Album Review: Master P- The Gift

Make ‘em say “UGH!”

“UGH!”

“Nah-nah-nah-nah!”

Well now that that’s out of the way…

Hey, show of hands—who knew that Master P was, like, still a person? Not to imply that he had died or anything—but you know what I mean, right? Like who knew that in 2013, Master P was still making music, and in fact, in December, released a new album, The Gift, his first record since 2007.

This was something I did not know until very recently (like earlier this week) and I immediately sought out a copy of The Gift, and let me tell you, it was truly a “gift” to my ears.

Am I being facetious? Not really. Like, Master P is what I would consider “Guilty Pleasure Rap.” The Gift isn’t a life changing listening experience, nor is Master P setting out to reinvent the wheel that drives a giant No Limit Records tank (remember that?) It’s simply a solid album from start to finish—impressive and interesting production work, plenty of guest spots, sprinkles of humor, and surprisingly, an older and slightly jaded sounding P.

Percy Miller was in his 20s when he started his rise to fame, slowly building underground success as the “Ice Cream Man.” It was in 1997 when the iconic Ghetto D (or Ghetto Dope, as it were) made Master P a household name—videos in heavy rotation on MTV, those atrocious "Pen and Pixel" album covers with their flimsy and brightly colored packaging for everybody in his stable of No Limit artists, and the number 1 spot on the Billboard Top 200 album charts.

Success came and went quickly for Master P and No Limit Records—the label eventually declared bankruptcy, only to be re-launched later as No Limit Forever. By the mid-2000s, P had aligned himself closely with his son, rapper/actor Romeo, and the two starred on a Nickelodeon produced television series.

The Gift opens up with “Spotlight,” one of the many tracks where P emphasizes how important it is for him to be an independent artist, that he’s nobody’s puppet, and he’s relatively upfront about how success can be bought, sold, can be a façade, and is fleeting—“Wearing fake chains, living in other ni**as houses/Always talking millions, ni**a, never even seen thousands…”

Master P famously gave away the recipe for making crack on Ghetto D’s opening track—and even after 16 years, The Gift shows P is trying to remain close to the crack game—because, if you will recall, the rap game and the crack came are often reminiscent of one another. On “You A Genius,” he waxes about how if you an be frugal with your eight ball and stretch it out, and how if you can cook that up by having some Pyrex Visions, you are “A Genius.”

“Michael Jordan of the street shit,” he declares on “Twenty-Three,” a bombastic track featuring polarizing rap figure Rick Ross, who could take time away from his busy schedule of tweeting about Black Bottles to lay down a guest verse.

Ross is one of the few contemporary, marquee names that appear on The Gift—Yo Gotti shows up “White,” and The Game arrives at the end on “God Forgive Us.” Other than that, a bulk of the guests are relatively unknown in a mainstream sense, and the only original No Limit artist that makes a cameo is Silkk The Shocker. Singer Howie T shows up the most—singing the hook on five of the album’s 18 tracks—two of which are The Gift’s most uplifting, and triumphant tracks: “Lonely Road,” and “It’s a Jungle Out Here.”

I completely missed the boat the first time around in the mid to late 90s, during the “golden age,” if you will, of No Limit Records. Any time the video for “Make ‘Em Say UGH” came on MTV I would change the channel—I thought it’s synth horn bursts were so irritating. Last year, because I’m good at handling grief, I went back and revisited Ghetto D—specifically due to the song “I Miss My Homies.” And now that I’m older and wiser, and I realize that Master P is incredible. That’s not because he’s, like, SO serious or artistic or whatever. It’s because he believes in himself—he’s a veteran of an industry that chews artists up and spits them out, and that’s a fact that he states more than once on The Gift.

I think one of the reasons that I am thoroughly enjoying The Gift so much is that it’s not trying to be something that it isn’t. I mean, this could be a fucking trainwreck of a record, but it is far from that. It’s not a revelatory album, nor does it need to be. Why it’s successful is because it’s a fun and solid listen—and for a late in the game move like this from P, who pretty much retired from rapping, it’s impressive that he can come back so strong.

The Gift is available now from digital outlets like iTunes and Amazon.  There was a special "Gold" CD available, but it is nowhere to be found on any of Master P's many websites.