The (allegedly) gun-toting boss of Bad Boy Records, boyfriend of Jennifer Lopez, and best pal of Biggie Smalls brought his entourage to Dublin on Tuesday, and revealed the emptiness beneath all the tough-guy rap and bluster. The successor to MC Hammer's tinsel crown is out on bail on firearms and bribery charges, and free to begin his European tour. All the onstage fireworks, flames and explosions in the world, however, couldn't hide the truth that Sean "Puffy" Combs is unable to muster up a single original idea during two hours of strutting, preening pyromania.

"Everybody say yeeeahh!" was the refrain of the evening, as Puffy and his homies belted out the vacuous rap cliches, and tossed in the odd tuneless rendition of some long-forgotten-1980s song. With practically zilch in the way of music to offer, Puffy instead went for a pantomime approach, getting the audience to sing along to U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (the actual record, mind, not a cover version), and bringing Bad Boy label artistes 112 and Carl Thomas to provide musical interludes. It was like watching a TV show, with Puffy as the compere, choreographer, producer and sponsor rolled into one.

The Kashmir-sampling Come With Me encapsulated the whole Godzilla-scale folly, while I'll Be Missing You, the multi-million-selling paean to murdered rapper, Notorious B.I.G., smacked of showbizstyle insincerity.