Happy 20th: MP Da Last Don

What's the deal ladies and gents?! This salute goes to a rapper/entrepreneur that is among the most successful rags to riches stories to ever be seen within hip-hop and music in general.  Coming from the Calliope PJs in New Orleans, this man had basically seen and done it all in the streets. He brought a new sound from the south that was different from the soulful, bluesy stylings of the likes of UGK, Outkast, or Eightball & MJG.  This was almost a pre-trap type sound we were getting from this label thanks to their production team, Beats By The Pound, and they almost heavily relied on sampling and reworking original songs and turning them into some of the most hood-sounding cuts you could imagine.  This man not only brought up a bunch of his homies and family members into stardom, but officially put New Orleans on the map on a nationwide, mainstream level, and eventually became one of the most talked about artists in the game.  In '98, he delivered what would be his biggest selling album and put him into America's consciousness as a big time player.  This is Master P, and we salute his double album, MP Da Last Don.

Since '91, Percy "Master P" Miller has been a fixture in southern hip-hop.  His pre-major label distribution albums of Get Away Clean, Mama's Bad Boy, and The Ghetto's Tryin' To Kill Me were fixtures within the underground and made people talk more and more about him, as well as his TRU click (brothers C-Murder and Silkk Tha Shocker, Mia X, King George, the late Big Ed, and others).  When he struck a distribution deal with Priority Records, it slowly meant going all the way up.  First up was the cult classic, 99 Ways To Die, which had him slightly cleaning up the production, yet keeping it undoubtedly street.  Miller was finding his niche.

However, in '96, he dropped his breakout album, Ice Cream Man, and it became his calling card.  Delivering the anthem "Bout It Bout It II" (the sequel to the hard as nails original "I'm Bout It, Bout It" from the TRU album, True), the title track, "No More Tears", and the UGK-assisted "Break 'Em Off Something".  Followers of No Limit knew this album was about to put him on a higher level, and things were about to change.  With the first taste of gold for the label (it would later go platinum years later), his next solo album would come in the form of '97's Ghetto D, in which he officially became a star.  the album went triple platinum and solidified him as a legit somebody in the game, helping to place the south among the elite of hip-hop.

With the ever growing success of No Limit Records (a few artists went gold without so much as a single or video from their albums), The head of No Limit delivered his seventh album, MP Da Last Don.  Following up the runaway success of Ghetto D was going to be hard, but Miller had it under control.  With his singles of "Make 'Em Say Ughh II" , "Goodbye To My Homies", and the highly infectious club hit "Hot Boys & Girls", Master P was in line to this becoming yet another huge success, and it was.  The double album sold quadruple platinum units, and became his biggest selling album.  Most double albums are not the most consistent, but this one definitely was.  Guests such as Bone Thugs N Harmony, UGK and the rest of his No Limit Soldiers (this includes a newly signed Snoop at this time) greatly contributed to this effort and only elevated the stature of No Limit even more.

From this point, P didn't quite achieve this level of success or acclaim as subsequent albums such as Ghetto Postage, Game Face, and Only God Can Judge Me didn't measure up to his prior projects.  At this time, No Limit was going through a transition period that wasn't easy, as the other New Orleans click, Cash Money Records, were starting to take over the New Orleans scene.  Coupled with the death of TRU original Big Ed, the incarcerations of Mac and C-Murder, and more and more artists leaving the label, Master P was almost an island to himself.  However, this isn't a woe-is-me piece.  This is a salute to how strong No Limit Records was in the mid to late nineties, and MP Da Last Don was at the front of the charge for the label.  Defining albums such as the I'm Bout It soundtrack, Unlady Like, Charge It 2 Da Game, Life Or Death, and Life Insurance are all projects that are easily identified as some of the best efforts No Limit put out, but it was the commander-in-chief that brought the label into prominence, and MP Da Last Don was the shining example of their influence not just in the south, but hip-hop as a whole.  With that, let's toast to Master P's MP Da Last Don and its twentieth year of dopeness.

Happy 20th: The Love Movement

What's good everyone? This salute goes to a group widely considered the most influential hip-hop group of all-time.  Considering the likes of De La Soul, Wu-Tang, Outkast, and EPMD, that's a monstrous statement, but it has a lot of validity.  Bringing forth arguably the greatest trilogy of albums to ever exist in hip-hop, these three Queens natives introduced a jazzy, b-boy like style in the early nineties to where it eventually crossed over to them becoming so universally admired and respected.  Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and the trio broke up, and the blow was unfathomably more painful with the loss of one its members.  This group recorded their final album together as a group while all members were alive and the album was an excellent sendoff to hip-hop globally loved heroes.  This is a salute to A Tribe Called Quest and their fifth album, The Love Movement.

In '90, two young emcees from Queens, Q-Tip The Abstract and Phife Dawg got up with fellow Queens native DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammed and b-boy/emcee Jairobi White to comprise A Tribe Called Quest, an Afrocentric, bohemian group that focused on Black empowerment, positivity, the love of hip-hop, and overall just having fun over mostly jazzy production and stylings.  Their debut album, People's Instinctive Travels In The Paths Of Rhythm, was nothing less than a joyous musical experience that we hadn't heard quite like anything before.  Loved songs such as "Can I kick It", "I Left My Wallet In El Segundo", and the b-boy charms of "Bonita Applebum" helped define the album and was hailed as an immediate classic.  If it was even possible, they followed that up with an even better album in The Low End Theory.  One of the true landmarks in hip-hop and music overall, this album delved more into jazz samplings, some live instrumentation, and stepped-up lyricism, especially from the "Five Foot Assassin" himself.  Honorary member Busta Rhymes hailed it as "the perfect hip-hop album", and it's not an outlandish claim whatsoever. Famous cuts like "Check the Rhime", "Buggin' Out", "Jazz (We Got)", and one of hip-hop's most impactful posse cuts, "Scenario" with Leaders Of the New School, brought this beyond epic album to meteoric acclaimed heights.  Just when you thought they couldn't possibly match this brilliance, they reemerge in '93 with Midnight Marauders, a slightly more stripped down, sample-heavy album that was their first taste in more mainstream appeal thanks to cuts like "Award Tour" and "Electric Relaxation".  This album officially declared them as hip-hop's most ambitious and ingenious trio.  They were simply on fire.

However, tensions within the group were starting to show, and the resulting fourth album, Beats, Rhymes, and Life was delivered.  Darker than their previous efforts, it was also the first album that Q-Tip and Ali collaborated with Detroit producer Jay Dee (later known as the legendary J Dilla) to become The Ummah.  The production, although darker somewhat, was still a very dope album and one that truthfully doesn't get enough props. Another gold plaque for them was in the midst of this turmoil and continued to show them as one of the game's most important acts.  With all the tension and all the volatility, the group decided to call it quits, but not before releasing their fifth and (at the time) final album, The Love Movement.

While it was missing that charm that made their first three albums part of hip-hop immortality, this was still a very pleasing and enjoyable album.  Sounding more upbeat than Beats, Rhymes, and Life, this was more of a celebration of what they had accomplished as a group, and was catapulted by the highly infectious first single "Find A Way", which many consider among their best singles.  Listening to other cuts like "Like It Like That", "Steppin' It Up" with Busta and Redman, "Give Me" with N.O.R.E., "Pad & Pen", and "4 Moms", you would never think the group was ending and this was their curtain call.  No matter what anyone says, this was far from a mediocre project.  Although you knew the truth about the group breaking up, when you were listening, it was still an unequivocal Tribe album.  Q-Tip sounded as fresh as ever and Phife was still that five foot assassin.  The production from The Ummah was consistently solid and went against the commercialism and excess that the late nineties provided, much like similar acts such as Mos Def, Kweli, De La Soul, and Pharoahe Monch during this time period.

We were exalted to the high heavens when the word came out that, just months after the unfortunate death of Phife from Diabetes complications, Tip would reunite with Jairobi and honorary members Busta and Consequence (Ali was doing production and scoring duties for the Netflix movie, Marvel's Luke Cage during this time thus making him unable to contribute) to bring forth their true last album, We Got It From Here...Thank You For Your Service, with a few posthumous verses from the late Phife.  The album was an exhilarating return and, although bittersweet, was wonderful to get that old Tribe vibe again, with an updated sound, complete with guests such as Kendrick Lamar, Andre 3000, and Anderson.Paak.  However, with The Love Movement, what was originally supposed to be their final album became their second-to-last effort, and the album was fun and very delightful.  An album like The Love Movement would be so exciting and needed in today's times, with an emphasis of love, respect, admiration, and celebrations of life without sounding hokey or corny.  This was still Tribe.  This was still all the way hip-hop.  We wouldn't want it or have it any other way.  With that, happy twentieth to perhaps the greatest hip-hop group to ever exist and their fifth effort, The Love Movement.