I Got The Hook Up Soundtrack (4-7-1998)

Posted on Apr 28 in Rapaveli Retroby adminPrint

Sometimes we all sit back and reflect on the changes that take place within us over the years. Music to a large degree helps me to reflect on those changes. It’s hard for me to grasp the idea that it’s been over ten years since me, Mark, Marcus, and JT took that bike ride up to the record store to cop Master P’s I Got The Hook Up Soundtrack. In the decade that’s followed we’ve all grown in different ways but we’ve all stayed close. You see music can bring people together and keep them together. As you know, yours truly has given his own opinion of the latest rap music on this very site. Mark is protecting your freedom and safety right now in Iraq, Marcus is a striving rap artist himself, and JT just got his bachelors in performing arts a couple of months ago. Needless to say the people I’m around and been around do big things. I guess the influence that Master P had on us was more than just beats and rhymes.

Though I never really listened to Ice Cube’s “Ghetto Vet” back in the day I did find a newfound appreciation for the track when I picked it up for review on this site. Cube spat a hell of a story about a hustler who ends up getting shot and paralyzed from the waist down. I Got The Hook Up may be most famous for re-introducing the late Soulja Slim to the game. We all first heard him as Magnolia Slim on the 1995 No Limit compilation Down South Hustlers – Bouncin And Swangin. This time he came with some bold predictions on the Carlos Stephens produced “From What I Was Told.”

The soundtrack’s first single featured Master P and the Sons of Funk chopping up game alongside each other on “I Got The Hook Up.” The Sons of Funk was one of No Limit’s three R&B acts and their debut album came out exactly two weeks after this soundtrack. Unfortunately yours truly won’t be doing a review on that one, this is strictly hip hop my dude. My favorite track on the soundtrack used to be “Shake Somethin” with Mystikal and Mia X, but these days I feel every word that C-Murder spat on the Craig B helmed “Would You Hesitate.” I Got The Hook Up featured a very diverse guest list as artist from UGK to the late Ol Dirty Bastard to Mack 10 to Montell Jordan show up with some of their best material. Of course a No Limit release would have some limits if it didn’t feature the in house regulars such as Mr. Serv On, Big Ed, Magic, Ghetto Commission, Steady Mobb’n, Kane and Abel, Mac, and Fiend.

I take a lot of time and reflect on life. The places I’ve been, the places I’m going, and where I’m at now. I must say that if it wasn’t for Master P and the astronomical year he put together in 1998 that I probably wouldn’t be the eager entrepreneur I am today. Sure the man had some bangin ass music, but my prize out of buying all those CDs was the business model I’ve been able to emulate. To all you striving rap artist just understand one thing. Promotion is the key to everything. You can have the best product and no promotion and you won’t make shit. Or you can be like P and gather a bunch of people who really can’t rap throw them on some good beats and promote the shit out of it and become one of the richest moguls in hip hop history in just over three years. Ambition-1 All Day