UGK- Ridin' Dirty

Ugk is one of my favorite rap groups of all time, and Ridin' Dirty, released in 1996, is my favorite southern rap album ever. With Pimp C's perky hi-hats, twangy guitars, and lazy, pounding bass, UGK embodied an organic southern sound, different from the east and west coast production styles that dominated the hip-hop landscape. Bun B's calm, booming authority perfectly balances Pimp C's brash “don't give a f*ck” persona, and the partners-in-rhyme pass live-instrumented, funky and soulful tracks back and forth, tearing them to shreds. With a song titled “Murder”, and Pimp C spittin' hooks like: “You ain't never seen, how a pimp be rollin' so clean. Fly women and fancy things, fly b*tches and pinky rings” it would seem safe to assume that UGK stick to their bread and butter of gunplay, drugs, materialism, and women, but the most captivating thing about Ridin' Dirty, is that the pathos behind the album is much deeper and complex than that. The first track of the album “One Day”, has Pimp, whose friend's child died in a house fire asking god: “why you let these killers live and take my homeboy's son away?” In “Diamonds and Wood” Pimp laments: “we all lost children, praisin' paper, smokin' our life away.” UGK paint a vivid picture of their environment, and express the pain of being trapped in a cycle of poverty. On the pivotal, second-to-last song “Hi-Life”, Bun B's frantic, emotional verse spills into the chorus, as he finishes: “to get the high life” while the crooning hook comes in. His verse on this song, is one of my favorite verses ever. Bun, usually level-headed and detached from emotion, sends shivers down the spine with: “Because it ain't like they make high levels gainable, and that punk piece of American pie, just ain't obtainable.”, and “I'm going through a phase you don't grow out, until you a reason a motherf*cker gots to pour out, his 40 on the curb disturbed....” While Ridin' Dirty does celebrate the southern pimp/drug dealer way of life, it desperately searches for alternatives, other paths to success, but crushingly fails to find any. Pimp C speaks of the toll his lifestyle takes on him: “My conscious f*ck with me so much that I can't eat or sleep, the other side sellin' dope, and out there runnin' the streets. And even though I'm gainin' street fame comin' from the rap game, lustful thinkin' and compulsive drinkin' is not my thing.” UGK somehow balance the their aggressive gangster charisma with thoughtful examinations of their environment, and its effect on them. Ridin' Dirty is a masterpiece. And not just a southern rap masterpiece, an album that for me, is one of the best rap albums ever.