"So, I typed a text to a girl I used to see"

“International Player’s Anthem”
UGK with OutKast UGK: Underground Kingz

I’ve got to admit, I was one of the few heads sleeping on UGK for a minute, even after being featured on Jay-Z's “Big Pimpin’,” what many consider to be their commercial breakout record. And now, after the untimely death of one half of the legendary rap duo Pimp C, it’s likely that there won’t be another UGK album ever made. So, I thought to myself, get a hold of one of the most bangin’ tracks released this year and share your thoughts on it. It just so happened that track was “Int’l Player’s Anthem” with OutKast.

Keep Your Heart 3 Stacks
Whenever 3000 gets on a track to spit, I constantly ask myself why he doesn’t do it more often. Seriously, this along with the verse he put down in Lloyd’s “You” remix is one of the most heartfelt and witty verses of the year. His delivery is more conversational than hip-hop, but his thoughts on delving into marriage, of all things, is so sincere one cannot help but leap into his shoes and try to understand his feelings. He makes it so easy to do so, too, with his storybook flow: “So I typed at text to a girl I used to see/saying’ that I chose a cutie pit with whom I want to be/...Then I cc’d every girl that I’d see see ‘round town…”The struggle between a man who’s had much “bedroom success” hanging up his black book and committing to one woman is not a subject that is readily accepted in this greater hip-hop community and I give ‘Dre so much credit for attaching so much reality to it and making it an accessible topic in this verse.

The fear is definitely present in his words as he says: “wetness all around me, true, but I’m no island/…give up all this pussy cat that’s in my lap?” Makes you wonder how any man could give it up, right? I mean, let’s be serious, isn’t this what superstar rappers are supposed to be doing? Getting play from every and any dime that offers it? That’s all we see images of, at least. But, hearing him rhyme, over this phenomenal Willie Hutch track no less, about how much that doesn’t matter is just as telling: “Spaceships/don’t come equipped with rearview mirrors/they dip as quick as they can…” Plain and simple, gentlemen, you find that lady, you don’t constantly watch your back as you streak out of the atmosphere, you run with her and you hold her down for as long as your body (spaceship) and heart (atmosphere) will let you. Even though his partners exclaim that it’s too soon “like a preemie out the womb,” they still refuse to let him let this one go, letting him know that “they got his back like chiroprac-tic.”

You Ain’t a Pimp, You a Fairy
The dichotomy between the first verse and the middle two by UGK offer a very clear, well-put and somewhat hilarious extreme on the other side of the barometer. Pimp C kicks the church doors down with his comical and convicted declaration: “my bitch a choosey/lover/never fuck without a rubber…” As if to say,”3000, you can have that one, I'll all the rest of them over here.” As he plainly states, he is not the type to mess around with the “lesser trash.” “Top notch hoes get the most, not the lesser…./she be cross country givin' all that she got/a thousand a pop, I’m pullin' Bentleys off the lot” This verse is so pimp-nificet that I was thinking about picking up a floor length sable fur coat myself.

Girl, don’t touch my protection
Daddy Fat Sacks himself, Big Boi, contributed perhaps the very best verse in this song. Now, seriously, I know many of you may not admit it, but there are more than enough of us out there that have been messing with this one girl who just seems crazier than all the others. Big Boi’s experience in this verse just sounds so true that it hearkens back to the “Ms. Jackson” days.
Apparently, Big Boi finds himself in the unenviable position of playing roulette with his conquests and choosing the wrong one. So what does she do? Messes with the protection even after hearing protests from the man himself “Girl, don’t touch my protection/I know you want it to slip…” It slips. So now he’s at a crossroads, this unfortunate fellow now has a child with this woman he is not particularly fond of AND she isn’t taking care of her end of the bargain “better prepare you for the see-saw pole/she supposed to spend it on that baby but we see she don’t…” And then, in case you were lacking further context, he references Paul McCartney’s ongoing settlement suit with Heather Mills: “Ask Paul McCartney/the lawyers getting sloppy/slaughter of them pockets/want to tie her to a rocket….” He’s desperate, he wants to get rid of her a fast as possible, but those child support payments aren’t going away as he states: “he paying 20K a day/that bitch is eating good…”

The last few bars of this verse are the most important and there is a huge lesson to be learned in this cautionary tale. BE CAREFUL WHO YOU LAY WITH, FELLAS! As Big Boi professes “Like an infant on a double d titty, just getting plump/cause you miscalculated the next to the last pump/dump, dump in the gut/raw from the giddy up/better choose the right one or pick-pick the kiddies up…” You have to watch out because it won’t always be so easy to shut it down once it gets real heavy. Dude wasn’t protecting himself and ended up being the one to pick them kiddies up. Hilarious, yet relevant.

I Choose You
Three 6 absolutely destroyed this track and, honestly, there is nothing about this song that I can say, that hasn’t been said already. I’m just waitin' for that next Kast album to drop.

R.I.P Chad “Pimp C” Butler