No Way Out - Puff Daddy & The Family

Going then by the name Puff Daddy, Sean Combs released his debut rap album as Puff Daddy and the Family in 1997 with “No Way Out”. The release saw him taking on the hype from his lead artist’s final album (The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Life After Death”; which unfortunately came directly following his death) as you find Puffy working with those on his Bad Boy label as the likes of Mase, Lil’ Kim and Black Rob all step up to assist him on his first venture ...
...much of the music for it.

1. “No Way Out” (Intro)

2. “Victory”

Getting things underway you have a pretty exciting one, and I feel that much of this came down to the empowering production which is made to gets its full potential reached by having Busta Rhymes act as the hype man to the music on the hook as Biggie and Puffy work together getting into the Mafioso Rap material.

**Four Stars**
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Going then by the name Puff Daddy, Sean Combs released his debut rap album as Puff Daddy and the Family in 1997 with “No Way Out”. The release saw him taking on the hype from his lead artist’s final album (The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Life After Death”; which unfortunately came directly following his death) as you find Puffy working with those on his Bad Boy label as the likes of Mase, Lil’ Kim and Black Rob all step up to assist him on his first venture into the whole of rapping, whilst still continuing to produce much of the music for it.

1. “No Way Out” (Intro)

2. “Victory”

Getting things underway you have a pretty exciting one, and I feel that much of this came down to the empowering production which is made to gets its full potential reached by having Busta Rhymes act as the hype man to the music on the hook as Biggie and Puffy work together getting into the Mafioso Rap material.

**Four Stars**

3. “Been Around The World”

Sampling a little David Bowie, in addition to Lisa Stansfield “All Around The World”, this was one of the big tracks from the album and it gets going form an early stage on the album into some of the music designed for the clubs in order to show the variety of the cut from a time when people may be curious as to what this could offer.

4. “What You Gonna Do?”

I have to say that through this one you get a track which doesn’t really live up to the expectations which other early tracks gave to the album as this one is a track which may have some decent production, but isn’t really made to come through all that effective with the rapper’s rhymes as he tries out some dark stuff, but alone it just seems out of character and ineffective.

**Two Stars**

5. “Don’t Stop What You’re Doing”

Taking on some funky samples, including a little something from Stevie Wonder, you have one of the big tracks off the album in this case, as although this one wasn’t a single, it still made a radio impact as it saw the artist getting down to a club-orientated recording which shows just how strong this side of the music is covered in this album.

**Five Stars**

6. “If I Should Die Tonight” (Lude)

7. “Do You Know?”

In this one you get some of the most engaging production that you will receive form the lower-tempo music on the album, and I felt that it meant that you were brought into the material in away which is a lot harder to get down to at other parts of the album. Although the content of the rhymes isn’t all that strong, the track itself is an effective one.

**Four Stars**

8. “Young G’s”

This is a track on the album which features one of the best line-ups and one which is likely to get Bad Boy fans extremely excited as it sees that he works with to of the biggest East Coast names as he gets not just The Notorious One, but also Jay-Z to come with a live underground cut for the street fans.

9. “I Love You Baby”

This is one of the tracks which didn’t really do all that much on the album as it sees that Puffy works with Black Rob and you get one which doesn’t really stay consistent through the track at all as in each section you see that the topic shifts from one thing to another, and the most important thing is that it relates to the title in any way.

**Three Stars**

10. “It’s All About The Benjamins” (Remix)

This is a fly cut from the artist, and one which really stands out in the album as at the time and made a big impact on the Hip hop scene (unlike something such as “I’ll Be Missing You”, which was more for the commercial listeners) you get that with it Puff tasks as through his spending habits with some of the best East Coast names of the time. The most significant section is Biggie’s burst as it sees Puff choose to take on a funky sample of the Jackson 5 to back him up as he rips it apart.

**Four Stars**

11. “Pain”

This one was a single to the album and it gets him working on some of his won beats whilst being backed by Carl Thomas’ R&B vocals, and it has him talking the listeners through this one which has hi getting deep by delving into tragedies which have plagued his life, but I wouldn’t really say it was that good a track and the lack of lyrical skill (from whoever ghost wrote for him) made his message ineffective.

**Two Stars**

12. “Is This The End?”

This sis a very different track on the album and I felt that it really boosted the album. Initially I felt I knew where it was going, but it began to lose its hype after a few minutes and it wasn’t until the Chicagoan MC, Twista joined him, when I remembered how this begun as it sees him taking on Twista’s speed-rap style, and coming up with a high-tempo track to vary things a little. .

13. “I Got The Power”

This is a hardcore track on the album and it sees Big Jaz and Puffy working to show just how effectively they can come up with production which appears to take on classic Funk, but actually a completely original composition and from this you have The L.OX. playing around with t as well as they were able to.

**Four Stars**

14. “Friend”

You fid that with this one you have some funky beats backing the artist in order to get all that he can out of the music which holds his raps together. It is a fresh one and has the artist reinforcing his position as a playa when it comes to the girls and doing so with Foxy Brown on his side to just get down with something which just has him letting loose and having fun with this material.

**Four Stars**

15. "Señorita"

Following on from a very fitting interlude or the final two minutes of the track prior to it as you get the artist going for one were he makes the focus of the song about the girl who he his interested in (namely Jennifer Lopez) and it finds that with this as his motivation, he gets down to a groovy club one which seems to fit in with the contemporary sounds of the time.

**Four Stars**

16. “I’ll Be Missing You”

Personally, I see this particular track to be a bit of an overrated one as it sees an emotive remake of The Police’s song “Every Breath You Take” covered in order to act as a dedication to the memory of The Notorious B.I.G.. It is fairly significant as it sees his then-partner, Faith Evans providing the hook to the tribute song where R&B (from both Evans and 112) is mixed with raps from Puffy to come up with a decent recording.

**Two Stars**

17. “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down”

Sampling the classic Hip Hop track, “The Message” (from Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five) this is a fly little joint which brings the energy levels right back up as it comes to a close and gets him rapping alongside Mase in a funky little jam showing off how well he can deliver with the tracks which are designed for the clubs and to move on from what was founding the track prior to it.

**Five Stars**

This album sees the artist losing it a little when he is made to do things own his own and is made to work off his own personal hype (which is a things you should really be making too prominent in one based around death of people close to you, and so this brings it down at times. However, with so many effective club bangers, which are based upon popular samples, you see that he is still able to hype up the listeners and make the excited by what he dries through this album.  

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