Underground Kingz is probably better known to you as UGK. Well... maybe not. UGK is probably best known for their guest appearance on Jay-Z's smash hit "Big Pimpin" back in the late 90s. Bun B did appear in "Big D's Song of the Year for 2006": Chamillionaire's "Picture Perfect", and Pimp C got released from incarceration and as far as I know, is still on parole (remember, I'm several months behind on this rap shit). Well anyways, UGK is the duo of Bun B and Pimp C, and the name "Underground Kingz" is certainly fitting, as the duo have been a mainstay of the southern underground hip-hop scene for several years out of Port Arthur, Texas. They developed a huge underground following, and prior to the release of Ridin Dirty, garnered minimal success on a mainstream level with "Super Tight" and Too Hard to Swallow. Their third album, Ridin Dirty wound up becoming the biggest hit of their career, just barely not making it into the Billboard Top 10, winding up at #15! Ouch!. But hey, it went gold, which is better than shitty cLOUDDEAD. A lot of people have told me that Ridin Dirty is a lost classic. Well as expected, I had my doubts, but I had to investigate.

It's easy to tell that UGK was a huge inspiration for now-famous Texas rappers such as Paul Wall and Chamillionaire. Hell, Chamillionaire named a hit single after THIS album. The southern drawl, constant talk of the good life, chrome cars, woodgrain interiors, women, and self-confidence flow like a river through Ridin Dirty, which makes it leaps and bounds over other lame, mysoginistic, "bang bang" southern acts like Master P and those pieces of shit.

"Diamonds and Wood" is also fun, following the same formula. A hot funk beat, with a bit of a mid-tempo effect, with lyricism focusing on ridin' dirty, gleaming jewelry, and living the positive life. It's not like a lot of these other idiotic rappers who flash their jewelry and claim their better than you because of it. No no, Bun B and Pimp C are just living the life and telling us what they do. You can call it... "platinum-plated street poetry". By the way, I just coined that phrase, so if any of you dickbites wanna steal it, you can't. Let me tell you assholes, "Diamonds and Wood" is a BUMPING FUCKIN TRACK! Your head will bob mandatory here, Jenna Jameson-style, and the sample in the hook is Godlike.

"Hi-Life" is my second favorite song on Ridin Dirty. The subject matter here is intense, deep, and powerful. Bun B and Pimp C focus on all sort of topics, spilling their guts onto the pad and into the microphone. Such situations as STDs, crime, selling drugs, betrayal, pregnancy, death, and all kinds of hardships are touched upon here. Ridin Dirty is quickly becoming one of the most poetic albums ever.

See, that's one thing a lot of pretentious underground fans don't realize: you can have all the lyrics in the world and all the metaphors you can pull outcha crackhole, but you also gotta have bumpable tracks, and UGK are the KINGS of bumpable southern anthems that actually don't focus on crap subject matter and above average lyrics. I mean seriously, you can keep ya "Soul Positions" and "El-P's" with the metallic, boring beats. I'd rather be bumpin this in my benz rollin down Kennedy Blvd.

Yeah well, there is one major drawback to Ridin Dirty is when Bun B and Pimp C try to be gangsta. It just doesn't work. Luckily, it's only twice. "Murder" suffers from a decent beat, but has virtually no replayability. I mean it's not horrible, just not fun to listen to when compared to the laid-back, positive hip-hop and introspective poetry that makes up the majority of Ridin Dirty. "Touched" isn't much different when it comes to subject matter, only with much better production. "That's Why I Carry" sounds like it could be ripped right out of The Chronic (the original, not 2001). That may be all it has going for it. The beat is a darker version of G-Funk, and while it's not bad, it's not particularly good either. It's just a song I won't be listening to ever again most likely, but I can see why somebody would like it.