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UGK

Underground Kingz | Jive
By MATTHEW GASTEIER  |  September 18, 2007
inside_UGK---UNDERGROUND-KI
Legends in the Houston rap game, the duo of Bun B and Pimp C were unable to capitalize on their city’s national shine circa 2005 because of C’s stint in a correctional facility. This double-disc offering illustrates their built-up impatience to record: 27 songs (not including bonus remixes of the souled-out OutKast collab “Int’l Players Anthem), and no want of hits. The better first disc has “Chrome Plated Woman,” a slyly flipped car-as-woman tribute, and the standout single “The Game Belongs to Me” (“I got Bobby by the pound/Whitney by the key/DJ Screw by the gallon/Bitch the game belongs to me”), and on the second, “Candy,” produced by Houston mainstay Scarface, is classic Texas funk, all shivery and deep-fried. What with the inevitable filler, like the “Two Type of Bitches” routine, Underground Kingz is not quite an instant classic, but it would be hard to deny that UGK have reclaimed their throne.
Related: ATL, T.I., Young Jeezy, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Hip-Hop and Rap, Music,  More more >
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Comments
UGK
This is a pretty ridiculous review. UGK already had national "shine" as two thirds of the rappers on Jay-Z's smash hit "Big Pimpin," which you can still hear piped into Marriott bars. Also, Bun B put out a solo album in 2005 -- it wasn't as good as UGK and didn't have any obvious radio hits along the lines of Chamillionaire or Paul Wall. Not really Bun B's fault, there. My favorite thing about rap reviews in publications like the Phoenix (home of disgraced pseudojournalists like Nick Sylvester) is the way every rap review has to talk about how the artist did time. Classy.
By what? on 09/21/2007 at 6:07:10

[ 11/09 ]   Miley Cyrus + Metro Station  @ TD Garden
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ARTICLES BY MATTHEW GASTEIER
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  •   UGK  |  September 18, 2007
    Underground Kingz is not quite an instant classic, but it would be hard to deny that UGK have reclaimed their throne.
  •   TALIB KWELI  |  August 20, 2007
    Ear Drum doesn’t reach the highs of that far more ambitious and sprawling album, but it’s a welcome return to form.
  •   SKILL RIDE  |  July 17, 2007
    All it took was a Godzilla sample and a simple, forceful “Simon says get the fuck up” for Pharoahe Monch to leave his mark on hip-hop history.
  •   THE HATE-LOVE-HATE CYCLE  |  June 18, 2007
    The field is already packed with newcomers and veterans alike, all aiming to knock down my standards of good taste and respectability . . .
  •   DIZZEE RASCAL  |  June 12, 2007
    Boy in da Corner may be the classic Dizzee will be forced to chase for the rest of his career.

 See all articles by: MATTHEW GASTEIER

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