This 2009 Slept-On list covers the gamut of artists in the Hip-Hop realm. Old G’s from the mid-90s who still got the goods, even if they don’t resonate with the younger crowd. Underground super groups. Young artists on the cusp of breaking through into bigger circles. Southern legends riding out into immortality for the last time.

What ties these albums together is that for whatever reason, they didn’t quite get the love they deserved in 2009. So start off 2010 by loading up on some of the best music 2009 had to offer (for a very reasonable price).

Tanya Morgan – Brooklynati

With the soul and spirit of De La and Tribe, Tanya Mo quietly dropped Brooklynati. Backed by Sir Von Pea’s soulful production, the cast of Tanya Morgan delivered carefree stories of a rap group on the come up which spawned the infectious single “So Damn Down.” Phonte, Blu, Carlitta Durrand and Kay all co-star. Wake up and join the movement!—Landon A.

Cop: Brooklynati

M.O.P. – Foundation

Although seemingly dropping out of nowhere in the middle of September with zero promotional buzz and nary a video to boot, the brutes from Brownsville didn’t treat their undetected product like a contractual obligation. Setting things off over riot-inducing production from DJ Premier, Nottz and Statik Selektah, Foundation’s exterior sounded as rugged as day uno. Time to ante up if you haven’t heard it.—TC

Cop: Foundation

Fashawn – Boy Meets World

Two years after Blu & Exile’s groundbreaking project Below The Heavens shook the underground in 2007, the MPC-toting soulful beatsmith chose Fresno’s own Fashawn to be the second MC he would push onto the masses with their collaborative project Boy Meets World. Ex’s lush production meshes together beautifully with Fashawn’s lyrical tales reflecting his upbringing in the northern part of California that raised him. While the album didn’t reach far within the commerial realm, the critical acclaim and respect he gained as a lyricist in his region of the country makes his freshman outing a success that he can most definitely build on.—K1NG

Cop: Boy Meets World

K’Naan – Troubadour

’09 was a big year for K’Naan. He began the year by receiving the buzzworthy badge from The Man er…MTV and the summer months had him on the road with the Rock the Bells tour. Troubadour was a cocktail of worldly delights mixed with all the familiar elements of Hip-Hop that helped to make a sleeper hit. The guest roster adds flavor to the mix as Adam Levine of Maroon 5, Mos Def, Chubb Rock, Chali 2na and Kirk Hammett of Metalica all make appearances.—Landon A.

Cop: Troubadour

Twista – Category F5

Who said that hurricanes can only hit along the coasts? On his 7th studio album, Twista came out spinning early and often on this one. With songs like “American Gangster,” “Talk To Me,” & the radio friendly “Wetter,” Mr. Mitchell was operating at full strength during the eye of his storm. Although it loses steam near the end when he lends his attention solely to the fairer sex, Category F5 show that Twista hasn’t lost a step during his time served and when focused, is still as lethal as ever.—MZ

Cop: Category F5

Fresh Daily - The Gorgeous Killer In Crimes Of Passion

Fresh Daily is the Hip-Hop you love. An old school delivery with new-age punchlines make The Gorgeous Killer In Crimes Of Passion a joy to listen to. Daily’s bars are laugh out loud funny at times but it’s tracks like “Love Breakdown” and “Crimes of Passion” that allow the New Yorker to show off his more serious side. And try to listen to “Gutterman” or “Untucked Nunchucks” and not get the yuck face. Fresh Daily is a pundit on the mic and more outings like this will guarantee he’ll be a force in the game for a long time.—David D.

Cop: The Gorgeous Killer In Crimes Of Passion

Warren G. – The G. Files

Overshadowed by releases from his other Old G contemporaries, Sir. Griffin proved that G-Funk stays winning well into middle age. Help from a mix of the new Cali crew and some standbys didn’t hurt. Top tracks like the dark, “100 Miles & Runnin’” (poor title though c’mon Warren,) move the album, and even some of the poppy efforts like the Snoop collabo “Swagger Rich” are still enjoyable. Warren’s not consistent or adept enough to label this a new classic, but fans of old school, West Coast Hip-Hop should definitely partake.—Patrick M.

Cop: The G. Files

Donny Goines – The Breakfast Club

Ever wonder what the lyrical equivalent of Eggs Benedict with Hollandaise and crushed red pepper would amount to? If so, Donny Goines served up such a platter with The Breakfast Club. Mixing engaging food for thought (“Sublime”) with light midday meals (“Party Apple”), the free buffet was essentially a compilation seeing that it featured nearly every hot act in today’s blogosphere. Too many calories present to let this dish go cold.—TC

Download: The Breakfast Club

Curren$y – This Ain’t No Mixtape

After flooding the Internet with a massive amount of mixtapes over the span of a year or so, New Orleans’ own Curren$y decided to take a little time to craft an independent album alongside Amalgam Digital. Utilizing his effortless flow to glide over the sonic landscape provided by Monsta Beatz, Spitta crafted an album with enough weed & sneaker references to put Complex to shame. While it didn’t quite break him through to the mainstream audience, it proved to be a worthy project for any rap fan’s collection this year.—K1NG

Cop: This Ain’t No Mixtape

Lushlife – Cassette City

The guy doesn’t look the part and on first glance his name reads like a Twilight character. But 30 seconds of hearing Lushlife spit rhymes and you’ll believe in the product. Still Cassette City was largely ignored by the general public, who may have been turned off by the visuals or just didn’t know any better. That’s a shame, because the album combines introspective rhymes that keep coming with new-age production that keeps to its underground roots.—Patrick M.

Cop: Cassette City

Trife Diesel – Better Late Than Never

Eight years of purgatory doesn’t exactly breed excitement for the release of an album, but in the case of Trife Diesel, his tardiness proved to worth waiting for. Boldly going where NYC hadn’t been in some time, dirtier-than-fishscale parables like “Powerful Minds” and Ghostface-assisted “Respectfully” gave the East some bragging rights to close out the decade. Hopefully they won’t have to wait too long for the sequel.—TC

Cop: Better Late Than Never

Playaz Circle – Flight 360: The Takeoff

Without a breakaway hit à la “Duffle Bag Boy” Tity Boy & Dolla’s flight was a little less crowded this go around. But for those who chose to take a ride were treated to their signature brand of music for in-flight entertainment.  While the OJ Da Juiceman collabo “Stupid” was put into place to appease those hanger on’s from last go around, this DTP duo brought equal parts of style and substance to the table.  If they can continue on their current trajectory, it’ll only be a matter of time before they’ll be shopping for bigger planes.—MZ

Cop: Flight 360: The Takeoff

UGK – 4 Life

This was the final curtain call for one of Hip-Hop’s greatest groups and they went out in the same draped up and dripped out purple Cadillac they rode in on. If you thought this would be a sappy ode to Pimp C, you were sadly mistaken. “Still on the Grind” and “Swishas & Erb” are familiar odes to what made UGK successful while “Steal Your Mind” shows a dream collaboration with Snoop and Too $hort, forming a pimp dream team of outrageous bars. Then there’s Pimp with his insistence on unshaven pubic areas and lines like “I’m tryin to put my dick inside ya mouth/tryin’ to put my dick and nuts inside ya mouth!” Long live the Pimp.—David D.

Cop: 4 Life

RZA – Afro Samurai Resurrection OST

Noticably absent from the multitude of Wu releases for the year, RZA did manage to stay productive in the industry’s frozen tundra, better known as January. The RZA Presents: Afro Samurai Resurrection OST, the eponymous soundtrack for the violent animated movie, incorporated a massive amount of underground talent for the greater good of murder music. It’s like a Hanzo for your iPod.—TC

Cop: The RZA Presents: Afro Samurai Resurrection OST

My Shuffle caught me slippin’.

I avoided this song for THE longest time. But last week while getting my cardio on, I decided to load that Webbie mixtape to see just how terrible the mixing was (it was horrible).

That’s when this song snuck in and just…to be honest, Boosie’s verse, actually everybody’s verse was respectable. With a title like “Harry Asshole,” I expected the song to be an uncomfortable ode to dookie love. Instead, none of the sexually explicit verses strayed from anything too uncommon, detouring onto the Hershey Highway. Everybody’s except one. Read the rest of this entry »

I made my first visit to TSS because a friend of mine told me the site had the then brand-new song, “Get Throwed.”

When I wrote my first ever Hip-Hop article for a little blog at Davidson College (which I later submitted to Gotty™ while trying to join the Crew), I wrote about UGK and how genuine their music has always been to me. Not to belabor the point, but at the time, Pimp C had just been Read the rest of this entry »

If you ask any celebrity, they’d probably tell you that media day is nothing short of a royal pain. Dozens of interviewers calling to ask questions about an upcoming project, droning off repetitive inquiries. Bun B, one of the most down to earth rappers you’ll ever come across, seems unfazed even though he is answering questions about the death of his best friend.

When he sat down and talked to The Crew’s David D., Bun B was the same cool guy one would expect as he discussed promoting the new UGK album without Pimp C at his side, dropping guest verses and what’s the perfect song to honor the Underground Kingz.

TSS: Hey Bun B, what’s up man? How’s it going?

Bun B: I’m good, man.

TSS: Before I get to this UGK album you guys have coming out, I’ve wanted to ask you this for years if I ever had the pleasure of talking to you. Every time you’re on someone else’s track and you have a 16, you kill it. So how do you prepare for that?

Bun B: I don’t really, to be honest. I’m a weird studio creature. I just go to the studio, tell them to cut on a beat and I write. And then I go in. The process is usually complete in about 20-30 minutes. I don’t make it a long, dragged out type of situation. It’s really just a matter of organizing thoughts. And because of the fact I’ve been doing this so long continuously, it’s not a problem to organize thoughts at all. As far as information, I have more information than I have an outlet to release. Every time I do a song, I’m still 30-40 verses behind as far as information I want to get out. I know my way around a record. And I know exactly how to hit the points that maybe other people in the song haven’t hit. If they send me a beat and there aren’t any vocals on it, then I just try to hit points that I know people are going to reach for.

TSS: Is that the same way you prepare for your own albums too?

Bun B: No, it’s totally different because in terms of UGK albums, a lot of that stuff originated from ideas that Pimp and I might have. And I don’t have to come in until it’s fully visualized. Until the beat is all laid out and everything, then I let my verses drop. For a solo album, I have more control of the process. My solo album is just about getting the right music. Any verse you’ve ever heard Bun B say was probably written in about 15 minutes. That’s not just me talking. You can ask anyone. That’s why I’m on so many records, because of the turnaround.

People send me the record on Thursday and the it’s gotta be done by Friday, because they know I’m gonna get it, go in, do what I gotta do send it in go home and go to sleep. I’m not a studio rat that likes to sit in the studio for six hours, invite every fucking body I know, buy pizza, smoke weed, drink, hang out and then try to find a fucking club and don’t even go to the club because you’re too high and drunk from the studio. I don’t make a day out of it. I’m an old head. I’m 35 years old, I got a wife and kids. I got a granddaughter now. If I’m in the studio by 2, I’m trying to be out by 7. I can still get five or so songs done.

TSS: So you must have a huge catalog sitting around, right?

Bun B: Actually, I don’t. Everything I record is usually for something. As of right now I have no songs stowed away. A lot of people assume that because I’m always on everything. People literally call me- I have my beats and do like five features. Then I go to the studio and knock out all five and go home.

TSS: That way you were on everybody’s song was kind of like ahead of its time because now everybody — Lil’ Wayne or anybody that’s got an album coming out — they’re always doing a lot of guest spots. Was that a conscious effort for marketing or were you just trying to get on records?

Bun B: It’s a little bit of both. It’s definitely a way of making yourself available to several different markets at one time. Also, it gives you the chance as an artist to bounce yourself around the game with like minded talents to see where you stand. It’s important for artists to know where they stand. And for me, being an older artists where you have some younger fans who are like 17-18 years old who may not know my entire legacy or my full repertoire. It’s important for me to stand next to the people they look up to today and let them see that I’m as good or better than anything they’re listening to right now.

TSS: As far as the marketing goes, now, how has it been promoting this album by yourself?

Bun B: Weird. I try to think of some deep way. It’s just weird. It’s different. It’s not necessarily difficult because I’m doing interviews and phonies and shit like that. But it’s very weird to constantly talk about him being dead. I’m gonna be honest. Nobody says “dead.” I have to say it every now and then because nobody says “Pimp C is dead.” They say “he’s passed” or “now that he’s gone.” Nobody ever says “dead.” Sometimes I have to say that word for the reality to set in. That’s just for me personally, so I can get it out.

TSS: Has it at all been therapeutic at least? Read the rest of this entry »

Words by Khalid Strickland

The first time Bun B soldiered on without his UGK co-defendant Pimp C, fans of the revered Port Arthur, Texas duo didn’t fret. Bun capably held shit down as a solo artist and the faithful knew that the pair would be reunited once Pimp finished his prison bid. But only two years after Pimp came home from the bing, Bun B was on his own once again. However, this time there would be no reunion down the road. Chad Butler a.k.a. Pimp C passed away in his sleep on December 4th 2007 and the U.G.K. that we’ve come to know and love would never be the same again.

Before he returned to the essence, Pimp C recorded enough material for both his upcoming solo album and UGK 4 Life, the group’s last hurrah. UGK 4 Life is slated for release on March 31st but I recently attended a listening session for the album at the offices of Jive Records. The joints I heard Read the rest of this entry »

I wouldn’t usually listen to a song that starts off with Akon saying “…bendin’ over, spreadin’ eagle, all that ass in my face…”

But, the Underground Kaaang’s “Hard As Hell” gets a pass.

With it’s light and innocent, guitar-infused R&Beat fused with Bun and Pimp trading honey-dipped verses, the lead single off the duo’s final album UGK 4 Life is dope enough where I’ll let myself get caught up in the cliche. Even if the Kon Man’s hook is eerily reminiscent of his work on Plies’ 2007 hit, “Hypnotized” (I might be mistaken, but hasn’t he pull this stunt before?). Read the rest of this entry »

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