No Way Out (album)

No Way Out
Studio album by Puff Daddy & the Family
Released	July 1, 1997[1]
Recorded	August 1996 - April 1997
Genre	Hip hop, East Coast hip hop
Length	77:52
Label	Bad Boy
Producer	Sean "Puffy" Combs (exec.), Christopher Wallace (also exec.), Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie (also exec.), The Hitmen (Steven "Stevie J" Jordan, Ron "Amen-Ra" Lawrence, Nashiem Myrick, Carlos "6 July" Broady, Jeffery "J-Dub" Walker and Yogi), Black Jeruz, Big Jaz
Puff Daddy & the Family chronology
No Way Out (1997) Forever (1999)
Singles from No Way Out
"Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" Released: January 7, 1997 "I'll Be Missing You" Released: May 27, 1997 "It's All About the Benjamins (Remix)" Released: June 30, 1997 "Been Around the World" Released: August 12, 1997 "Victory" Released: March 17, 1998

No Way Out is the debut studio album by American hip hop recording artist, songwriter and record producer Puff Daddy. It was released on July 1, 1997, by his Bad Boy record label. The label's official crediting as "The Family", featuring guest appearances from his label-mates and other artists. The production on the album was provided by Puff Daddy (real name Sean Combs), alongside with a variety of the members from the production group, called The Hitmen. Puff Daddy was also serving as a executive producer alongside The Notorious B.I.G. and Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie (of The Hitmen). It contains the generally introspective content based on his friend and rapper The Notorious B.I.G., who died from the shooting on March 9, 1997, which affected Combs emotionally. The album's content consists largely of aggressive lyrics but also includes elements of positive emotion.

The album received generally mixed to positive reviews from music critics, who generally wrote positively about its emotional feel and its production, but were divided in their reviews towards Puff Daddy's both rapping and songwriting. The album earned Combs five nominations at the 40th Grammy Awards in 1998, winning the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.^[2]

Background

He spoke about the album title, when Puff Daddy said that because of The Notorious B.I.G.’s death on March 9, 1997, that made him felt that there is 'no way out' of things the way we were. The album's lyrical content is filled with some of his emotions that he would be feeling in the mourn of his close friend in The Notorious B.I.G. In the song, titled “Is This the End?”, he raps about experiencing the drive-by shooting that happened in Los Angeles, California, which took his friend (The Notorious B.I.G.)'s life. The album was originally called Puff Daddy & The Goodfellas, then he slated to be titled Hell Up in Harlem, but following the death of The Notorious B.I.G., he decided to switch the album's title to No Way Out. As discussed in "Unbelievable: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of The Notorious B.I.G." by Cheo Hodari Coker, the weight of the East/West nonsense and the accompanying threats had taken it’s toll on Combs and those around him. It was decided that they needed to get away to get focused and get back to making hits. So, Combs brought producers Steven "Stevie J." Jordan, Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie, Nashiem Myrick and Ron "AMEN-RA" Lawrence as well as engineers Axel Niehaus and Tony Maserati down to the Caribbean Sound Basin studio in Maraval, Trindad, along with everything that they needed to craft hits. In the book, Puffy is quoted as saying, "For the next two years, I wanna have radio on lock. Call the girlfriend, wifey, or whatever, and let ‘em know that you’re not gonna be around for a few weeks. We’re gonna get away from all this drama, put our heads together, and when we come back, we’re coming back with hits." The material would later be used on "No Way Out", "Life After Death" and future Bad Boy albums from 1997 to 1999.

Accolades

In the United States, the album topped on the Billboard charts, with 561,000 copies sold in the first week. The album topped music charts worldwide for 24 non-consecutive weeks. In 1998, No Way Out would win the Grammy Award for the Best Rap Album. On September 7, 2000, the album was certified seven-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In 1997, among the ten songs that reached at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 list, four of them belonged to Bad Boy Records. The album has spawned two Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles such as "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" and "I'll Be Missing You", and the "number 2" singles such as "Been Around the World" and "It's All About the Benjamins". The longest reign of the label's four hits was this single "I'll Be Missing You", which topped the charts for 11 weeks. The melody for "I'll Be Missing You" is sampled from The Police's 1983's hit "Every Breath You Take". This successful album led towards Puff Daddy to be named as one of Forbes' 40th highest-paid entertainers, along with the names of the southern hip hop rapper Master P and Oprah Winfrey.

The music video for "Been Around the World" features a cameo appearances by an actress Jennifer Lopez, playing as his love interest in a fictional story line. Its positive reception led to widespread rumors of a personal relationship in the media. Furthermore, the music video for "Victory" was one of the most expensive videos ever made.^[3] The song titled "No Way Out" performed by Puff Daddy, appeared on the soundtrack for the film Money Talks (1997), but is not included on this album.

Commercial performance

Upon its release, No Way Out was a significant commercial success, particularly in the United States where it reached number one on the Billboard 200 in its first week, selling 561,000 copies. It also produced five commercially successful singles, the most successful of these being the worldwide hit "I'll Be Missing You", a tribute song aimed at The Notorious B.I.G., which became the first rap song ever to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and remained at the top of the chart for 11 consecutive weeks, whilst topping several other charts worldwide. The other four singles, the Billboard hits "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down", "It's All About the Benjamins", "Been Around the World" and "Victory", were also commercially successful, and all except the latter peaked in the top two positions of the Billboard Hot 100. On September 7, 2000, the album was certified septuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of 7,000,000+ copies in the United States:^[4] to date, it remains Combs' most commercially successful album.

Track listing

All tracks except "Young G's" were produced by members of Bad Boy Records' in house production team, The Hitmen.

Personnel

Credits for No Way Out adapted from Allmusic.^[1]

Charts

Weekly charts

Certifications

See also

• List of number-one albums of 1997 (U.S.)
• List of number-one R&B albums of 1997 (U.S.)

References

External links

• No Way Out - P Diddy Lyrics