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>who maintain he always was
>Bun was always my dude
>esp post Ridin Dirty
>
I guess it depends on who you ask..Pimp, broken record time, was and is pretty slept on...especially by cats who aren't in/from the South from my limited research. I'm 32, so that places me at primetime when Ridin' Dirty was out (damn I'm old), and I am very clear that the sound of that album IS STILL the template for Houston and, in a lot of ways, lots of South-related rap that followed. Its the South's Chronic/Doggystyle basically. Soul Food + Ridin Dirty = Outkast's main inspirations if you ask me...it would be cool if someone would ask Dre and Twan to hear their thoughts. They can't deny Soul Food, but I'm interested in their thoughts on RD. It was great when Jay called RD out as great and crazily slept on in a mag around 98. That blew me away actually...
There's no denying that Bun became a beast at the point of Ridin Dirty or really before that around the time of Break Em Off on Master P's Ice Cream Man album hit. Bun took a wild leap in lyrical dopeness to go along with his Supertight strongarm delivery. He had several murderous lines and verses throughout Ridin Dirty (as did Chad). Brother Bun clearly understood hiphop and was getting better when he whipped through 95-99 like a monster.
Still, RD was in 96. And it was their 'third' album. Its 2010. Pimp's been gone a while and even before that he had the jailtime where Bun was out there campaigning, grinding, Big Boi'ing for UGK. And of course, I'll forever have love for Bun for that effort and how it paid off. Still, when the conversation about UGK comes up, you'd think Pimp C was an ugly duckling in the group depending on who you're talking to. Especially the after-the-fact UGK-aware folks. Upon further review, I view the thought as laughable.
I guess folks will consider the history you alluded to where the first two albums seemed like the Pimp C show starring Pimp C with cohost the other dude who wasn't Pimp C. Not to mention the production prowess, the singing (wow, the singing..ask Dre and Cee-Lo about it), the confidence to be ridiculous without having to fake it, the authentic Houston hilarity, and the creative crafting that is now missing from a lot of Bun's stuff, etc...
In the beginning, it was...
Bun: "you better keep your weak self locked in your hood, cuz without ya boys I'ma have to tell you something good"
vs
Chad: "when you get a kiss, do you feel bad knowing that you swallowed all the skeeter that I had?"
or
Chad: "One with a trigger, two with a bat, three big brothers four wanna squab with me so I guess a brother gotta throw."...which of course set it all off for cats down here. I just put that one right now and added .09 years to my life. To hear somebody throw that on at a party outta the blue would be soooo great. Sorry...what about the ridiculous story-telling at the end of Chad's verses, 'she waxed my jimmy!', calling a dude's sister a 'street tramp' and going into even more detail after that..only Chad would go there with a straight face on the 'single' that these dudes put on the radio to get a 'rush' or 'flush'. Or was it 'jam' or 'slam'?
Even if you take Ridin' Dirty, I credit most of the sound to Chad (and NO Joe). Now of course, Bun completely decimated those songs with his harsh, hungry, no-nonsense delivery and updated powerhouse rhyming to finally fairly complement Chad's passionate pimp talk, legendary delivery, the singing, great introspection (Hi-Life!), and hilarity ("Bitch, yo old man talking to me like I'm in school. He don't know I hang with killers, we'll erase that fool!"). Folks argue that he 'let' Bun have a lot of that album, but he still set off a gang of those songs with his 'normal' Pimp C-ness. For instance, he blew Good Stuff outta the water before singing the hook and passing it off.
"I got the haters, and the jackers, and the million-dollar crackers trying to close me down, but I got ghetto love! I'm Pimp C, bitch! I'm coming down richer than rich so bitch you know you gotta give me good stuff!"
Now Bun came hard after that, but really...Pimp shut it down. Pimp set up Ridin Dirty and Murder too. You'd think that Pimp took that album off or something, but he was on the scene with classic Pimp material, great hooks, and...HE GOT BETTER AS AN EMCEE TOO! Man, Ridin Dirty is just a great, great album. So many quotables. Just flat out good songs with nice ass hooks and outstanding rapping from both guys.
The other thing...I remember the album growing on folks. I know I liked it well enough, but the more I heard it, the more I appreciated it, the more lines I caught, the more Pimp C hilarity I uncovered (ain't talkin bout the Malcolm but I'm ridin on that X), the more I realized that Pimp was singing A LOT and it really worked, the more I realized that Bun was like a different cat lyrically (Murder, Pinky Ring, 3 in the Mornin), the more I realized that the album was a superior piece of work that a bunch of folks noticed, got inspired by, and stole from. Now, cats erase your shit off of their hard drives if it doesn't have an immediate impact on their soul or fit into their ideas of what great is.
Jimaveli
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