MTV: Puff Daddy & The Family- No Way Out Tour 1997

To me, 1997 marked the change in hip-hop of how the music sounded and looked like. As we all we know hip-hop has gone thru phazes in the past leading up to now. In the early to mid 80’s it was all fun and dancing goin on. The late 80’s to early 90’s it was political, black power & stand up for ur rights movement. Then like in ‘92-’93 it was straight gangsta. From ‘94-’96 it was keeping it real & big willie style. Then ‘97 rolls around and Puff Daddy (and Will Smith also) starts the beginning of the Jiggy Era. People wanted to dance again and have fun again, cause with the untimely passings of Pac & BIG people wanted to move away from that negativity. Whoever was a who’s who in hip-hop at that time fell victim to the jiggy era, u can go down the line to Jay, Nas, Busta, the Lox (even tho I like If U Think Im Jiggy) and the list goes on & on. Me personally, I had no problem with this era. I mean it was kool to dress up in ur flyest wear and get ur groove on wit the ladies and all of that, but the shiny suits is another story tho. But Puff Daddy was the president in hip-hop in 1997, he straight up dominated it. Along with Mase, they formed a great duo in providing a lot of classic tracks in hip-hop history. I just remember being in 10th grade man and coppin The No Way Out LP, it was like listening to a music motion picture. I used to jam this LP everyday, it was very well put together from top to bottom. They don’t make LP’s like that any more, its like an lost art. This is the Puff that I liked, when he was focused just on the music and not being involved in Hollywood. I still think if BIG was still here, he would be still focused on the music and not crossing over to other things.

Now up to this point in ‘97, hip-hop tours was damn near extinct. It was getting too rowdy and shoot-outs always happened. That’s why other cities was hesitant to have hip-hop shows comin to their town. But Puff has to receive credit for reviving big tours available for hip-hop again. And on this one he brought everybody who was the shit in 1997. Who u ask? Jay Z (even tho he left after a couple of dates cause he didn’t like the way things was set for him), The Firm, Busta Rhymes, Mase, 112, Lil Kim & Usher. That’s one helleuva bill if u ask me. So u know MTV had to be there to give us the public the behind scenes access footage and that’s what im giving yall today. This is rare stuff right here, MTV don’t even do things like this anymore. Its also kinda crazy to see certain artists hangin out with each other even tho they would have beef a couple years later (or in the case of Foxy Brown & Lil Kim, during the tour!). I hope yall enjoy this and I have more comin ur way soon!

Puff Daddy & The Family No Way Out Tour 1997 from Brandan Evans on Vimeo.