"Can't Nobody Hold Me Down"
#1 weeks: 6
weeks: 1997-03-22, 1997-03-29, 1997-04-05, 1997-04-12, 1997-04-19, 1997-04-26
genre: pop rap
artist: Puff Daddy featuring Mase
album:
No Way Out
writers: Sean "Puffy" Combs, Steve Jordan, Carlos Broady, Nasheim Myrick, Mason Betha, Greg Prestopino, Matthew Wilder, Sylvia Robinson, Melvin Glover, Clifton Chase, Edward Fletcher
producers: Carlos Broady, Nashiem Myrick, Sean "Puffy" Combs, Stevie J.
label:
formats: CD single, CD maxi-single, cassette single, 7" single, 12 inch single
"Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" is a hip-hop song by Sean "Puff
Daddy" Combs featuring Mase. It appears on Combs' debut album
No Way Outand it was released as the first single in
1997.
Combs was already a successful songwriter, producer and
record label owner (Bad Boy Records) before he released his
debut album as a performer. His first U.S. chart single, "No
Time", was a top-twenty hit for Lil' Kim on which Puff Daddy
was credited as a featured vocalist. "Can't Nobody Hold Me
Down" was the debut chart appearance for Harlem-based rapper
Mase.
The song combines elements of several previous singles, the
most obvious being a slowed-down rhythm track sampled from
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message". The
track's chorus is an interpolation of "Break My Stride", a
top-five single by Matthew Wilder from 1983.
"Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" entered the U.S. Billboard Hot
100 at number thirty-two in early 1997 and eventually spent six
weeks at number one. It was the beginning of Combs' and Bad Boy
Records' chart domination during the year — the Combs-produced
"Hypnotize" by The Notorious B.I.G. would follow this song at
number one, and the B.I.G. tribute song "I'll Be Missing You"
spent eleven weeks at number one during the summer, only to be
followed by another B.I.G. song, "Mo Money Mo Problems" and
then the Combs-produced "Honey" by Mariah Carey.
The albums from Combs, Mase, B.I.G. and Carey would also
dominate the top slots of the Billboard 200 during this time as
well.
The packaging for the single stated that the song was from
the upcoming album
Hell Up in Harlem, retitled as
No Way Outprior to its release.