Puff Daddy and The Family, currently riding a massive wave of success thanks to their mega-hit album No Way Out, will tour North American beginning in November.

Sean "Puffy" Combs, CEO of Bad Boy Entertainment, whose debut album has hit #1 on the Billboard charts three times since its summer release, will lead his label mates Faith Evans, Mase, The Lox and 112 across the States through November and December. The tour, which begins with a couple dates in the U.K., will be hitting arena-sized venues here.

While a major tour for a chart-topping act such as Puff Daddy and the Family is not out of the ordinary, a tour of this magnitude for a hip-hop act is somewhat unusual. Many hip-hop acts cannot afford the insurance required to tour. Hip-hop shows having gained a reputation, some would say unfairly, for violence and property destruction. A spokesperson for The Palace of Auburn Hills, the Auburn Hills, Mich. sports arena which is hosting the first date of the tour, said they've "...never had a problem with those kinds of things. Right now, we haven't heard anything about needing any additional security. The show is still a couple months away, so we'll see."

Puff Daddy Tour Dates:

Nov. 11; Auburn Hills, Mich., Palace Of Auburn hills

Nov. 13; Baltimore, Md., Baltimore Arena

Nov. 14; Philadelphia, Pa., CoreStates Spectrum

Nov. 15; Chapel Hill, N.C., Dean Smith Center

Nov. 16; Indianapolis, Ind., Market Square Arena

Nov. 19; St. Louis, Mo., Kiel Center

Nov. 20; Cincinnati, Ohio; Crown

Nov. 21; Pittsburgh, Pa., Pittsburgh Civic Arena

Nov. 22; Toronto, Ont., Maple Leaf Gardens

Nov. 23; Cleveland, Ohio., Gund Arena

Nov. 26; Denver, Colo., McNichols Arena

Nov. 28; Fairfax, Va., Patriot Center

Nov. 29; Providence, R.I., Providence Civic Center

Nov. 30; Hartford, Conn., Hartford Civic Center

Dec. 1; New York, N.Y., Madison Square Garden

Dec. 5; San Jose, Calif., San Jose Arena

Dec. 6; Phoenix, Ariz., America West Arena

Dec. 7; Anaheim, Calif., Arrowhead Pond

Dec. 9; Vancouver, B.C., General Motors Place

Dec. 10; Seattle, Wash., Key Arena

Dec. 13; Houston, Texas, Summit

Dec 14; San Antonio, Texas, Alamodome

Dec 18; Minneapolis, Minn., Target Center

Dec. 19; Rosemont, Ill., Rosemont Horizon

Dec. 20; Louisville, Ken.; Freedom Hall

Dec. 21; Nashville, Tenn., Nashville Arena

-- Randy Reiss [Sat., Sept. 27, 1997, 9 a.m. PDT]