UGK – Underground Kings

Genre rap Publisher Jive/Zomba External Links Official UGK Website Official Jive Records

It's hard to say what's most notable about Underground Kings: the care and craftsmanship Southern rap vets Pimp C and Bun B put into this two-disc masterpiece, the consistent listen ability of its 120+ minutes, or the anger and disdain they feel towards the multitude of half-stepping poseurs who dominate hip-hop's charts. "Cars ain't drivin' theyself/Mansions ain't building theyself/They waitin' for Ed McMahon, they need to stop feelin' theyself," indeed, and OG disappointment's laced with nervousness about entry to Heaven, fierce regional pride, political reasoning, taut threats, grudging props to strong women, fetishism of candy-toned classic cars so intense they could be bragging about women, etc. Typical? Not so, given Bun's sneered, drawling rhyme-scheming, Pimp's hardened, cell-block bravado, and oodles of fine, fine beats loaded with guitar licks so bluesy and fluid that when the vocals fade out you'd be forgiven forgetting that this is even a rap album. The tone that "Big Dick Cheney and Tony Snow" – the pair's nicknames this go 'round – maintain can feel so oppressive and menacing at times, to the point where you almost wish they'd tone down the crude bitch-ho-nigga rhetoric. Then you realize these cats have their back up because they believe that the job of schooling up-and-comers has fallen to them, and they've taken it on with deadly seriousness. Get past the blue language and the explicitness and it becomes apparent that they're actually out to save the genre and everyone who cares about it, one hard knock at a time.