Smalls Wonder: Puff Daddy & The Family: No Way Out (Bad Boy Records)

IN LIFE, only death is certain. For the religious, the prospect of paradise beyond the great divide provides an energising, vital motivation. For the cynics, the closing of the final curtain can induce deep-seated depression or nihilism — the latter often the spur to a life lived fast and hard, an attempt to outwit the Grim Reaper by moving too speedily. But everybody knows he'll catch up with you in the end.