#Bun b and pimp c albums how to#

Nobody needs another two tinny synth-beats from Jazze Pha, to say nothing of the man's abysmal verse on 'Stop-N-Go'. The two discs of Underground Kingz run well over two hours, and plenty of fat could easily have been trimmed. Even a song as formulaic as 'Chrome Plated Woman', which works the ancient car-as-girl concept, is executed with masterly panache. 'How Long Can It Last' winds seven minutes of emotional self-torture around screaming blues-guitars and gut-rumbling bass. 'The Game Belongs to Me' is an irrefutable declaration of supremacy, so warm and effortless that Bun and Pimp's voices sound like they're bubbling up from the track. The album really hits its stride, though, when Pimp takes over the controls and brings back the sad, heavy country-rap that he does better than anyone else.

#Bun b and pimp c albums how to#

Elsewhere, the duo absorbs the newer trends in Southern rap, showing the kids how to attack them: Lil Jon's jacked-up bass on 'Like That', the Runners' epic synth-churn on 'Take tha Hood Back'. On 'Cocaine', the Blackout Movement curl blues-guitar around minimal drum-thumps while Pimp moans the title over and over on the chorus and Bun gives a quick lesson in the drug's history: 'It's been around for hundreds of years, exploited by the rich/ They even used to put it in Coca-Cola ain't that a bitch?' On 'Two Types of Bitches', Momo's nasty blues-guitar and blurting organs lazily circle each other while guest Dizzee Rascal turns up to spit some paranoid misogyny. It's the first UGK album where Pimp doesn't handle the lion's share of the production, though most of the album's producers make sure to make their tracks fit the slow, woozy aesthetic that the duo established long ago. Most of Underground Kingz, though, is anything but upbeat. 'Int'l Players Anthem' finds UGK in an uncharacteristically euphoric mood, and it just might by my favorite song of the year. Three 6 Mafia's DJ Paul and Juicy J throw enormous drums under a joyous loop of Willie Hutch's classic blaxploitation ballad 'I Choose You', and Andre 3000's tender, lovestruck verse perfectly offsets Pimp C's megaton sneer. Most transcendently, the two trade verses with another legendary Southern duo, Outkast, on the gorgeous single 'Int'l Players Anthem'. Big Daddy Kane and Kool G Rap, both old-school New York royalty, spit weathered threats all over Marley Marl's hard, simple track on 'Next Up', and Pimp and (especially) Bun sound perfectly at-home alongside them. Houston depressive Z-Ro waxes elegiac on 'Trill Niggas Don't Die'. It's awesome.) Other rap legends show up as well: Geto Boys bulldog Willie D snaps at region-dismissers on 'Quit Hatin' the South'. (The latter doesn't rap he just shows up singing histrionic fake-gospel on the hook. They repurpose two rap classics, Too Short's 'Life Is.Too Short' and Scarface's 'The Fix' on 'Life Is 2009' and 'Still Ridin Dirty', songs that feature Too Short and Scarface, respectively. Throughout Underground Kingz, Pimp and Bun wield their legacy like a club. On album opener 'Swishas & Dosha', Pimp sneers at his successors: 'I remember when a rapper was a go-getter/ Now all these rappers is some ho niggas.' Bun agrees: 'You MySpacing and Facebooking, playing games with them toys/ I'm in the streets where gangstas meet while you online with them boys.' Neither has forgotten a decade-and-a-half of record-label drama and elusive success, and neither seems particularly happy with a rap climate that they helped to shape. Pimp hasn't forgotten what it was like to rot in a cell while his region exploded, and Bun hasn't forgotten that he had to keep his group above water by himself. And so now the album's release makes for a weirdly bittersweet moment: Underground Kingz is an equally frustrated and vindicated album. Even after Pimp's release, UGK's label pushed back the release of this album for nearly a year.

During Pimp's imprisonment, the South became rap's dominant region, and Bun kept the group's name alive by going on an absolute guest-appearance tear, popping up on tracks with virtually every major rapper working. Since that time, Pimp spent four years in prison for violating his probation on an aggravated assault charge. Dirty Money, their last album, came out in 2001.

But it's been a while since we've heard from UGK.