Oh man, 1998. Sean Combs, then a celebrated producer and tolerated MC known as “Puff Daddy,” was the hottest property in rap music; his Biggie-eulogizing ’97 LP No Way Out was well on its way to selling 7 million copies. The Smashing Pumpkins, meanwhile, were the hottest property in “alternative rock”; they were set to release the massively anticipated Adore, the follow-up to the diamond-selling double album Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. OF COURSE someone saw fit to get these two mega-gigantor superstars onto a single song. The result: a Puff Daddy remix of Adore single Ava Adore. Naturally, that thing was a fuckin’ trainwreck that got buried for a decade and a half … until now. The Diddy-remade “Ava Adore” has been unearthed for the Pumpkins’ exhaustive Adore reissue, and today, and it’s available for you to hear. Does it sound better today than it did in ’98? I very much doubt it. It removes the song’s deep, ugly insecurities, and replaces those elements with pillowy, bombastic treacle. Fortunately (or not, depending on how you view these things) Diddy saw fit not to add a verse of his own. In any case, it’s an odd and interesting relic of its era. Listen.

(Via Rolling Stone)