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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   June 24, 2001
 22 out of 29 found this review helpful

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.


STOP TRYING   April 14, 2000
 11 out of 14 found this review helpful

sean combs has not a talented bone in his body...he cannot rap, he cannot produce(look at the credits for life after death-you'll notice that not one song is produced solely by puff daddy...they are all produced by puff daddy and someone else)


"P Diddy run the city...show no pitty! " BIG ('Victory')   April 7, 2000
 9 out of 15 found this review helpful

First off, let me address sumthin. Although it seems to be the cool thing to do to diss Puff, you people want to get an opinion of your own. What it comes down to is jealousy: clothing line, record label, restaurants, magazines, fly girls, etc. everyone wants it, and if you dont have it, lets knock whoever does. No Way Out is not whack, it's excellent. All these people that diss Puff one minute are the same people that go wild at the clubs when his tracks come on - you don't like it? don't buy the album!

U C a brutha with a bit of chedda and you got to shoot him down. Everyone that bigs up Black Rob, BIG, Mase, etc (and rightfully so) look at the production credits - who produces their stuff? who co-writes their stuff? who features on their stuff? And for everyone that says Bad Boy is dead, you people want to do your research - Yes there was the untimely death of BIG, Yes Mase has retired, Yes LOX left, but that doesnt just leave BR - Bad Boy's front line has just had to change and it has done so with the incorporation of G-Dep, BR, Carl Thomas, Mario Winans, Mark Curry, 112 and Joe Hooker. Everyone that bigged up BR's album (which was amazing) - look at the production credits, look at the featuring - it is a Bad Boy Project, produced and featuring Bad Boy.

Bad Boy is developing a new sound and is in a good place right now, and it can only get better. Production and artist wise they are very strong, and will rise to the top again (even though it never fell off)

In terms of No way out - top tracks are 'Victory', 'Young G's', 'I luv u Baby', and 'Is This the End?'

luv ya Puff - keep on keepin on!


A perfect example of a terrible "rapper"   April 8, 2000
 9 out of 12 found this review helpful

This album is the kind of product that makes people diss hip-hop. It's hard to call this a rap album, as it probably appeals to 13 year-old, female N Sync fans. Puff does not drop one good verse in this CD, and there is an overabundance of obvious samples. Lyrically, this CD is simply bad, although Biggie does have a few good rhymes here and there.Nevertheless, this is a mediocre album at best.