Thirty-four years ago today, on November 10, 1992, UGK released Too Hard to Swallow on Jive Records. It was the major-label debut of Pimp C and Bun B, two country boys from Port Arthur, Texas, and it planted a flag for a Southern sound the rest of the industry would spend the next decade catching up to.
Where It Came From
UGK, short for Underground Kingz, started in 1987 with Pimp C and his partner Big Mitch. When Mitch left to chase football, Bun B stepped in, and the chemistry was immediate: Pimp’s high, unpredictable delivery and soulful production next to Bun’s steady, heavy-hitting bars. They called themselves the Underground Kingz because they figured their slang and twang was too regional for outsiders to get.
Jive signed them to a five-album deal in 1992. Some of the rawest songs were pulled from the album at the last minute, and five of them came out two months earlier on an EP fittingly titled Banned.
The Sound
Pimp C grew up around music, the son of a trumpet player, and he built beats with 808 drums under thick layers of soul, funk and blues. You can hear it all over this record. “Something Good” pulls from Rufus and the Isley Brothers, “Use Me Up” flips Bill Withers, and “Pocket Full of Stones” became the breakout, landing on the Menace II Society soundtrack in 1993. Other standouts include “It’s Too Hard to Swallow” and “Short Texas.”
The Numbers
It wasn’t a sales monster out the gate. Too Hard to Swallow peaked at No. 37 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and No. 14 on the Heatseekers chart. But that was never the point. This was the foundation.
The Legacy
From here, UGK built one of the most respected runs in rap. Their 2000 features on Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin'” and Three 6 Mafia’s “Sippin’ on Some Syrup” took them national, “Big Pimpin'” earned a Grammy nomination, and 2007’s Underground Kingz debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 behind “International Players Anthem (I Choose You)” with OutKast, which went on to win Video of the Year at the 2008 BET Awards. That same album even linked them with Big Daddy Kane and Kool G Rap on “Next Up” (speaking of Kane, he’s headed to Berklee’s Hip-Hop Hall of Fame).
Pimp C passed away on December 4, 2007, and Bun B has carried the name ever since. Artists from Big Boi to Boosie to Paul Wall have pointed to UGK as an influence, and every Southern rapper who rhymes in their own accent without apologizing owes them something.
The IAHHM Take
Before Atlanta, Houston and Memphis were running the charts, two dudes from a refinery town of about 60,000 people showed you could stay regional and still be undeniable. That’s the Archive in a sentence. Catch up on yesterday’s double dose of history too: Wu-Tang and Tribe dropping classics on the same day in 1993.
What’s your UGK starter pack: Too Hard to Swallow, Ridin’ Dirty or Underground Kingz?
Sources: Wikipedia: Too Hard to Swallow, Wikipedia: UGK
