And it’s stitched together with the opening drum programming from Mtume’s “Juicy Fruit.' Cam Wallace, however, creates the most ghoulish, steel-driven point of Welcome 2 Houston. Dre laid over when he crafted “Let Me Ride” in early 1992, with Snoop Dogg’s infectious adlib attached. On back to back tracks, Slim micromanages two well-known samples: Keith Sweat’s “How Deep Is Your Love” for “It’s Going Down ” and Parliament’s “Mothership Connection” for “Swing Down.' While GNB’s flip for “It’s Going Down” is far more straightforward, same for their cutting up of Scarface’s “Fuck Faces” earlier on the tape, Donnie Houston makes a Frankenstein of riding music. Donnie Houston came on board around American King, and Trakksounds has tossed a few tracks his way for a while now. “Talk shit for a living,” Slim offers as a succinct job description on “Swing Down.' I’m pretty sure if Slim ever had to fill out a resume, he’d get hired on the spot because few can truly talk it like Thugga.Ĭombing together the dirty synths, the hardened drums and horns of triumph for Welcome 2 Houston wasn’t too hard for Slim he’s kept GNB in his employ for a wide number of tapes now. Kirko Bangz can rap with charm about putting swangas on a Lexus and a one-night stand to smut out a nameless woman on “Addicted.” Z-Ro essentially will bet you $50,000 that you can’t outdo him at anything, even when he’ll pull up 50 new records on you. Remember, Welcome 2 Houston arrived the same week as the Super Bowl, doubling as a general kind gesture and everyone showing out. Nobody happens to find a mode of pure self-indulgence more than the Big Boss of the Nawf and nobody will stretch to make a whole hour-plus as enjoyable as he will. and the aforementioned Z-Ro, new jacks such as DeLorean, Doughbeezy, Propain & GT Garza along with one rapper who spent time on both sides ( Killa Kyleon) and one rapper who isn’t even from Texas but is just as rudely charismatic being from South Memphis ( Young Dolph).īoss Life Records There is no facsimile to Slim Thug, at least not in Houston. To break this down by geography, four rappers not named Slim represent the Northside: Wall, J-Dawg, Boston George and Cam Wallace one represents the East in Kirko Bangz 12 represent the Southside, including Screwed Up Click members Big Pokey, Mike D, Lil’ Flip, Lil’ O and E.S.G. There are no less than 20 guest verses on the tape, with both Z-Ro and Paul Wall having two apiece. To play a little by the numbers, Welcome 2 Houston is as loaded a Slim Thug project as there has been in ages. But for Slim, Welcome 2 Houston is anything but a bit of warmed-up soup for the soul. Two decades rapping will give you that sort of stature. If he’s in the mood to narrate, he'll come off like Morgan Freeman, announcing victories while shielding the very few losses away from the world. If it was alongside the hyperactivity and tough talk of the Sauce Twinz, he placed it like a boulder rolling down the hill picking up speed and victims in its wake. Slim was never an outright revivalist, he always made certain that his heavy baritone fit in exactly with the times. It’s a weird position to be in, at least in the forever alpha-dog nation that is Houston Rap.

Now, as elder statesmen, a title he officially inherited on last year’s Hogg Life: American King album, Slim is comfortable playing off of the younger acts in the city.

He’s played the main role in the pole position, releasing lauded solo albums, whether they be on major or independent labels. He’s played the young jack, snatching verses on Mista Madd projects as well as running the anchor leg for Swishahouse tapes. What the Northside money maven has done throughout his near two-decade career in Houston rap is work within a thin sense of reinvention. The same need be said for Slim Thug, as he starts living in the last half of his thirties. Prince unless you physically see him, and even then it happens to be in the most pleasant of tenses. The standards are usually revered, talked about in either huge, sweeping platitudes or acknowledged on a one-name basis. Houston rolls out global ambassadors the way luxury brands reveal new items.

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