Can't Nobody Hold Me Down

Infobox Single
Name = Can't Nobody Hold Me Down


Artist = Puff Daddy featuring Mase
from Album = No Way Out
Released = January 1997 (U.S.)
Format = CD single, CD maxi-single, cassette single, 7" single, 12 inch single
Recorded = 1996
Genre = Rap
Length =
Label = Bad Boy
Writer = Sean "Puffy" Combs, Steve Jordan, Carlos Broady, Nasheim Myrick, Mason Betha, Greg Prestopino, Matthew Wilder, Sylvia Robinson, Melvin Glover, Clifton Chase, Edward Fletcher
Producer = Carlos Broady, Nashiem Myrick, Sean "Puffy" Combs, Stevie J.
Chronology = Puff Daddy
Last single = "No Time"
(1997)
This single = "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down"
(1997)
Next single = "I'll Be Missing You"
(1997)
Misc = Extra chronology 2
Artist = Mase
Type = singles
Last single = —
This single = "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down"
(1997)
Next single = "Mo Money Mo Problems"
(1997)

"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 Out" and 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 Out" prior to its release.

ee also

*Hot 100 number-one hits of 1997 (USA)