A protégé of hip-hop mogul Sean "P.
Diddy" Combs, R&B vocalist Donnie Klang was also a member of the fourth season of Diddy's MTV show Making the Band.
A fan favorite, Diddy ultimately didn't pick Klang to join his boy band, but instead offered the burgeoning idol a solo contract on Bad Boy records.
2008's Just a Rolling Stone is the product of that signing and positions Klang as a kind of lesser Justin Timberlake or less amusing Robin Thicke.
In any case, the results on Just a Rolling Stone are less interesting than either of those aforementioned R&B crooners and more along the lines of a Color Me Badd-reboot.
Which is to say, Klang's music is oddly outdated and sounds too much like the thin, studio-driven early-'90s pop Timberlake helped SNL-comedian Andy Samberg satirize with the "Dick in a Box" video.
Replete with spoken word interludes in which Klang answers the question, "Have you ever had your heart broken?" and "Do you want to find love?," -- the answer is yes, but ever the romantic, Klang says he doesn't want to force it but wants to, "meet a girl out of nowhere and be like, wow like, this was unexpected." -- the album generally plays to Klang's intended audience of dewy-eyed teen girls enamored with Klang's nasally vocals and gelled-up hairdo.
That said, Just a Rolling Stone does feature a few catchy tracks like campy, club-ready "Dr.
Love" and silly if admittedly fun "Hollwood Girl" an obvious ode to club girls who aspire to live lifestyles similar to those detailed on MTV's The Hills -- "director's movie script, champagne take a sip" anyone? But really, it's pretty clear that nobody, P.
Diddy included, probably expected Klang to register much farther than his built-in MTV/TRL audience,and that alone may be enough for Just a Rolling Stone to drop with less of a thud and more of a Klang.
[A Circuit City Exclusive was also released.].