Master P

Master P是來自南方王國的帝王，他為他自己創(chuàng)造了一個屬于自己的帝國，他是來自南部Gangsta，他是南方Hip Hop的王者。出道十四年，本名Percy Miller的Master P一共出版了十一張專輯，一張精選專輯，這個別人不能相比的成績讓這個地下說唱界的高產(chǎn)皇帝足以傲視南方群雄。Master P生于著名海港城市新奧爾良，作為南方說唱發(fā)源地之一，新奧爾良孕育了很多出色的饒舌樂手。Master P就是其中最為耀眼的一顆明星，他是Southern Rap景線中為數(shù)不多的既能創(chuàng)作出優(yōu)秀音樂，又能把Gangsta Rap、Hardcore Rap很好的溶入其中的天才。Master P的黃金時期在1997年，那時他出版了個人第六張專輯《Ghetto D》，這是一張足可以把他帶進嘻哈最高殿堂的經(jīng)典唱片。
 
東岸有吹牛老爹，西岸則有德瑞博士，然而南岸不僅深具商業(yè)頭腦，并穩(wěn)坐饒舌音樂事業(yè)最為代表的全方位才子，絕對是Master P莫屬，這位原名Percy Miller晉升教父級的Master P，身兼詞曲創(chuàng)作，制作，混音等工作，創(chuàng)下個人多張暢銷排行白金專輯與單曲的風光紀錄，擁有個人音樂公司No Limit，提攜多名優(yōu)秀之新星，連帶家族成員都成為南岸饒舌界最為話題性的狠角色，逐步打造親兒子Lil Romeo演唱／表演的多廣事業(yè)；更引領嘻哈時尚服飾界、涉獵書籍與出版自己相關產(chǎn)品及個性化十足品牌，高大帥氣的出色外型，也成為電影公司鎖定目標，進而跨足大螢幕的演出版圖，如此多才多藝的Master P，讓他輕松躍入40歲以下前50大富有名人之列中！
 
擁有籃球明星、說唱巨星與唱片公司老板等頭銜的Master P，對于他的籃球生涯作出一些決定。早在今年球季開打前因傷離開國際職籃聯(lián)盟所屬的圣地亞哥Stingray隊伍的Master P表示，他的傷勢已經(jīng)復原，計劃參加美國職籃聯(lián)盟在大西洋城開戰(zhàn)的夏日球季比賽。
 
Master P created a hip-hop empire without registering on any mainstream radar. For several years, he operated solely in the rap underground, eventually surfacing in the mid-90s as a recording artist and producer who knew exactly what his audience wanted. And what they wanted was gangsta rap. With his independent label No Limit, Master P gave them gangsta rap at its most basic — violent, vulgar lyrics, hard-edged beats, whiny synthesizers, and blunted bass. He wasnt a great rapper, nor was anyone on No Limit; occasionally, the No Limit rappers were even talentless and clumsy. But in a time when major labels were running away from the controversy that gangsta rap caused and Dr. Dre, the father of the genre, was proclaiming it dead, Master P stayed on course, delivering album after album of unadulterated gangsta. It was recorded cheaply and packaged cheaply, and almost all of the records on No Limit were interchangeable, but that didnt matter, because Master P kept making money and getting paid.
 
Appropriately for someone who operated outside of conventional hip-hop circles, Master P (born Percy Miller, circa 1969) didnt come from such traditional rap locales as New York or California. Master P was based in New Orleans, a city with a rich musical tradition that nevertheless had an underdeveloped hip-hop scene. It also had an unspoken violent side that affected Master P as a teenager. After his parents divorce, he moved between the homes of his fathers mother in New Orleans and his mother in Richmond, CA. During his teens, he was on the outside of the drug and hustling culture, but he also pursued a love of basketball. He won a sports scholarship at the University of Houston, but he left the school and moved to Richmond, where he studied business at Oaklands Merritt Junior College. His grandfather died and left him ten thousand dollars in the late 80s, which Master P invested in No Limit Records. Originally, No Limit was a store, not a label.
 
While working at No Limit, Master P learned that there was a rap audience who loved funky, street-level beats that the major labels werent providing. Using this knowledge, he decided to turn No Limit into a record label in 1990. The following year, he debuted with Get Away Clean and later had an underground hit with The Ghettos Tryin to Kill Me! in 1994. Around this same time, the compilation West Coast Bad Boyz, which featured rappers Rappin 4-Tay and E-40 before they were nationally known, was released and spent over half a year on the charts. These latter two albums were significant underground hits and confirmed what Master P suspected — there was an audience for straight-ahead, unapologetic, funky hardcore rap. He soon moved No Limit to New Orleans and began concentrating on making records.
 
By the mid-90s, No Limit had developed its own production team, Beats by the Pound (comprised of Craig B., KLC, and Mo B. Dick), which worked on every one of the labels releases. And there were many releases, hitting a rate of nearly ten a year, all masterminded by Master P and Beats by the Pound. They crafted the sound, often stealing songs outright from contemporary hits. They designed album covers, which had the cheap, garishly colorful and tasteless look of straight-to-video exploitation films. And they worked fast, recording and releasing entire albums in as quickly as two weeks.
 
Included in that production schedule were Master Ps own albums. 99 Ways to Die was released in 1995, and Ice Cream Man appeared the following year. By the time Ghetto Dope was released in the late summer of 1997, Master P had turned No Limit into a mini-empire. He had no exposure on radio or MTV, but No Limits records sold very well, and Tru — a group he formed with his younger brothers Silkk the Shocker and C-Murder — had Top Ten R&B hit albums. His success in the recording industry inspired him to make Im Bout It, an autobiographical comedy-drama titled after Trus breakthrough hit. Master P financed the production himself, and when he found no distributor, it went straight to video in the summer of 1997.
 
His next film, I Got the Hook Up, appeared in theaters during the summer of 1998, concurrent with the release of his album MP da Last Don. In between flirtations with the sports world — including a tryout with the NBAs Toronto Raptors and negotiating the NFL contract of Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams — Master P recorded 1999s Only God Can Judge Me. Ghetto Postage and Game Face followed. The double CD Good Side, Bad Side appeared in 2004 and marked P and No Limits new relationship with the label/distribution company Koch. Both Ghetto Bill and Living Legend: Certified D-Boy arrived a year later. The 2007 compilation Featuring...Master P rounded up some of the rappers collaborations.