What did success within the 90s scent like? A double disc album, that’s what. It was the final word flex within the period of extra, reserved just for the most important of massive willie’s. It was a proper of passage for hip-hop royalty. 2Pac kicked it off with All Eyez On Me in 1996, an album that modified the style perpetually and would finally be licensed Diamond by the RIAA. Biggie adopted up a 12 months later with the posthumous, Life After Demise, which might additionally strike Diamond. To most, these stand as the best rap double albums of all time – uncommon situations when an artist may drop 30 nice information in a single sitting, efficiently working the gauntlet of various themes and concepts.
Later in 1997, Wu-Tang Clan and Bone Thugs-N-Concord – the 2 largest rap teams on the time – adopted swimsuit with double albums to multi-platinum outcomes. Proving that when you had the clout, dropping a double disc was far more helpful to your backside line than a solo shot. This was the peak of the super-size craze – Individuals wished extra bang for his or her buck – and the double album made cash-strapped teenagers really feel like they have been getting a greater deal. And from the artist standpoint, a double disc commanded a much bigger advance from the report label. However the true finesse of the double disc craze was that gross sales counted as double. So when you offered two million copies, it counted as 4. An business cheat code if there ever was one.
Hearken to Grasp P’s MP Da Final Don now.
So it was solely proper that Grasp P, the most important rapper on the planet in 1998, threw his hat within the ring. He wasn’t a rookie to the double disc craze. In reality, he pioneered it. Rap’s first double CD was really a compilation referred to as Down South Hustlers – Bouncin & Swingin, which dropped on Halloween of 1995 – 4 months earlier than All Eyez On Me would hit cabinets. Pac is rightfully credited as the primary solo rapper to drop a double disc, however Percy Miller really beat him to the punch.
However this wasn’t simply any strange double disc. It was MP Da Final Don – Grasp P’s last album. Sure, the multi-millionaire mogul was going to hold all of it up on the outdated age of 28. As a substitute, he’d give attention to working his label, rolling out blockbuster main movement photos, and chasing his NBA goals. He had a full plate, and rap simply wasn’t in his future. Too $hort pulled the same retirement stunt two years previous to a lot fanfare, so Percy doubled down with the double album and determined to exit with a bang. He was already promoting an insane quantity of information, so why not see simply how far he may push it? The retirement card was a confirmed slam dunk, in any case.
MP Da Final Don hit cabinets on Tuesday, June 2nd, 1998. Simply six months into No Restrict’s 1998 reign, a 12 months by which the label launched 23 albums. That equates to nearly an album each different week. Bear in mind this was not the digital period. These albums needed to be bodily pressed up and shipped to shops internationally. It was an costly operation, however P was promoting a lot he may drop each time he wished to. A real impartial throughout the main label system, and together with his 80/20 cut up together with his mother or father firm Precedence, P was printing cash. Because of the success of his straight-to-video debut movie, I’m Bout It, P made a film to accompany the album’s launch: MP Da Final Don the film. It was a campy hour-long shoot-em-up flick that featured P as the one son of an Italian mob boss. It was utterly excessive – and it had each proper to be. It appeared P may put a gold Rolex and a tank chain on a corpse they usually’d go platinum. He was actually turning artists with no buzz or presence into stars in a single day on model title alone. Grasp P was a advertising genius, and MP Da Final Don was his largest caper but.
The album got here simply 10 months after his breakthrough undertaking, Ghetto D, which put him atop the rap meals chain and made him a family title. P was a person possessed, who wasted no time giving us new product to eat. In reality, the most important single of his profession “Make Em Say Uhh!” from Ghetto D was nonetheless climbing the charts when he dropped MP Da Final Don. He additionally had two different songs on the High 40 pop charts – “I Got The Hook Up” – the title observe from his just lately launched soundtrack of the identical title, and “Let’s Ride” the place he was featured alongside R&B star Montell Jordan and his brother Silkk The Shocker. He additionally had one of many high films within the nation with I Received The Hook Up, which hit theaters simply 5 days earlier than the discharge of MP Da Final Don. Grasp P hysteria was in full impact, and the colonel was omnipresent.
It is perhaps exhausting to consider now, however on June 2nd of 1998, MP Da Final Don was essentially the most anticipated album within the nation. This author skipped college to make sure he had it first. Regardless of the flak P obtained for being a subpar rapper and going in opposition to the cherished values of conventional hip-hop heads, he couldn’t miss. He had followers in massive cities and small cities alike, and his military of supporters have been loyal – blindly loyal. If it featured the tank emblem, it was an automated buy.
Whereas most would argue that Ghetto D was his magnum opus, I are likely to aspect with MP Da Final Don. It was his highest excessive. His most bloated, but most assured launch. No Restrict’s album covers have been all the time outrageous, however MP Da Final Don upped the ante with a hologram cowl; a primary in rap if I’m not mistaken. Content material-wise, the generic concepts ran rampant: the unhealthy Scarface impersonations, the rehashed concepts from Ghetto D (did the world really want a “Make Em Say Uhh! # 2”?), the tracing of 2Pac’s blueprint (the mama tune, the lifeless homie tune and a remake of Pac’s “Dear Mr. President”). P was the boss, so his in-house manufacturing outfit, Beats By The Pound, have been giving him the perfect batch of beats, so the manufacturing all through was on level.
Tracks like “Thinkin Bout U” had pop enchantment and the video ran nonstop on MTV and BET, whereas songs like “Hot Boys & Girls” confirmed simply how proficient and artistic the emcees on the tank have been, and launched the world to the time period Scorching Boys effectively earlier than the world had caught wind of Money Cash Information. Characteristic-wise, he primarily caught to his No Restrict household, the place the now-problematic Mystikal shined the brightest (there was a subset of No Restrict followers who would purchase their albums strictly for the Mystikal appearances.) Traditional suspects akin to E-40, UGK, and Bone Thugs additionally confirmed as much as assist and help on P’s swan tune.
The album got here simply three months after No Restrict had acquired the most popular free agent within the sport, Snoop Dogg, who had pledged his allegiance as a No Restrict Solider, and subsequently seems on 20 % of the album. Snoop had loads to show, and P’s album was his true coming-out celebration. Silkk and C-Homicide had simply launched high-profile and higher-selling albums just a few months prior, and have been everywhere in the charts, so despite the fact that the album was touted as a retirement launch, it felt extra like a celebration. It additionally dropped on the good time, because the album soundtracked the summer time months, and set the tone for No Restrict’s summer time run of 98, which included releases from Soulja Slim, Fiend, Mac, Kane & Abel, and their new blue-chip participant, Snoop Dogg.
MP Da Final Don would go on to promote over 4 million copies, making it Grasp P and No Restrict Information highest promoting album ever. By 1999, although, the tank would start to expire of gasoline. P’s NBA makes an attempt, Hollywood aspirations, and WCW wrestling antics had some followers leaping ship to different hip-hop actions akin to crosstown rivals, the Money Cash Millionaires. This harsh actuality lower P’s retirement quick, and he was again on cabinets by June 1st of 1999, reunited together with his brothers Silkk and C-Homicide for a brand new TRU album. In October of 1999, he got here again swinging together with his Solely God Can Choose Me solo album, which solely managed to go gold.
However in June of 1998, P was a pressure of nature. Altering the foundations by the day and taking part in the sport on his phrases. MP Da Final Don was the top of the No Restrict period. And a time capsule of the second that Grasp P stood firmly on high of the world.
Hearken to Grasp P’s MP Da Final Don now.
Editor’s observe: This text was initially printed in 2018.
