It wasn't long ago that C-Murder, one of two younger brothers of hip-hop mogul Master P, was torn between music, basketball and the lures and snares of New Orleans street life.

It took a brotherly ultimatum to place him on a path pointed toward the Billboard 200 albums chart, the rapper said in an interview this week.

"P gave me the final decision between playing basketball and doing [music]," C-Murder, 23, said. "I decided to stick with him. And here we are."

Where we are is one week following the release of C-Murder's second album, Bossalinie, the latest in a line of well-hyped releases on Master P's No Limit record label.

And not surprisingly, the album -- a follow-up to C-Murder's 1998 debut, Life or Death -- deals with the struggle between conflicting options, although it is lightened a bit by C-Murder's characteristic sense of humor.

It was back in 1994 that C-Murder (born Corey Miller) was at a crucial point in his life. A talented athlete, C-Murder had basketball scholarship offers from the University of Michigan and from the University of California at Los Angeles. At the same time, he was becoming a more important presence around the studios of No Limit Records, then just a budding label with offices in New Orleans. Plus, he had to contend with the pitfalls of the local street scene.

In C-Murder's latest album, imagery inspired by the gangsta life -- drive-by shootings, drug dealing -- is juxtaposed against the rapper's quest for a better life. "The ghetto is getting' crazy/ These streets have got me trapped/ Many times I try to leave/ But the game keep pullin' me back," the artist sings on

"Street Keep Callin' " (RealAudio excerpt).

Bossalinie (the title reflects songs on the album that involve a ghetto-based Mafia family) includes tales of childhood hard times ("Ghetto Boy"), the fortune that can come from criminal exploits ("Money Talks," "Ghetto Millionaire") and the anguish of doing the wrong thing ("Livin' Legend," "Street Keep Callin' ").

"I'm ghetto like gettin' a motherf---in' extension on yo' light bill/ I'm ghetto like putting the motherf---ing phone bill in yo' baby's name, fool," the rapper boasts near the end of

"Ghetto Boy"

(RealAudio excerpt), a cinema-influenced track complete with silent movie-style piano.

C-Murder's aural imagery embraces classical music as well. "Livin' Legend," depicting a particularly sophisticated ghetto thug, excerpts Beethoven in its piano loop.

C-Murder said the content and musicality of the record are a reflection of his reputation as a perfectionist and pessimist. Though it took a relatively short time -- three months -- to make Bossalinie last year, the rapper said "it could have been done sooner."

Despite the album's theatrical context, the beats are still danceable. According to Memphis, Tenn.-born rapper Eightball, the grooves constructed in New Orleans are influencing the rap scene in the South, including Memphis.

"They mirror each other, the Memphis sound and the Louisiana bounce music" Eightball (born Premro Smith) said. "We bounce and we buck wild, too, just like Louisiana can do."

The music might keep its bounce, but C-Murder said other things set him apart from rap's other platinum-selling Miller brothers.

Percy Miller, or Master P, is the boss, the optimist, according to C-Murder. Their youngest brother, 20-year-old Vyshonn Miller -- better known as Silkk the Shocker -- is the smooth one, the one who is "real, real talented." C-Murder characterized himself as the blunt one, the one who leaves nothing to the imagination, on record and in life. He chose his rap handle to embody that directness.

"There were no other options for a name," C-Murder said. He repeatedly refers to himself as a "ghetto nigger" on his latest album. "I did it to catch [people's] attention. I said, 'Let me do this, and let these people see what I've seen through my eyes.' "

One thing that the three brothers can't forget is the death of another Miller brother, Kevin, who was murdered in New Orleans eight years ago. His memory and his fate are prominent in C-Murder's music. Several rhymes on Bossalinie, are dedicated to Kevin.

On "Lord Help Us," C-Murder nervously contemplates a reunion with Kevin in heaven: "Because at the crossroads, there ain't no hunger/ And every man's the same color/ And when it's my time to open them gates, cause I really miss my brother/ And you're the only man who can judge him/ So please guide him in the right direction."

The family tragedy has made the brothers less accessible to the outside world, even as No Limit has grown larger over the past three years.

"We tend to stay within our family, around the people we're closest to, to keep outsiders from coming into our circle," C-Murder said.

Currently, C-Murder and his brothers are collaborating on a project together. Calling themselves TRU, they are recording an album for release later this year. C-Murder said the work has removed some of the natural competitiveness among the three.

"It's much easier to work this way," he said. "You can sit back and say, 'Damn!' You just respect what they're doing a lot."

Like Master P, the rapper is a music executive. He started TRU Records last year and now he's working to sign and develop acts around New Orleans.

C-Murder -- the pessimistic Miller -- is glad he chose this particular road. "I look at No Limit as this huge dream that came true for us," he said.