the February issue, also called “Last Train to Paris.” Apparently the whole album is fashion-inspired, and industry greats like Talley, Marc Jacobs, and Isaac Mizrahi lent their voices to spoken-word pieces that run between songs. Even Anna Wintour chimes in at the beginning of Track 2, “1st Place Loser”, saying only: “This is Anna Wintour from Vogue magazine. You are now listening to the Last Train to Paris.”
Talley explains:
Inspired by his addiction to style and the fashion worlds from New York to Paris, Diddy’s new album, Last Train to Paris (to be released December 14), is a brilliant fusion of stream of consciousness and beats that bring to mind the broken cadences of avant-garde jazz. During Fashion Week last year, he sent out the call via e-mail and voice mail to high-fashion friends to come to his studio to participate in the record. I was somewhere doing what I usually do—previewing a collection or sitting around on the fourth floor of Manolo Blahnik’s midtown shoe emporium—when I received the invitation. Rushing to his studio, I thought about what I would say on the album, which inspired his February 2010 Vogue fashion shoot with Natalia Vodianova, photographed by Annie Leibovitz and styled by Grace Coddington, in which he appeared with the swagger and elegance of Cary Grant in a gorgeous shawl-collared camel double-breasted coat by Tom Ford.
Talley ended up doing a reading by James Baldwin “and Diddy respected it enough to leave it intact.” You can click on the first track at Vogue.com to hear that. Then Diddy comes on talking about how he “never knew love could feel like this.” Neither did we. Diddy + Vogue = <3.
André Leon Talley on Diddy-Dirty Money’s Last Train to Paris [Vogue]
