Background and Recording
When asked about the meaning behind the album’s name, Puff Daddy said it was because after The Notorious B.I.G.’s death on March 9 earlier in the year, he felt that there was “No Way Out” of the way things were. The album was filled with some of the emotions Puff Daddy felt in mourning his close friend the Notorious B.I.G. In the song “Is This the End?” Puff Daddy talks about experiencing the drive-by in Los Angeles that took his friend's life. The album was originally titled Hell Up in Harlem until The Notorious B.I.G.'s death. The album topped the album charts in the US with 561,000 units sold in its first week of release, debuting at #1. On September 27, 1997, No Way Out was number one on Jet Magazine’s top 20 albums. The album topped music charts as number one for 6 months after its initial release. The album won the 1998 Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. Alongside the album’s Grammy, one of the album’s hits, "It’s All About the Benjamin’s" won the Viewer’s Choice Award at the MTV Video Music Awards in September 1998. On September 7, 2000 the RIAA certified the album 7x multi-Platinum.
At the end of the 1998, out of the 10 songs to reach number one of the Billboard Hot 100 list, four of these belonged to Bad Boy Records, Puff Daddy’s record label which released his album. Out of the 52 weeks of the year, Bad Boy Records had a hit at number one for 22 weeks. The album had two Billboard Hot 100 number one singles, "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" and "I'll Be Missing You", and two number two singles, "Been Around the World" and "It's All about the Benjamins". The longest reign of any of the label’s four hits was the hit “I’ll Be Missing You” which topped the charts for 11 weeks. The inspiration for the album’s hit “I’ll Be Missing You” comes from The Police’s 1983 hit “Every Breath You Take”. A year after the praise at both award ceremonies, Puff Daddy’s success led him to be named as one of Forbes’ 40 highest-paid entertainers alongside southern rapper Master P, and TV’s Oprah Winfrey. In the music video of “Been Around the World” Puff Daddy romances actress Jennifer Lopez in a fictional storyline. The video began to spread rumors of the two celebrities being in a very serious relationship. Furthermore, the music video for "Victory" is one of the most expensive videos ever made. A song titled "No Way Out" by Puff Daddy appears on the soundtrack to the film Money Talks, but is not included on the album.
Read more about this topic: No Way Out (album)
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