2004 Mario Winans featuring Enya & P. Diddy: I Don't Wanna Know

Based around the same Enya sample that The Fugees 'borrowed' for 'Ready Or Not' (though wisely crediting her upfront this time), 'I Don't Wanna Know' is the R&B saga of Winans agonising over whether his girlfriend has gone off the boil with him, though in turn preferring the blissful ignorance of uncertainty to learning the cold, hard fact that he's history. "I don't wanna know if you're playing me, keep it on the low, 'cause my heart can't take it anymore": Winans creaks and groans through his song like a rusty hinge, playing the sympathy card for all its worth and chewing up the lyric like a hammy actor delivering an approximation of a man at the end of his emotional rope. Then, like a tougher alter ego, P Diddy butts in halfway in to offer his own no nonsense account of how the girl's behaviour should be dealt with (though his "Made you hot like the West Indies, now it's time you invest in me. 'Cause if not then it's best you leave" straight talk falls a few miles short of Eamon's brand of relationship conciliation). Yes, I know I'm being sarky, but I'm bored; maybe if I'd heard this a bit earlier in the decade then I'd have more patience, but right now I'm all R&B'd up to the max I'm afraid, and this is just so much same old - oil slick smooth and just as greasy. Using a recycled sample doesn't boost the interest factor either, and the Winans/Diddy good cop/bad cop routine plays to the gallery far too much for this to be anything other than bad theatre.