When we mused on The Clog about what connection could there possibly be between Diddy's Press Play — his first CD of new material in five years — and the Puff Meister's appearance in Philly at area high schools, we didn't realize we'd have to keep musing.

Because when Sean Combs — clothing magnate, producer, rapper — came to town Monday for the first of his national "Diddy High" events at Ben Franklin High School as well as to get a proclamation and a Liberty Bell from Mayor Street at City Hall, Diddy didn't want to discuss anything but his new record.

Nothing. Not how the supposed themes ("Press Play on Your Life," "Empowerment") could connect to his finger-clicking new "Come to Me" with Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger. Not how being off the youth market in the age of the Internets meant having to resell himself to high school kids hard. Not how he did or didn't invent the remix.

No. If we asked, all conversation would stop. This was no joke, as off-the-record TV peeps before me mentioned how stoically Diddy's own minders adhered to Puff's silent warnings. And how pissed he got if said reporter didn't play along.

This was hubris of the highest standing. But fun, right. So with Rick Santorum sitting in the Four Seasons Hotel's garden below (I really wanted to ask Rick questions about his favorite Notorious B.I.G. track) the game was about slipping one by — how could you ask Diddy about the kids... without asking him about the kids.

So you stare at Diddy in his aviator shades, white thermal shirt and sandy brown jacket with epaulettes and you think to yourself: How?

In quick dispatch, Diddy mentioned how producing names like Mary J. and Justin seasoned him, sure. But it turned going to the studio into drudgery. Work even. So Diddy got plugged into the electronic club scene and the post-house groove of Ibiza's dance vibe. "I was stronger, clearer."

So were there any voices or sounds that he heard in all that time away that he needed to reflect to make Play pertinent now to the new market? "The sounds of the clubs — the after-hour ones, the ones in Ibiza."

Diddy wanted to make a record that reflected his adulthood as a man and his veteran musicality. He wanted to make a melodic concept record about relationships. "That's my lane," he says. "I want to reflect falling in love — with a girl."

That means courtship, nice suits (preferably Sean John) and sexuality. Did he think that might be too provocative, you know, for the kids?

"No. I'm not talking about sex. Real feelings." Those real feelings get broken up, on Press Play, like a movie, with Diddy playing a cat that seduces and gets seduced by Brandy, Mary Blige, Christina Ag and Keyshia Cole.

"I'm talking about love."

Diddy was gone.

Like a Puff-y of smoke.