Lil Gaither: I'll Fly Away

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.