Mystikal: Let's Get Ready

Once one of music's least-deserving superstars, Master P now seems to be going down with a sinking ship. Overexposure, nonexistent quality control, and an assembly-line approach to recording have all hurt him, as has the rise of Cash Money, whose larger-than-life ghetto superstars make P's crew look as colorful as Mormon missionaries on a church retreat. Clearly concerned about his label's diminishing sales, P fired his in-house production team Beats By The Pound, which would have been a good sign had he not recruited a new gang of interchangeable, no-name producers to provide him with bland, tinny beats. The poor sales of Only God Can Judge Me might have led less stubborn rappers to consider tinkering with their formula, but the new Ghetto Postage religiously follows the template of previous P releases. From the obligatory ode to fallen soldiers ("Always Come Back To You") to tardy, desperate attempts to capitalize on trends (the undernourished "Wobble Wobble" re-write "Twerk That Thing," the vaguely Spanish-flavored "Soulja Boo"), Ghetto Postage illustrates P's unwillingness to learn from past mistakes. The names may change, with No Limit newcomers like Krazy, Afficial, and Slay Sean filling in for the AWOL Mystikal and the inexplicably absent Mia X, but P's formula of endlessly repeated choruses, feeble thug-life lyrics, and generic, low-end-heavy beats remains as tiresome and unrewarding as ever. Ever the opportunist, P has no doubt taken notice of the West Coast's commercial comeback, filling Ghetto Postage with so much West Coast slang that you might think E-40 had taken up permanent residence in his guest bedroom. But P's infatuation with the West Coast also provides Ghetto Postage with its best song, "Poppin' Them Collars," a collaboration with Snoop Dogg that succeeds largely because it takes its cues from Dogg's laid-back West Coast funk rather than P's low-budget New Orleans bounce. P's commitment to quantity over quality helped make him a household name and a rich man, and Ghetto Postage proves that he won't change with the times, no matter how dire the consequences. Mystikal helped make No Limit a national powerhouse, but he was always too talented and distinctive to languish in the House Of P. Following the lead of Snoop Dogg, who found success outside of No Limit by taking his extracurricular project Tha Eastsidaz to TVT, Mystikal signed to Jive, where he's already scored a massive crossover success with "Shake Ya Ass." This year's winner in the booty-homage sweepstakes, the song matches Mystikal's Dirty South growl to the unmistakably jittery production of The Neptunes, but the eerily Curtis Mayfield-like falsetto vocals are what make it a guilty-pleasure classic. Perhaps hip-hop's hottest production duo, The Neptunes can claim credit for many of the best moments on Let's Get Ready, from the Spaghetti Western guitar of "Danger" to the nervous sonic aggression of "Jump." Mystikal's whirling-dervish flow has seldom sounded better, but like Snoop Dogg's otherwise-excellent No Limit Top Dogg, Let's Get Ready is undermined by monotonous production from the producers formerly known as Beats By The Pound. Though off No Limit, Mystikal has brought his old team (now renamed Medicine Men) with him, and their six tracks pale in comparison to those from the album's other producers (OutKast, PA, Bink, The Neptunes). Mystikal's pairing with OutKast, "Neck Uv Da Woods," ranks among the rapper's best work, but, like his No Limit productions, Let's Get Ready would benefit from prodigious editing. Still, unlike his former mentor, Mystikal shows signs of evolving into a major artist: Though wildly uneven, his album makes a convincing argument that his brightest commercial and artistic days—unlike those of Master P—could be ahead of him.