UGK - Underground Kingz

It's leaked? OMG OMG!!! It's been in stores for a couple days now and the search function is your friend.

Actually, most of the discussion of it has been on Rolling Snap.

Sorry Rev, hadn't been keeping up. Can we make this an album-specific thread then?

I will gladly talk all day about Underground Kingz on this thread.

Ahhh, don't mind me. I was just a bit salty for completely non-related reasons at that moment and it spilled over into here.

ban jazze pha.

I got bobby by the POUnd

I think it's hilarious that they're calling themselves "Big Dick Cheney and Tony Snow."

I have got this but haven't managed to listen to most of it because I can't take "Int'l Players Anthem" off repeat.

I put it on this morning while nursing my hangover in the dark. Sounded totally perfect.

I am glad "Chrome Plated Woman" is not about robots or some shit. "Life is Short" sounds like the Down South Golden Age that never was aka awesome.

Pimp sounds so for real on "Cocaine." Incredible shit, to say nothing of Bun's verse. Dudes are complaining that he's biting dead prez's "20," but whatev, I'm all about it. Dizzee's guest spot on "Two Types" is unexpectedly short, but I like it.

"Trill Niggaz" is the flyest shit ever recorded by anyone. /L0u1s J@gger

All the Hustler's Remorse stuff is really high quality and manages to avoid cliche thanks to the deliveries, I think.

I am glad "Chrome Plated Woman" is not about robots or some shit.

Would would this make you glad?

Dudes are complaining that he's biting dead prez's "20," Immortal Technique's "Peruvian Cocaine but whatev, I'm all about it.

peruvian cocaine is good-- reflective & pink-- immortal technique, homo. needs more early rass kass form jacks

ugk gets the best joints in the history of rap. very soulful

Would would this make you glad?

-- Whiney G. Weingarten, Thursday, August 9, 2007 9:31 PM

what does this mean

this is a great album
a few tracks i skip but on the whole <3

gorilla zoe: "what did you think of it"
me: "i think its real good"
gz: "I think its real great"

The beats are a lot fuller and more instantly pop than in the past. But this is good! Anyone?

i feel like the worst tracks are the ones that sound the 'most pop' but thankfully its heavy on the meat and potatoes southern country shit

i'm not as enamored of 'playas anthem' as everyone just cuz i still associate that beat w/ project pat, but it is a good song

The consensus of some of hip hop boards I've looked at is that this is the album of the year (alongside maybe Devin and Prodigy.) I might actually have to listen to it.

pimp c is really the star of this to me, production work aside. sitting in a car tonight w/ two friends listening to the record, we picked up this girl i know and her chattering friend who would blah blah blah through most of the tracks and then everyone got quiet when pimp c verses started. its like he raps all in CAPSLOCK

I'm nearly ready to call this my favorite hiphop double album. But I was always underimpressed with Wu Tang Forever, and really, what else is there?

there are these two rappers from the mid-90s, see ...

Who made overstuffed, half-lame double albums? Yeah, I know all about that.

ban oilyrags

ban rose-tinted nostalgia and death cultism

ban "ban x", ffs

sometimes it has to be said

its not 'rose tinted nostalgia' if you thought it was classic when it came out

+ its not like those artists weren't huge before they died

what else is there?

http://cover6.cduniverse.com/MuzeAudioArt/270/277549.jpg
http://cover6.cduniverse.com/MuzeAudioArt/470/473636.jpg
http://thugradio.net/nas-streetsdisciple-cover.jpg

> its not 'rose tinted nostalgia' if you thought it was classic when it came out

Fair enough, but obviously I disagree about the overall quality of AEOM and RTD.

> + its not like those artists weren't huge before they died

Also true, but I for one doubt there'd be nearly so much 'greatest of all time' talk about them now if they'd lived to the present. FWIW, I thought Biggie was great when he was alive (but all the puff-daddery on RTD deletes it from contention as a really great album) and I've always considered Pac to be wildly overrated.

xpost - I can't see any of those three bettering UGKZ, largely because of consistency. Equal high points, sure.

full disclosure - I haven't heard the E-40 record, but I can only listen to him for a few songs at a time before I have to hear something else.

well for one thing the double record is LAD not RTD

and for the record puff daddery is AWESOME and always has been and always will be, jah willing.

Right, Life After Death. Sorry.

Diddiness (and Diddy) can kiss my sister's black cat's ass, as always.

I just listened to the Jay-Z double about a week ago. It wasn't nearly as good as I remember. (To be fair, when it came out, I only owned about ten cds, so I listened to it a lot.)

great album although ive not been able to get through it all yet. dizzees verse is shit though. bun b is still good but pimp c just sounds like hes out to win it. production i wish was a bit richer/thicker like old ugk stuff but its still really good. too long, although i dont really mind.

i love this album

Yeah the whole thing flows really well, all the redundancies and formulas kinda work in its favor. Only song I really dislike is "Like That," I can even tolerate the Dizzee Rascal verse if I just pretend it's some Jamaican dude.

like that is amazing! or do you mean you just hate the original?

The Dizzee/UGK song on the Dizzee album is way better.

2nd disc> 1st disc, right?

this is also nearly the perfect late afternoon album.

1st disc is def > 2nd

Quit Hatin' The South is one of the best few songs they've ever done, up there with One Day and Front, Back & Side to Side. there are some duds (I can't stand Like That, and I get nothing out of the much touted Int'l Players Anthem), but there are a bunch of tracks I really like on here. easily my hiphop record of the year, if not the decade thus far, although it still requires quite a bit of digestion.

it's too bad that Pimp C didn't produce more of the tracks himself, those are most of the standouts. and lastly, MP3s really don't do justice to the depth of the production on this record, the CDs are well worth picking up (I got it for $7.99 from Amazon, but I think that deal's done).

crosspost: yeah, the first disc is far, far better.

i was really excited to hear the T.I. collabo, but it would have been jarringly out of place anywhere on this record. funny to compliment self-editing on a 26 track album (especially when the biggest rap star in the game is involved).

what y'all think of "candy." one of my favorites on the second half, maybe even the album. but then again, i'm pretty bun b>pimp c, and it seems i'm alone on that one 'round here.

The "Like That" remix is just OK but the original is almost unlistenable. And I'm usually alright with Lil Jon.

i'm pretty bun b>pimp c, and it seems i'm alone on that one 'round here.
the T.I. collab is on the record as a bonus track, which is where it belongs. great song tho, noz was hating for some reason

i think the 'like that' remix is incredible, one of the best tracks

i dont know why i quoted that bun b > pimp c thing, ignore that

i like the T.I. track as a stand alone, but as a bonus track it's almost like they realized it didn't fit so they just tacked it onto the end. where it also doesn't fit, imo. but i'm sure it was out of respect for T.I.

in any event, i don't think we need to quibble about if things should have been bonus tracks or not.

my fave song on the album is either "int'l players anthem" or "trill niggaz don't die"

The original "Like That" is a better song, but "Like That (Remix)" fits in the flow of the albums better, which is why it's on disc one.

I am listening to disc two very softly on my computer speakers in my cube right now. This is far from ideal, but I somehow think that if I played it at the volume I wanted (and it deserves) I would be fired with cause before the end of track 3.

Steve: Listen to how the songs are constructed, and to their internal logic; there's a lot to these guys as composers and sound technicians, and their relationship to thug life is by no means without nuance. But yeah if you can't get past the word "bitch" then you had better give up.

southern soul beats are so great

Absolutely. Lyrical content issues aside (and I have a few, but not that many, really) this is one of the best sounding rap albums I've heard in ages.

ok i never realized how awesome the strings and piano are on "like that" rmx. i like that one the best.

my candy

this album is so good i kinda never listen to it

"this album is so good i kinda never listen to it"

ditto. one time was enough. plus, i prefer putting on one of their previous 4 albums.

I made a one-disc edit that I play pretty frequently, I can't do the whole deuce disc thing.

the problem with a one disc edit is 1. i dont listen to 'discs' and 2. you eliminate great tracks

i haven't listened to this in awhile, but more because i played it so much when it dropped that i needed some time to myself. still a great album and im sure i'll pull it out again soon.

"you eliminate great tracks"

if theyre eliminated, theyre not that great. hence, the one disc (or short ipod playlist) edit.

i don''t do this explicitly but it just ends up that most of the time i listen to the first disc, then i have to go do something or w/e and then i come back and listen to the second disc, almost like two separate albums. i tried editing it down to one disc but i kept going back to the songs i hadn't chosen cuz i thought i might have been missing something w/ those.

"you eliminate great tracks"

if theyre eliminated, theyre not that great. hence, the one disc (or short ipod playlist) edit.

-- titchyschneiderMk2, Thursday, November 8, 2007 2:49 PM (44 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

i think deej is saying that to edit it down to "one disc" you are begrudgingly forced to leave off great tracks.

I'd really like to edit "Two Kinds of Bitches" so there are no britishes on it. Well, at least only one. But they guy who just rambles without rapping really needs to be on the cutting room floor.

Dizzee?

Lemme check - I think he's called "Pimpin' Ken."

Yeah...from ohhla

Chorus

LOOOONG Outro of Pimpin' Ken ad libs

Pimpin' Ken /= Britishes

Wherever he's from, he ruins one of the best beats on the album with his pointless horseshit.

i kinda love NUHD'IM TALKINBAHT though

strokes and folks, I guess

well i mean the rest is obviously horseshit, but he repeated NUHD'IM TALKINBAHT enough times that i was laughing by the end

I can even tolerate the Dizzee Rascal verse if I just pretend it's some Jamaican dude.

-- Alex in Baltimore, Wednesday, August 15, 2007 12:37 AM (2 months ago) Bookmark Link

Pimpin Ken is like one of the 20 best things about this album

i have a skip button so i'm not going to bitch about pimipin ken, but that shit is totally insufferable.

i do like this, but it just seems to lack the impetus of their earlier work. pimp c is still on form and bun b still has it, but they dont seem to have that tag-team dynamic they used to have... or they just dont sound like theyre really going for it *together* like they used to. this is obv still better than most rap albums this year and as good as you should probably hope from a rap group thats been going for this long, but still, i just dont get that same ferocity i get from ridin dirty or super tight.

also, like i said in the freeway thread, the beats dont sound as thick as their earlier work. that might just be the bad rip i have, or my speakers, i dont know, but anyone else think this? there are also some crappy choruses like swisha and dosha on here, that sound like IMPRESSIONS of what an old school southern hook should sound like - that sub-sleepy brown blaxploitation type of voice.

I was watching some making-of thing on youtube, where Pimp C was saying that he and Bun rarely saw each other while making the album, since he likes to work at night and Bun works in the day. I think the beats sound great, though, and I like the chorus on Swishas and Dosha.

there are also some crappy choruses like swisha and dosha on here, that sound like IMPRESSIONS of what an old school southern hook should sound like - that sub-sleepy brown blaxploitation type of voice.

-- titchyschneiderMk2, Sunday, November 25, 2007 5:48 AM (Sunday, November 25, 2007 5:48 AM) Bookmark Link

Their choruses have always sounded like this. Point in their favor.

yeah wtf. pimp c probably invented the smooth southern rap sung chorus as much as dungeon fam or anyone else.

yeah wtf. pimp c probably invented the smooth southern rap sung chorus as much as dungeon fam or anyone else.

either way, the hooks are worse than before.

IMO.

i still need to hear this whole thing one day from start to finish.

Hooks are less important to me than beats and lyrics. And I really feel like lyrically especially time and hardship have really gotten these guys stepping their game up.

honestly i think its just a proximity thing - this is only seen as being so good as theyre old timers/influential veterans and everyone wants them to do well. but theres nothing on here they havent done better before. im happy with them just doing what they do but there arent many moments on the album where i think, fuck, this is amazing. its just yeah, this is good cos its just them doing them on a decent level in a not esp great year for rap albums (which makes it seem even better), not being too trendy with the beats, and its bun and pimp back together after being held back for so long and pimp going to jail, etc etc. i do love the romanticism and the backstory and all that but still, this is basically them in the the w/iron flag stage of their career. not a bad thing at all, just not as good as is being made out. but good for them - theyre getting all the props theyve been due for years at last.

I agree with that, more or less. This isn't one of my top ten of the year, as there are other things that are just simply more interesting, but it's a remarkably solid album, even in its length.

I am only starting with my top ten list, but I'm starting with this album. It won't be #1, but it's a lot better than any of the weak criticisms thrown up against it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=66mjGdDDr94 UGK ft. Big Daddy Kane & Kool G Rap- Next Up

yeah titchy is totally off base here. i'm not saying that, like, this is the group's masterpiece, but this is easily on par with any other record they've ever done, plus its twice as many songs as any record they've ever done.

I (genuinely) like the whole "it's a double album so you get more good stuff" angle - it does seem odd that people resent being provided with more good stuff when they're probably gonna rip this to their computer or iPod even if they do buy it on CD.

But my actual favourite thing about this album is the basslines - so warm and resonant and booming somewhere around yr lower intestines.

i enjoy this more now ive got my criticisms of it out the way. but anyway, pimp c absolutely kills this record. bun b is good but he doesnt sound as lethal as pimp on this. sort of like how andre was obviously a few steps ahead of big boi on aquemini (or just not as in sync with each other as they were before).

i like the T.I. track as a stand alone, but as a bonus track it's almost like they realized it didn't fit so they just tacked it onto the end. where it also doesn't fit, imo. but i'm sure it was out of respect for T.I.

i'm sure that it was out of respect for the fact that the beat is unstoppable! i agree that it doesn't really fit with the rest of the tracks (though it probably could have been paired with 'grind hard'). love the dancehall-ish feel.

http://mixunit.com/ProductImages/clothing3/pimpC_fairreh.jpg

1 Intro
2 Still On The Grind featuring Raheem DeVaughn
3 Everybody Wanna Ball
4 Feelin'You
5 The Pimp & The Bun Featuring Ron Isley
6 She Luv
7 It
8 7th Street
9 Interlude
10 Swishas & Erb featuring Sleepy Brown
11 Purse Come First featuring Big Gipp
12 Harry Asshole featuring Lil Boosie and Webbie
13 Used To Be featuring B. Legit, E40 and 8Ball &MJG
14 Steel Your Mind featuring Too Short
15 Texas Ave Interlude
16 Hard As Hell featuring Akon
17 Da Game Been Good To Me
18 Outro

very "intrigued" by the boosie/webbie joint

out mar 31

13 Used To Be featuring B. Legit, E40 and 8Ball &MJG

this will be awesome

just cameras and screens

often it's just lazy rhymes about "bitches" over southern soul beats utilized in a cliched manner.

obviously the rhymes have to be lazy because you're supposed to be letting the 'bitches' do the work

it's called ~~art~~, form follows content!