Out of all the soldiers signed to
Master P's No Limit label,
C-Murder was always the bleakest, grittiest, and most genuine of the bunch. Since his albums still sound vital for the most part, his
Best Of doesn't save you from ever having to buy another album from the artist, like the simultaneously released
Best of Master P does, but it does provide an excellent overview of the man's work, at least up until 2001, when the collection drops off. A year later,
C-Murder would be in jail on a murder rap, and if any lawyer ever wanted to keep him there, he could use this collection of dark and volatile music as a character witness. Despite the plain vanilla packaging and to-the-point liner notes,
The Best of C-Murder shows some thought was put into both the track selection and track sequencing. The 20 songs flow uninterrupted by filler, with aggressive party tunes, scary thug tracks, and gloomy introspective numbers all figuring into the mix. Closing with "Freedom" is an ironic, grim move for a compilation of a man serving a life sentence, but the 19 tracks of stark gutter reality and deep hopelessness leading up to it suggest
C-Murder would have it no other way. [
The Best of C-Murder was also made available in a clean version, with all explicit material removed.] ~ David Jeffries