AUDIO FOREPLAY: IN HONOR OF A FALLEN KAANG

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I realized the four of you who actually read this blog haven’t gotten a Sunday audio foreplay offering from me in a very very long time, but I haven’t been inspired as I was on Sundays past to post music to go out to live to. You have to actually be doing it to put a set of theme songs together for it, at least in my world. However, today stands as a special yet sad occasion that is very deserving of a well put together Audio Foreplay that I hope you take the time to both read and listen to. I promise you will be the better for it.

As most or all of you may know by now Pimp C real name Chad Butler, one half of the legendary rap duo UGK, was found dead earlier this week in his hotel room in LA at the young age of 33 (No signs of drug use or physical harm were present at the time he was found. Medical examiners currently believe it may have been natural causes). This post is a bit hard for me due to the fact that I hate that we keep losing the greatest producers of musical genius of our generation at such young ages with unknown amounts more to give to us, but I’m sure it’s in no way as hard as it must be for the millions of fans who have been loyally riding tough with UGK since their 1992 debut “Too Hard to swallow”. I’m sure Texas is currently in a national state of mourning for one of their greatest exports.

I have a confession I feel must be shared on the matter of UGK, I’m one of the late ones who didn’t get into them until their latest album “Underground Kingz” put me on my ass with the hard slap boom bap wakeup call it gave me of their musical genius. Yes, even after their verses on Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin”, and just to start a fight on a Sunday, I actually didn't love that song and always thought it was one of the weakest songs in Jay’s catalogue (BRING IT ON!!!). It was the Underground Kingz album and an e-mail from a friend posted below that drove me back to their earlier works to hear if this was a onetime whim of genius or have they always been this lyrically prolific and I was just ignorant to it and the answer was – YES, they always have. I bought that album for the love of one song – International Players anthem, which I only truly loved because of the Andre “Feature Killer” 3000 verse. To then be blown away by the realization that International Players anthem was one of the weakest songs on the album. Trust that the use of the word weak is not the best word selection, as there was nothing AT ALL WEAK about anything put onto that album. It stands as perfection in my eyes.

One of the greatest things I heard once I had written a review of the Underground Kingz albums was from a very good southern friend whose musical taste I both respected and trusted e-mailed me the following.

“This album to me and my fellow dirrty souf peers is a classic...being that you're from New York, you probably wouldn't understand when I say THIS IS THE OL SKOOL UGK...The pocket full of stones UGK, the, "I'm 'bout to do a kick door, lay down on the floor UGK, THE UGK I GREW UP ON! This album will most definitely get mad play in my ride!”

Those simple, yet passionate, couple of sentences put me on a serious hunt to find the classic UGK albums that had produced such memorable lines. This is what great music and the people that create it do to people – it leaves you with something to live the rest of your life to. All this rambling was to say even though I haven’t known them for as long as I should, the short time that I had UGK in my world they left me with a lot and for that I shall forever be blessed and in an eternal state of mourning for the loss.

R.I.P PIMP C/Chad Butler.

P.S. Below is a great qoute from Bun B when asked when was the last time you saw him?(Pimp C)

"We performed together in Dallas the day after Thanksgiving. And we attended the Young Jeezy concert together Thanksgiving. And that was the last time I physically saw him. We met, we hugged, said we loved each other. When we separate we always make sure we hug and say we love each other. And keep in mind, Pimp C and I, we didn't agree on everything… I've been knowing Pimp C since he was 16 years old. By nature, our personalities and our character tended to be at odds, but because of who we were and where we were from, and where we were trying to go and what we were trying to prove, we were always together in that respect. And I loved him, and he loved me, and we're never ashamed to say it. And I know we're in the era of "pause" and "no homo" and all that, and that's all fine and dandy, but if you really love your homie, don't feel like you can't tell him you love him. Who gives a fuck how somebody take it. Because when things happen, you're going to wish you had said it. You're going to wish you said it louder."

AUDIO FOREPLAY SUNDAYS

Below is a video playlist I put together for today’s audio foreplay in honor of the group that through these streets reppin the south with lyrics as well as swagger. I have to start it with the song that got me to take the red pill:

UGK ft. Outkast – “International Players”


UGK – “Use Me Up”


UGK – “It's Supposed To Bubble”


Jay-Z ft. UGK – “Big Pimpin”


UGK - “The Game Belongs To Me”


Pimp C ft. Mike Jones & Bun B – “Pourin' Up”


“Get Throwed.”


Pimp-C - "Knockin doors Down" uncut

GVG
~kickin in doors~