No Way Out (1997)

No Way Out is the debut studio album by American rapper Puff Daddy. It was released on July 22, 1997, through Arista Records and Puff Daddy's own Bad Boy Records. The album is credited to "Puff Daddy & the Family", with "the Family" referring to guest appearances from his signees at Bad Boy, including its then-recently deceased flagship artist, the Notorious B.I.G.

No Way Out's production was heavily influenced by the murder of the Notorious B.I.G. months prior to its release. This album conveys this as a tragic event with a profound impact on Puff Daddy, who channels both aggressive and introspective lyrics capturing the before-and-after of his death. Production was largely handled by Bad Boy's in-house production team The Hitmen, while guest appearances include B.I.G., Busta Rhymes, Mase, Lil' Kim, Carl Thomas, Jay-Z, Black Rob, the LOX, Ginuwine, Twista, Foxy Brown, Faith Evans, and 112.

Five singles were released from the album. Its lead single, "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down", reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 several weeks after its January 1997 release. The second single, "I'll Be Missing You", became a global hit and was the first hip-hop song to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100. The fourth single, "Been Around the World", peaked at number two in the chart. Other singles included "It's All About the Benjamins" and "Victory", with the latter reaching number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Upon release, No Way Out achieved major commercial success, debuting atop the Billboard 200 with first-week sales exceeding 561,000 copies. While critical response was mixed to positive, it won Best Rap Album from five nominations at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards. It remains Puff Daddy's best-selling album, with over 7 million copies shipped in the United States, and is widely regarded as a classic hip hop album. Retrospective reviews—from Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, and MTV—of the album have criticized its heavy reliance on sampling.

Background

Speaking about the album's title, Sean Combs said that because of the Notorious B.I.G.'s death on March 9, 1997, he had felt that there was "no way out of things the way we were". The album's lyrical content was inspired by the emotions that he felt while mourning the loss of his close friend. In the song "Is This the End?" he raps about experiencing the drive-by shooting that happened in Los Angeles, California, which took the Notorious B.I.G.'s life. The album was originally called Puff Daddy & the Goodfellas, then 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 Coast–West Coast hip-hop rivalry and the accompanying threats had taken its toll on Combs and those around him. It was decided that they needed to get away and become focused on making hits. So, Combs brought producers Steven "Stevie J." Jordan, Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie, Nashiem Myrick and Ron Lawrence as well as engineers Axel Niehaus and Tony Maserati down to the Caribbean Sound Basin studio in Maraval, Trinidad, along with everything that they needed to craft hits. In the book, Combs 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 other Bad Boy albums from 1997 to 1999.

Reception

Critical reception

Since its release, the album has been evaluated in the context of the East Coast–West Coast hip-hop rivalry and deaths of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. The sampling of hits from past decades has also been debated by critics. In 1997, Neil Strauss of The New York Times called Combs the "king of sampled hits".

No Way Out received a wide range of reviews. AllMusic rated the album four out of five stars, with Leo Stanley calling it "a compelling, harrowing album" and "more substantial...than most mid-'90s hip-hop releases". For Vibe, Michael A. Gonzales praised the producers for creating "fierce, moody sonic mainpulations that are changing the soundscapes of pop music".

Positive reviews continued in later years. RapReviews rated the album 9 out of 10 points in 2007. "The replay value is astronomical, and the album is packed full of great beats, classic singles and excellent guest appearances," wrote Jesal Padania for the site. Reviewing the album in 2017, Pitchfork rated it 7.8 out of 10 points, regarding it as "a party record spotted with bouts of depression and sorrow" and "feel-good music that tops the charts".