An earmark of Master P’s formula was to haphazardly imitate whatever was hip at the time in the Rap game. When P and his No Limit empire blew up, double-disc albums were a hot commodity. The late, great Tupac Shakur had released a double-disc set with All Eyez on Me in 1996, as did the Notorious B.I.G., posthumously, with Life After Death a year later. Even Bone Thugs-N-Harmony jumped on the bandwagon with their excellent (I know I’ll catch some flak for that one) double-disc release The Art of War in 1997 as well. With all of these two disc sets, not to mention successful two disc sets, P probably wondered to himself why he hadn’t thought of this sooner.

MP Da Last Don is a bloated, never ambitious, clichéd piece of mid-‘90s gangsta Rap that desires to be nothing that it’s not. If you already hated Master P at this point, this album gave you all the more reason to keep doing so. Cluttered with guests, interpolations of classic ‘60s and ‘70s hits and cheap beats, it came complete with everything No Limit stood for. P’s yearning for Pop success is readily evident on a few choice tracks here, but as a whole, MP Da Last Don is generally what you would expect from him. Although P got his formula down pat with the excellent Ghetto D just a year before, MP Da Last Don, however criticized it may be, is the last truly great Master P album.

You would figure for a double-disc release that P would at least delve into topics that he hadn’t in the past. P knew what his audience wanted, however, and he delivered it to them with absolutely no chaser. Whether it’s elementary gangsta rap or foreboding, New Orleans thug anthems, P knew exactly how to keep the records flying off the shelves. Although that eventually became a double-edged sword for him, while it was working, P and his No Limit cronies could do no wrong. And throughout the course of this 29 track release (14 tracks on the first disc and 15 on the second), P rarely deviates from the formula he’d set for himself.

This is back when No Limit’s production crew, Beats by the Pound, was developing a new sound and that is the key element to this record’s success. It sounds far more industrial and layered than past No Limit works, and tracks such as "Welcome to My City" and "Hot Boys and Girls," are perfect examples of that. The crew even utilizes samples on occasion (which were rare for the team) and this adds some much needed depth to their otherwise synth-and-bass-oriented beats. There was obviously more money to be thrown around by this time and Beats by the Pound used it wisely.

But where Beats by the Pound were improving their productions and experimenting with new styles, Master P was the same rapper that he’d always been. Hardcore tracks such as the anthemic "Soldiers, Riders, and G’s," which featured the newly signed Snoop Dogg, as well as No Limit favorites Mystikal and Silkk the Shocker, and "Let’s Get ‘Em," which featured C-Murder and Magic, were perfect examples of No Limit’s bottom basement, cheap, spare sound. The lyrics were not the important factors here. That honor goes to Beats by the Pound’s increasingly complex production. Other standouts include the flossy E-40 feature "Get Your Paper" and the insightful "Ghetto’s Got Me Trapped" which is as good as anything P stuck on Ghetto D.