No Way Out (Puff Daddy album)

No Way Out
Studio album by
Puff Daddy & the Family
ReleasedJuly 22, 1997
Recorded1996–1997
Genre
Length77:52
Label
Producer
Puff Daddy & the Family chronology
No Way Out
(1997) 		Forever
(1999)
Singles from No Way Out
  1. "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down"
    Released: January 7, 1997
  2. "I'll Be Missing You"
    Released: May 27, 1997
  3. "It's All About the Benjamins"
    Released: August 12, 1997
  4. "Been Around the World"
    Released: November 14, 1997
  5. "Victory"
    Released: March 17, 1998

No Way Out is the debut studio album by American rapper Puff Daddy. It was released on July 22, 1997, via Arista Records and Puff Daddy's Bad Boy Records.[1] The album is credited to "Puff Daddy & the Family"; the latter act refers to guest appearances from his signees at Bad Boy.

Puff Daddy worked extensively with the Notorious B.I.G. and the Hitmen when creating the album, which saw a change in direction following the former's shooting and death months prior to release. This greatly affected Puff Daddy, and with a combination of aggressive and introspective lyrics, he conveys an emotionally vulnerable state representing the before and after of B.I.G.'s death. Additional production was provided by Jaz-O, while the album contains features from the Notorious B.I.G., Busta Rhymes, Mase, Lil' Kim, Carl Thomas, Jay-Z, Black Rob, the LOX, Ginuwine, Twista, Foxy Brown, Faith Evans, and 112.

No Way Out was met with significant commercial success, debuting atop on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of over 561,000 copies. Its lead single, "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down", peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100 several weeks after its January 1997 release. Its follow-up, and the album's second single, "I'll Be Missing You", became a worldwide hit and the first hip hop song to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100, while its fourth single, "Been Around the World", peaked at number two. No Way Out also earned critical success, receiving five nominations at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards, from which it won Best Rap Album.[2] It remains Puff Daddy's best selling album, with over 7 million copies shipped in the United States, and is considered a classic hip hop album.[3] However, the album's reliance on sampling was criticized by Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, and MTV.

  1. ^ Cheo Hodari Coker (July 22, 1997). "The Spotlight Turns on Puffy Combs : Dancing Close to the Flames". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
  2. ^ Strauss, Neil (January 7, 1998). "Grammy Nominations Yield Surprises, Including Newcomer's Success". The New York Times. p. 2. Retrieved July 16, 2011.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Vibe was invoked but never defined (see the help page).