stop n go is kind of an anomaly on the ugk record. I'm w/ harvey that i prefer UGK being UGK but that UGK record really doesn't have that many guests on it - at least not that many that fuck w/ the original UGK formula. i mean ok ... you fastforward thru dizzee + pimpin ken, skip stop n go ... maybe you don't like lil jon on the original version of 'like that.' but what else on this record sounds like them 'pushing boundaries' (aka using current club sounds and sounding boring as a result)? I love the record, and mostly because it sounds so much like their other ones.
You know, in the end my little crusade here isn't about Underground Kingz being a subpar album. It's more about people using it as some sort of Texas rap pass that's apparently supposed to cover up years of ignoring even more currently-pertinent-to-the-region artists that have srpung up since Ridin Dirty.
It's the same phenomenon that occured surrounding Scarface's The Fix. Far too many tend to put the safe bet on such a lofty pedestal that it gets kinda fratboy lame to me.
And while I know some of y'all just like the album honestly, and please believe me that I'm not tyring to step on that at all...I'm just proactively guarded like that.
You're basically arguing a point that nobody here is making. Nobody is trying to say that UGK's newest album is the benchmark standard to be able to say you listen to texas rap. This thread is about rap albums, this year, that are good. So if you're saying Underground Kingz is good, then there's no argument. This ain't really about anything else.
As far as other artists in the region from past years, I think most people who get into UGK (whether based off of hearing the new shit or ridin' dirty or the pocket full of stones single or even big pimpin' or whatever) are eventually going to hear the other TX stuff and get on the wagon. I don't know anybody who would claim to be a fan of TX rap who only knows about UGK and doesn't fuck with Rap-a-lot/Screwed Up/Swishahouse/etc shit as well. If they did, I would certainly feel similarly on that subject. I don't even consider myself "connected" with Texas rap, I just like a lot of what I've heard over the years and I continue to learn about it. No shame in admitting that. Anybody who tries to lie on that to be "down" is just corny anyway. I actually do appreciate when you post up about new shit happening down there cuz there's usually something in what you post that I can dig.
People seem to stop at what is released on majors...which is a shame.
But yeah, I've known you to be good people in this department, so I ain't mad at cha.