 Master P Recently, a co-worker took it upon himself to enlighten me about the whimsical, yet slovenly rap musings of America's gangsta darling, Master P. Inspired by this confidence, I borrowed MP Da Last Don which, much to my surprise, is an all new double CD set of original material. "How prolific!" I thought, expecting at long-last, the hip-hop equivalent of the White Album. Um, no. The low spots far outweigh the high spots on this infantile, profanity-laced exercise designed, like all the others, to prove that the aforementioned Mr. P is the rootinest tootinest, gun-shootinest gangsta in these here parts (and points beyond). The high spots (totalling appoximately eight-and-a-half minutes) are mostly in the beats that go on behind the blubbering chatter. I found myself singing along to "Gangsta Bitch." "Dear Mr. President" is pretty good as well, despite the trip up memory lane to all the other raps about hate and distrust for the government. I thought the coming- soon photos for all MP's planned CD releases from his cohorts were hilarious parodies of the hip-hop genre, until I realized they were serious. The low spots, then, are virtually everywhere … our main voice and esteemed host "Master P" could be one of the worst rappers of his generation. Horrendously poor enunciation, dreadful repetitions of rhymes (example: "crazy" with "Mercedes," at least 13 times on this disc), and just an overall sense of indifference drag this release further into the mire. No ethnic group, or organized faction of society is safe from the clichéd 5th-grader-with-a-potty-mouth slurs, and no appreciable rhythm comes along to save the day. Even when Master P is at his best, he either sounds like a drunken Ice Cube, or at worst, a mentally retarded convict. Señor P could use a few lessons from his significantly more talented predecessors, like Ice Cube, Ice T, NWA … or even Young MC. I did smile, briefly, at his cavalier attitude … he blabbers on about how "they" killed Notorious BIG, and 2Pac, but "they'll" never kill him. Of course, pompous posturing and name-dropping of every firearm manufactured in the history of the world are par for the course here, but you have to love a guy who says, and this is a direct quote: "Even the fans can't stop me." Well, far be it from them to keep him from making more work for their fast-forward buttons. I believe MP The Last Don is whatever one would consider to be the antithesis of a classic album, despite the enormous amount of copies sold.
Review by Casey Blick |