Search - Puff Daddy & The Family :: No Way Out

Melissa V. (missy1978) from GLENDALE, AZ
Reviewed on 4/18/2008...

Notorious BIG was on this album so there are some good songs on here. Some other ones with big name rappers as well.

GUILTY PLEASURE

E.J. Rupert | Milwaukee, WI | 07/12/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Puff Daddy couldn't rap back then, and he really can't now either, but SOMEBODY bought this record. Back in 1997, you weren't even considered real if you didn't bankhead bounce to "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down", sing along to Big's (as well as Mase's and Puff's) lyrics in "Been Around the World", or "throw ya' hands up" (like Busta said) in "It's All About the Benjamins". And don't front on the gangsta tracks like "I Got the Power" with The Lox and "Young G's" with Jay-Z and Big. In the latter song, Puff proved why we don't buy his albums expecting dope rhymes from him ("...nice cars, nice b's and rings/Guess it's safe to say a n like me got nice things"). We instead bought No Way Out expecting a party, and this album rocked many a frat house back then.So what were you doing when this album came out? Hating Puff for beat-jacking and weak rhyming or running to the dance floor whenever one of his songs came on? You did both? Me too."

Barely Tolerable

3rdeadly3rd | Brisbane, Queensland Australia | 06/24/2001

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Puff Daddy is, in my opinion, one of the most over-rated rap performers in the current climate. As a rapper he has a generic flow, trips over his lyrics with alarming regularity and generally comes across as a bad copy of most of the other East Coast rappers. As a producer, he would have to rate as one of the least imaginative of all. Where other producers sample quality music and make it new, Puffy removes entire sections of songs and goes to no effort to liven them up."No Way Out" is quite an appropriate title for this album, as there really is no way out for Puffy and friends from the trap which they have made for themselves - the trap of cheap lyrics, bad beats and generally uninspired work.I might as well admit that when I bought this album, I was very pleased and did my "I am very hardcore" routine for a few weeks. Now that I compare Puffy to the Gurus, Q-Tips and Chali 2nas of this world, I can see exactly how awful he really is.As previously mentioned, the music is one of the big problems with this album. Puffy has "sampled" (his words) or "ripped" (mine and most others) backign music from - among others - The Police ("Every Breath You Take", used on "I'll Be Missin' You"), David Bowie ("Let's Dance", used on "Around The World") and Grandmaster Flash ("The Message", used on "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down"). In doing so, he has attempted to revert sampling to the old, illegal days. Every single one of the songs sampled is an accepted classic - in the case of "The Message", classic may be an understatement - and Puffy's treatment of them (de-fanginf guitars, speeding up beats and so on) shows his total disregard for music in general.The lyrics of the album fall into two main divisions. Some are the big "let's party, get drunk, take drugs and have lots of sex" theme. As well as being very unoriginal, these tracks have possibly the worst backing music that I've heard and thus lose the party appeal that they may have originally had. The rest of the lyrics are mourining the death of Notorious BIG. Yes, it is a terrible loss that BIG is dead, however the relentless messages to him throughout this and other Bad Boy albums begins to sound a bit creepy. What's even more creepy is the appearance of BIG on a few tracks and on the back cover - the man is dead, maybe leave him dead.Of course, the other problem is that Puffy has brought in a collection of guest stars. On the surface, this is a great relief from his lack of talent - however, the guests don't really seem to try very hard. Ma$e (who shows up far too much) is hardly the most talented rapper around, but to compound the problem he produces carbon copies of the "Message" chorus on "Can't Nobody" and also raps out what sounds like the chorus of 2 Unlimited's "Break My Stride" in the same track. What's also well worth noticing is the fact that where skilled rappers mould their lyrics to the beat, these rappers do not even make that attempt.Finally, there is that monstrosity "I'll Be Missin You". It's great to see that BIG was venerated so highly over the course of his brief career but "Missin You" is quite frankly the most awful way to send him off - the Police were clearly insane to let "Every Breath" be sampled for this track.I would have given this album one star but I can't really bring myself to be that cruel for some reason. Don't buy this album unless you either like wasting money or are one of those pop-gangsta fans. Everyone else, buy if you want a good laugh but otherwise save your money."