Master P – MP Da Last Don (6-2-1998)

Posted on Jun 07 in Rapaveli Retroby adminPrint

I know a lot of people probably are going to feel like this is corny but I think Master P is the best rapper that ever lived. There you go, I said it! Now don’t get it misconstrued, he’s a horrible lyricist but as a rapper / business man no one has ever done it better. This man understood that he had a short window of opportunity and instead of trying to stretch the shit out he just did in two years what other record labels do in ten. Yea most of these other moguls found a way to live long in the game. I like P’s idea better because he knew that he would only have the nation’s attention for a short amount of time and while we were listening boy did he give us plenty to listen to.

The speech that P uses to kick of his supposed last album was something so dope back in the day to me. After the Scarface influenced intro P gets right into the album with one of my personal favorite tracks from the NL collection “Da Last Don.” P’s collaboration with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony isn’t as remembered as Pac and Biggie’s but it still was a good enough addition to this album. Super producer KLC shows his versatility on the bass heavy “Til We Dead And Gone.” No Limit had a solid reputation for flipping the shit out of classic beats and infusing them with some gumbo funk, as is the case on the Craig B produced and Mia X assisted “Thinkin Bout U.”

One of the album’s most versatile tracks just happens to feature one of the most unique spitters ever. E-40 shows up on the west coast flavored “Get Your Paper.” The Sons of Funk combine behind the boards on “Ride” making it one of the album’s best offerings. P paints his vivid pain filled picture on the standout and even sends a shout out to Suge Knight. Honestly I never liked “Thug Girl” then and I damn sure don’t like it now. The Snoop Dogg and Soulja Slim assisted “Mama Raised Me” easily turned out to be one of the first disc’s best offerings.

It can be easily argued that the second disc is more solid than the first. Things start off on a good note with the C-Murder assisted “More 2 Life.” From their things get even better as Bun B and Pimp c show up on the extra smooth Mo B Dick produced “Ghetto Life.” The treats don’t stop as the likes of The Ghetto Commision assisted “So Many Souls Deceased” and the Snoop Dogg assisted “Snitches” were and still are crowd favorites. Carlos Stephens manned the boards on the antagonizing C-Murder and Magic assisted “Let’s Get Em.”

“Goodbye To My Homies” is anoher prime example of NL’s ability to flip classics and turn them into New Orleans flavored hits. Who would’ve ever thought that P along with the Sons of Funk and Mo B Dick would ever be able to remake a classic Boys II Men effort. P’s cousin Mo B Dick gets behind the board on the extra sexy and old school sampled “Ghetto Love” where Mia X drops in to play Bonnie to P’s Clyde. “Make Em say Uhh #2″ and “Hot Boys And Girls” rounds out the album’s two party efforts. I didn’t like “Eternity” at first but after I watched the MP Da Last Don movie over at Mark’s crib one day I’ve been in love with it ever since.

MP Da Last Don was a pretty well rounded albums even though it won’t ever be regarded as a classic, or even a No Limit classic for that matter. I think P played the whole retirement thing as a big publicity stunt. What the fuck is a retired rapper supposed to mean anyways. I think P simply knew his time on top wouldn’t last forever and he figured he’d simply bow out while he was still up. As we all know he went on to release several more shit cake solo releases and has since fallen completely off as a has been rapper. As a matter of fact I think I might be the only person who still respects what the man did in the music industry. I leave you with what he told me on Ice Cream Man;

“If you was a real man, you’d have your own shit!”