(UPDATED) XXL Mag: T.I. (Man Of The Year 2006)

In order to celebrate XXL's 10th Anniversary, we went back and examined the past 10 years of hip-hop. Puff Daddy is our choice for 1997's Man of the Year. Take a trip down memory lane and relive the greatest songs and albums from one of hip-hop's most memorable years.

Puff Daddy
1997 Man of the Year

If there was ever any question about the strength of Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs' drive and ambition, 1997 put it to rest. Already a millionaire music mogul making an unprecedented transition into the role of performer, the Bad Boy Records founder was halfway through recording his debut album (which was originally titled Hell Up in Harlem) when his friend, and his label's flagship artist, the Notorious B.I.G. was shot and killed in Los Angeles. (This in March, six months after Big's archrival, Tupac Shakur, had met a similar fate in Las Vegas). Rather than holing up and mourning in private, though, Puff made a spectacle of his grief. Fueled by every bit of controversy and complaint that came his way, he donned a wardrobe full of shiny suits, poured Champagne and danced. He recorded a tribute song, "I'll Be Missing You," that debuted at No.1 on the pop charts three months after Big's death and stayed there for seven weeks, going on to sell three million copies. He released his album, retitled No Way Out, in July. It would eventually sell five million copies. He launched a 35-city tour with a massive stage set and a rotating cast of 15 supporting acts. The tour grossed $14.7 million. Throwing himself onto a bigger stage than ever, blowing himself and his label to higher heights than anyone in hip-hop had reached before, Puff showed the world exactly what he meant when he said it don't stop.

A decade later, the relentless 37-year-old remembers the time.

Looking back to 1997, is that the year you blew up in the music industry?
I would say it was the biggest year for me as a recording artist. I was kinda big already in the music industry, 'cause, as a producer and owning a record company, I had already did Mary J. Blige and Jodeci and Biggie and Ma$e. But this was the year, for me as a recording artist, that I got all the respectful accolades, as far as eight American Music Award nominations and the Grammy and the biggest-selling hip-hop tour in history. It was one of those huge crossover times for hip-hop, because all my videos were in heavy rotation, and opening up the MTV Awards as a hip-hop act. It was just a lot of hip-hop historical things. Even the No Way Out tour. If you remember back, they had shut hip-hop tours down, so it was the first tour since they went through that whole phase, and it really opened up hip-hop touring back. And when you look at all the acts I had on the tour-we had Usher, Jay, Busta, Foxy-everybody was on that tour. And to be honest, everybody wanted to be on that tour. Everybody came on and took less money and cut they time down and wanted to be a part of it. That tour was a changing point, as far as in hip-hop history, for touring.

Do you think No Way Out the album changed hip-hop?
I don't honestly think that album was one of those albums that changed hip-hop. I think that it was one of the albums that gave birth to a new type of artist. It's a ****c album and one of the best albums in hip-hop, but I don't know if it was one of those... Like, I think The Chronic changed the game. Ready to Die, Life After Death changed the game. All Eyez on Me. It's a different type, but I think it raised the bar, as far as on consistency. It was like a movie that was an ensemble. Almost like Pulp Fiction. I wouldn't say it changed the game, but I think this album opened doors for hip-hop.

XXL Staff Picks for 1997

Songs of the Year:

"Hypnotize," Notorious B.I.G.

"All About The Benjamins," Puff Daddy featuring Notorious B.I.G., Lil' Kim & the Lox

"No Time," Lil' Kim featuring Puff Daddy

"Mo' Money, Mo' Problems," Notorious B.I.G. featuring Ma$e & Puff Daddy

"Let Me Clear My Throat," DJ Kool

"Smile," Scarface featuring 2Pac

"I Miss My Homies," Master P featuring Silkk the Shocker & Pimp C

"Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See," Busta Rhymes

"Triumph," Wu-Tang Clan

"Hail Mary," 2Pac featuring the Outlawz

Albums of the Year:

Life After Death, Notorious B.I.G.
Wu-Tang Forever, Wu-Tang Clan
The Carnival, Wyclef Jean
Ghetto D, Master P
No Way Out, Puff Daddy & the Family

Songs of the Year:

kobegill

[QUOTE="kobegill"]

Songs of the Year:

Orlando_Magic

That was 10 years ago? Geez time flys.

btw it had such a terrible album cover...

http://www.xxlmag.com/online/?p=12800

Master P
1998 Man of the Year

Interview: Clover Hope Images: Piotr Sikora

The first rapper to make $100 million, the first rap star to retain full ownership of his masters, Percy "Master P" Miller pioneered the artist-as-businessman prototype so prevalent in hip-hop today. After turning his Bay Area retail shop No Limit Records into an independent label in the early 1990s, P moved his operation to his native Louisiana and, with a distribution deal through Priority Records, established a gangsta-rap dynasty that had the whole world saying his trademark "Ugghhh!" In 1998, he earned an estimated $56.5 million, which landed him in the top 10 of Forbes magazines' list of highest-paid entertainers of the year.

This past May, P announced he'd formed Take a Stand Records, a clean-rap label intended to shed a positive light on hip-hop. Coming on two decades in the game, the 38-year-old mogul tells us all 'bout it, 'bout it.

I always thought I was gon' master whatever I do in life. That's why I call myself Master P. And I always thought it was no limit to what I could do... I always thought of being unique, and I think that's what really drew a mass amount of people to what I did. If a kid didn't get nothing else from me, they could see that I started off in the project, and then every time they see me, I was tryna do some type of business or grow. I think a lotta kids could really look at the blueprint and say, wow! The kids seen the type of money that you could make off the sound that I created, which was more of a rowdy, jump around in the club. I kinda took the whole military thing from my grandfather. That's what the "Ugghhh!" come from. It was street music, but it was also feel-good music. That's why it crossed over to suburbs, to the hoods, to just anybody. With me making songs like "Swamp Music," that made people understand that it's cool to be country and you could be from the streets and tell your story.

I come from the projects, so my people was about working. They wasn't about sitting around for a welfare check. So I just took that as a challenge: My parents are hard workers, but we still stuck in the ghetto. I just can't get no regular job. And I was like, I'ma just start putting my story, everything I done been through, my family, my friends in this music... Being in the Bay Area half of my life-my mom lived in Richmond, Calif.; my dad lived in New Orleans-I was able to do like a South/West vibe. The Bay Area was big already from sellin' records in they market-E-40, Too $hort-so it just put me up on my game. I didn't know nothin' else but: Make a couple CDs, go out and sell it on your own. Then I opened up a record store in Richmond, which was No Limit Records.

XXL Staff Picks for 1998

Songs of the Year:

"Déjà Vu (Uptown Baby)," Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz
"Ha," Juvenile
"Get at Me Dog," DMX
"Victory," Puff Daddy and the Family featuring the Notorious B.I.G. & Busta Rhymes
"Money, Power & Respect," the Lox featuring DMX & Lil' Kim
"Make Em Say Uhh!" Master P
"Money Ain't A Thang," Jay-Z featuring Jermaine Dupri
"Nann *****," Trick Daddy
"I'm Not a Player," Big Pun
"Superthug," Noreaga

Albums of the Year:

Aquemini, OutKast
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Lauryn Hill
It's Dark and Hell Is Hot, DMX
400 Degreez, Juvenile
Hard Knock Life: Vol. 2, Jay-Z

I wonder who theyll choose as the MOTY in the most recent yearsicekoldwater

well if they are trying to get the list right Chris Brown and Juvenile better be on that list...

[QUOTE="icekoldwater"]I wonder who theyll choose as the MOTY in the most recent years_MURS_

well if they are trying to get the list right Chris Brown and Juvenile better be on that list...

Only if Chris Brown was hip hop :|

[QUOTE="_MURS_"]

[QUOTE="icekoldwater"]I wonder who theyll choose as the MOTY in the most recent yearskobegill

well if they are trying to get the list right Chris Brown and Juvenile better be on that list...

Only if Chris Brown was hip hop :|

[QUOTE="kobegill"][QUOTE="_MURS_"]

[QUOTE="icekoldwater"]I wonder who theyll choose as the MOTY in the most recent yearsApocalypse33

well if they are trying to get the list right Chris Brown and Juvenile better be on that list...

Only if Chris Brown was hip hop :|

[QUOTE="kobegill"][QUOTE="_MURS_"]

[QUOTE="icekoldwater"]I wonder who theyll choose as the MOTY in the most recent yearsApocalypse33

well if they are trying to get the list right Chris Brown and Juvenile better be on that list...

Only if Chris Brown was hip hop :|

Not really. R&B iscombining jazz, gospel, and blues influences.

[QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="kobegill"][QUOTE="_MURS_"]

[QUOTE="icekoldwater"]I wonder who theyll choose as the MOTY in the most recent yearskobegill

well if they are trying to get the list right Chris Brown and Juvenile better be on that list...

Only if Chris Brown was hip hop :|

Not really. R&B iscombining jazz, gospel, and blues influences.

[QUOTE="kobegill"][QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="kobegill"][QUOTE="_MURS_"]

[QUOTE="icekoldwater"]I wonder who theyll choose as the MOTY in the most recent yearsApocalypse33

well if they are trying to get the list right Chris Brown and Juvenile better be on that list...

Only if Chris Brown was hip hop :|

Not really. R&B iscombining jazz, gospel, and blues influences.

Since when have you known XXl to talk about R&B artists to list them in with a bunch of MCs? :|

[QUOTE="kobegill"][QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="kobegill"][QUOTE="_MURS_"]

[QUOTE="icekoldwater"]I wonder who theyll choose as the MOTY in the most recent yearsApocalypse33

well if they are trying to get the list right Chris Brown and Juvenile better be on that list...

Only if Chris Brown was hip hop :|

Not really. R&B iscombining jazz, gospel, and blues influences.

[QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="kobegill"][QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="kobegill"][QUOTE="_MURS_"]

[QUOTE="icekoldwater"]I wonder who theyll choose as the MOTY in the most recent yearskobegill

well if they are trying to get the list right Chris Brown and Juvenile better be on that list...

Only if Chris Brown was hip hop :|

Not really. R&B iscombining jazz, gospel, and blues influences.

Since when have you known XXl to talk about R&B artists to list them in with a bunch of MCs? :|

wowowowowow

I was joking about Chris Brown and Juvenile guys....

[QUOTE="kobegill"][QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="kobegill"][QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="kobegill"][QUOTE="_MURS_"]

[QUOTE="icekoldwater"]I wonder who theyll choose as the MOTY in the most recent yearsApocalypse33

well if they are trying to get the list right Chris Brown and Juvenile better be on that list...

Only if Chris Brown was hip hop :|

Not really. R&B iscombining jazz, gospel, and blues influences.

Since when have you known XXl to talk about R&B artists to list them in with a bunch of MCs? :|

[QUOTE="kobegill"][QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="kobegill"][QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="kobegill"][QUOTE="_MURS_"]

[QUOTE="icekoldwater"]I wonder who theyll choose as the MOTY in the most recent yearsApocalypse33

well if they are trying to get the list right Chris Brown and Juvenile better be on that list...

Only if Chris Brown was hip hop :|

Not really. R&B iscombining jazz, gospel, and blues influences.

Since when have you known XXl to talk about R&B artists to list them in with a bunch of MCs? :|

No its because they play BOTH genres....

[QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="kobegill"][QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="kobegill"][QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="kobegill"][QUOTE="_MURS_"]

[QUOTE="icekoldwater"]I wonder who theyll choose as the MOTY in the most recent yearsHighPowered94

well if they are trying to get the list right Chris Brown and Juvenile better be on that list...

Only if Chris Brown was hip hop :|

Not really. R&B iscombining jazz, gospel, and blues influences.

Since when have you known XXl to talk about R&B artists to list them in with a bunch of MCs? :|

Songs of the Year:

"Victory," Puff Daddy and the Family featuring the Notorious B.I.G. & Busta Rhymes

Orlando_Magic

Yo the sun dont shine forever, so as long as its here we might as well shine together - Puff Daddy

Chea

[QUOTE="Orlando_Magic"]

Songs of the Year:

"Victory," Puff Daddy and the Family featuring the Notorious B.I.G. & Busta Rhymes

Agnidev

Yo the sun dont shine forever, so as long as its here we might as well shine together - Puff Daddy

Chea

lol nah, you're just slow...R&B is not a sub-culture of Hip-Hop, the two have fused in someways because both are gernes dominated by black artist, but R&B was around years before hip-hop...
fat_rob

I guess I forgot how prominent Master P was in the late 90s.

Only good things about chirs brown is the umbrella(remix) and how good he is at chicken noodle soup dance.

B.G. & Juve
1999 Men of the Year

In 1999, the Cash Money Millionaires snatched the city of New Orleans-and, really, the catbird seat in hip-hop as a whole-from Master P's No Limit Records. Led by brothers Bryan "Baby" and Ronald "Slim" Williams, the eight-year-old independent label leaped from the local street scene after signing a groundbreaking $30 million deal with Universal Records and rode to power on the raps of their young supergroup the Hot Boys: Juvenile, B.G., Lil Wayne and Young Turk. Juiced by singles "We On Fire" and "I Need a Hot Girl," the quartet's album Guerilla Warfare sold 870,000 copies in '99, while solo albums from B.G. (Chopper City in the Ghetto, featuring the smash hits "Bling Bling" and "Cash Money Is an Army") and Juvenile (400 Degreez, with "Back That Azz Up" and "Ha") went for more than four million combined.

Eight years later, B.G. and Juve have long since left Cash Money. Rap sales nationwide have plummeted. But "bling-bling" is in the **** dictionary! B.G. and Juve talk to XXL about dominating the last year of the 20th century.

B.G.

Was 1999 an important year in your career?
Yeah, '99 was most definitely a big, big, big year, 'cause prior to that,
I ain't never have a video or been all over the radio or nothing like that. All the units I ever put up and everything I ever did was strictly for and from the streets. So for me to be getting this much attention was new to me. Being an underground legend and being a neighborhood superstar wasn't nothing new to me, but taking it to the next level was.

What do you think your contribution has been to hip-hop?
My contribution is that real New Orleans, gangsta, gutter. My contribution has been to represent the real New Orleans. My contribution to the game would be me. I gave the game my life, and I still give it my life. At the end of the day, I'm just happy to be a part of hip-hop and be relevant to the industry and to everything I'm a part of, so it's all good.

JUVENILE

When you think back to 1999, to what Cash Money did that year, do you think you guys changed the game?
Oh, definitely. Listen to the songs now. I think, as far as the South, we had a huge influence on the game. And right now, as far as the hip-hop biz, even though hip-hop ain't doing that great this year, the South have a few artists that are really standing out right now. And I think it's because it was cats like us that came through and paved the way.

Was No Limit a model for you guys?
Cash Money came and was already doing they thing. No Limit kinda came as a shock to us. Not saying it wasn't New Orleans grown, but it was just the fact that P was out there in [California] when he first started the company and first got it popping, and then he came back home and started scooping a lot of cats and putting a lot of cats on. We kinda, like, felt like it was our territory, and he came, and he took it from us. But, you know, everybody got they own story. I think it was a good thing. I think the whole No Limit/Cash Money era was a good thing. We just wasn't smart enough to sit at the same table together and get that money.

XXL Staff Picks:

Songs of the Year:
"Holla Holla," Ja Rule
"Back That Azz Up," Juvenile featuring Mannie Fresh & Lil Wayne
"Got Your Money," Ol' Dirty Bastard featuring Kelis
"Vivrant Thing," Q-Tip
"Da Rockwilder," Method Man & Redman
"Bling Bling," B.G. featuring Big Tymers & Hot Boys
"Quiet Storm (Remix)," Mobb Deep featuring Lil' Kim
"Still D.R.E.," Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg
"Hate Me Now," Nas featuring Puff Daddy
"Simon Says," Pharoahe Monch

Albums of the Year:
2001, Dr. Dre
The Slim Shady LP, Eminem
Murda Muzik, Mobb Deep
N***a Please, Ol' Dirty Bastard
Chopper City in the Ghetto, B.G.

"Still D.R.E.," Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg
"Hate Me Now," Nas featuring Puff Daddy

kobegill

Chea

1997 = worst year for hip-hop.HaSheeSh_basic

Quit waiting for them to put it on the internet. This is all in the magazine out now. It's awesome. Buy it.lonestarg

back cover:

I refuse to buy this magazine:lol:

[QUOTE="HaSheeSh_basic"]1997 = worst year for hip-hop.Apocalypse33

It's amazing how the upper and lower year peaks of quality hip-hop are just 2 years apart.

[QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="HaSheeSh_basic"]1997 = worst year for hip-hop.HaSheeSh_basic

It's amazing how the upper and lower year peaks of quality hip-hop are just 2 years apart.

[QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="HaSheeSh_basic"]1997 = worst year for hip-hop.HaSheeSh_basic

It's amazing how the upper and lower year peaks of quality hip-hop are just 2 years apart.

Now was it true that Pharohe Monch ghost wote for Diddy on "Press Play" CD?

[QUOTE="HaSheeSh_basic"]

[QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="HaSheeSh_basic"]1997 = worst year for hip-hop.kobegill

It's amazing how the upper and lower year peaks of quality hip-hop are just 2 years apart.

Now was it true that Pharohe Monch ghost wote for Diddy on "Press Play" CD?

[QUOTE="HaSheeSh_basic"]

[QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="HaSheeSh_basic"]1997 = worst year for hip-hop.Apocalypse33

It's amazing how the upper and lower year peaks of quality hip-hop are just 2 years apart.

[QUOTE="HaSheeSh_basic"]

[QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="HaSheeSh_basic"]1997 = worst year for hip-hop.kobegill

It's amazing how the upper and lower year peaks of quality hip-hop are just 2 years apart.

Now was it true that Pharohe Monch ghost wote for Diddy on "Press Play" CD?

[QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="HaSheeSh_basic"]

[QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="HaSheeSh_basic"]1997 = worst year for hip-hop.HaSheeSh_basic

It's amazing how the upper and lower year peaks of quality hip-hop are just 2 years apart.

[QUOTE="HaSheeSh_basic"]

[QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="HaSheeSh_basic"]1997 = worst year for hip-hop.kobegill

It's amazing how the upper and lower year peaks of quality hip-hop are just 2 years apart.

Now was it true that Pharohe Monch ghost wote for Diddy on "Press Play" CD?

no way out was the first rap cd i ever boughtPyro

No Way Out owns. "Victory" was my ish,well,it still is.

Eminem
2000 Man of the Year

Interview: Leah Rose Images: Lee Jenkins

Having gone from the underground battle-rap circuit, to making an album with Dr. Dre, to being a triple-platinum, two-time Grammy winner in the space of a year, Marshall "Eminem" Mathers might have thought he'd peaked. Nope. When his second album, The Marshall Mathers LP, came out in May 2000, it sold 1.8 million copies its first week in stores-the second biggest opening week in music-industry history. (Justin Timberlake's boy band N'Sync had sold 2.4 million in a week two months earlier.)

While the album remained at the No. 1 spot throughout the summer, legal trouble and public controversy threatened to eclipse the Detroit MC's pop chart supremacy. Weapons charges, assault charges, marital strife, an ugly lawsuit with his mother and protests staged by activist groups upset at his "hate lyrics." Still, the American public couldn't get enough of the trailer-park kid turned MTV darling who could rap circles around his peers, and by the end of the year, The Marshall Mathers LP had sold a whopping 7.9 million copies. Best of all, for us, the album's title track included this famous diss/shout-out: "Double XL! Double XL!/Now your magazine shouldn't have so much trouble to sell." Turns out he was right. (Thanks, Em!)

In a candid interview, Eminem reflects on the year he became a worldwide phenomenon.

The Marshall Mathers LP set the record for the biggest opening ever by a solo artist when it sold 1.8 million copies its first week. Did you look at those numbers as a huge success or a tremendous pressure to come?
I'm always way more interested in the creative side than anything else. I'm not the type of artist who is asking every 10 minutes what we have sold so far. Of course, I was happy and shocked by those numbers-they are crazy, especially with the way sales are today. I can't really remember exactly what I was expecting to sell. We were just trying to do as well as the last album did. The problem is that once you reach those kinds of sales, everyone expects it to keep coming, which is pretty impossible.

You started 2000 by winning Grammys for Best Rap Album and Best Solo Performance for The Slim Shady LP. Did you ever imagine you would be a Grammy-Award-winning artist?
I never really understood what the hell a Grammy was. Growing up, it always seemed like a bunch of older people wearing tuxedos, deciding whose album they thought was the best. It's nice when people want to give you an award, but I'd rather have the respect of my peers in the type of music that I make than anything else first. But now, I don't mean to brag, I have nine of those mutha*****s and I love them, so I'm trying to get one more, to make it an even 10.

You also won three MTV Video Music Awards that year. Were you happy, or did all of the recognition go against what you wanted to say as an artist?
I definitely feel like, with the MTV Awards, the people watching are more so the types of fans that buy hip-hop music. So to receive those kinds of awards was more like the type of attention I wanted. I was, of course, worried that I was becoming like all of those pop artists that I was taking stabs at around that time. But then again, I was taking stabs at just about everyone. I should start doing that again.

XXL Staff Picks

Songs of the Year:
"Country Grammar (Hot...)," Nelly
"The Next Episode," Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg & Nate Dogg
"Whoa!," Black Rob
"Shake Ya Ass," Mystikal
"Bad Boyz," Shyne featuring Barrington Levy
"Ante Up (Robbing Hoodz Theory)," M.O.P. featuring Funkmaster Flex
"Southern Hospitality," Ludacris
"Big Pimpin'," Jay-Z featuring UGK
"Ms. Jackson," OutKast
"Stan," Eminem featuring Dido

Albums of the Year:

Stankonia, OutKast
The Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem
Country Grammar, Nelly
Back for the First Time, Ludacris
Supreme Clientele, Ghostface Killah

Orlando, you took my post....son!

Orlando, you took my post....son!

kobegill

[QUOTE="kobegill"]

Orlando, you took my post....son!

Orlando_Magic

You be reading our minds or something.

I wonder who will be man of the year in 01...Nas or Jay?fat_rob

It's gonna be Jay but I wouldn't be shocked if XXL did put someone like Ja Rule up there