*1/2 Master P

GHETTO D

(No Limit/Priority)

Most pop commentators were amazed that this gangsta rap album came out of nowhere to top the charts its very first week of release. That only proves the hardcore faithful are on a different wavelength. They've watched Master P organize his own record company, direct and produce several homemade movies, and release a small slew of underground CDs in preparation for this breakthrough, an album that delivers the goods for 19 full-bore tracks with no spoken-word skits, special remixes, or other bullshit filler. For cognoscenti, its sales figures are proof that the word-of-mouth hip-hop underground will always honor hard work and integrity with eager devotion.

Regular pop fans, on the other hand, might notice only the album's awful raps. Whether enumerating the principles of drug dealing to young hommies or soft-pedaling the same hommies' inevitable murder ("I know you're in a better place"), Master P's sentiments are interminably loutish, his rhymes are prosaic, and his vocal style is blandly generic when it isn't blatantly derivative (Tupac, for one, is grave-robbed). Lesson: never underestimate the ignorance of inside enthusiasts.

-- Franklin Soults