|
Music Review: UGK's 'Underground Kingz'
08/06/2007 2:08 PM, AP
Brett Johnson
UGK, "Underground Kingz" (Jive Records): Many point to Jay-Z's 2000 single "Big Pimpin'" as UGK's coming-out party, but the Texas duo's discography charts back some 15 years. Pimp C and Bun B should be bigger stars, if not for a career-stalling stint in prison. (Pimp C was locked up in 2002 for three years on gun charges.) These days, the South rules hip-hop and Pimp C is free, so the timing seems right to drop "Underground Kingz," a double-disc of thick funk grooves and heavily drawled rhymes.
At 26 tracks and three bonus cuts, it's a daunting but enjoyable listen. The CD's first highlight is "Int'l Player's Anthem (I Choose You)," a song pinned on a Willie Hutch sample that features Andre 3000 of OutKast musing about taking the married-life plunge. Elsewhere, UGK promote Southern culture such as customized cars ("Chrome Plated Woman," "Candy") and pole dancing women ("Like That"), and salute their stylistic forebears, Too Short ("Life Is 2009") and Big Daddy Kane and Kool G. Rap ("Next Up").
But the guests don't overshadow their hosts. On "Quit Hatin' the South" — a challenge to rap's now obsolete regional biases — it's quite apparent who's helming this effort. Bun B rhymes, "Now it's our time to shine and the tables is turned/and (expletive) aggravated cause we're getting some burn." Indeed, "Underground Kingz" should garner the attention UGK deserve.
CHECK OUT THIS TRACK: While Andre 3000's clever verse on "Int'l Player's Anthem (I Choose You)" gets all the attention, Pimp C's sexual innuendo roots the song in brash Southern charm.
|
