Ridin’ Dirty VS. The Chronic

TruthIsGravey - Ridin’ Dirty by UGK

Opening Statement:
The Underground Kingz, better known to the public as UGK from Port Arthur, Texas. A group that was active from 1987 until the untimely death of Pimp C in 2007. “Ridin’ Dirty” was their third full length album that was published in 1996. This was their highest selling album with an estimated sells in the mid 800 thousands. The sales number will be further explain and examine to illustrate how important this album is to the genre of Hip Hop and more specifically to the region (The South) that it was spawn from

The sound of the South during the mid 90s was full of warm melody, slower and atmospheric vibe that gives way to a story telling style that was reminiscent of the southern root of Blues. In “Ridin’ Dirty,” both Bun B and Pimp C kicked game about the realities of their environment in a very distinct 3rd coast style, flow, and accent. The majority of this album was produced by Bun B and Pimp C – the signature UGK sound; you can coast through the whole album without feeling like something is off. The cohesiveness makes it an easy listening, also the various topics will keep you interest and engage

Both Bun and Pimp were not necessary the most lyrical and technical rappers. Their strengths come in forms of their voice, cadence, sincerity, and their flow on their productions. They were a no nonsense bunch, directly addressing the audience with urgency (but in a very same level, not above you kind of way) about the life and time in the ghetto. People often speak of the universal themes that we as a humanity could relate to; life’s struggle, stress and suffering were well displayed in these tracks. Overall, life is a hustle and the title of this album pretty much illustrated the common core of “I got to do what I got to do to survive.” As I mentioned earlier, even though many of the songs are somber reminder how harsh life can be, the bounce and the funk in the music keeps it balance throughout the album, so it does not come off as too dark or grim

Album sales and charting are important indicators of the popularity of any artist. Let me disclose this information, so you can get a better picture of how dope UGK was in order to sale that many copies of this album. I never heard of UGK until they were feature on the song, Big Pimpin’ by Jay-Z. This was 1999, and they have already released 3 LPs prior to this hit. “Ridin’ Dirty” came out in 1996 with no music video and singles release. Now, let me put this in perspective, unlike current model of music distribution and the internet; back then an artist relied heavy on “eyes” and “ears” via music video and radio plays off a single. Despite that, they found a way to sale over 67,000 copies in its first week, and 850,000 to date. Very impressive

Rebuttal:
First, there is no doubt about the influence of Andre Young in the industry and the importance of “The Chronic” in Hip Hop. However, one need to put this in perspective, Dr. Dre comes from a big market of Los Angeles, which is the second biggest media capital outside of New York. Besides the success from being a big part of N.W.A., coming from a city with Hollywood can help tremendously in getting your work in the mainstream. A good example of market place, you can look at the careers of Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter; where one started out in the small market of Seattle, and the other in the giant market of New York. Both pretty equal in talent with some discrepancies here and there – but, the point is that Jeter like Dre had an easier time blowing up than someone like A-Rod (in the beginning) and UGK

Dr. Dre is a very talented producer and has great ears for studio mixing. However, when it comes down to rapping in “The Chronic,” he is no Joe Cocker (RIP); he needed more than just a little help from his friends. If you look at the credits of the album, majority of the songs have features; this is not to discredit the quality and popularity of the songs. The album essentially was a showcase of Dre’s production and executive producing prowess. In comparison to UGK’s “Ridin’ Dirty,” Pimp C produced the majority of the songs with some help from Bun B, N.O. Joe and Sergio. There were only few features on the album, Mr. 3-2 with a guest verse, Ronnie Spencer and N.O. Joe with hooks here and there. Ultimately, “Ridin’ Dirty,” was a self contained album where Bun and Pimp (both producing and wrote their own lyrics) did all the major leg works, while Dr. Dre had a whole office setup with each person serving their respective duty to this album. Also to note, if it was not for another Texan by the name of The D.O.C., Dre’s Chronic would not be what it is

The overwhelming positive reviews on the production of “The Chronic” can be a bit overrated. Sure, adding live instruments (Stetsasonic done this early) made the tracks fuller and more embellish – the songs were still sample based. Also, Duck’s mentioned on the few samples used on any song as opposed to the style of Bomb Squad; this sounds great on paper, but, this was due to the fact that Dre sampled the songs wholesale. One of the biggest single, “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang,” sampled a big chunk of Leon Haywood’s “I Want’a Do Something Freaky to You.” This is not to say, “Ridin’ Dirty” is a sample free album, but, it only shines a light on how underrated Pimp C was as a producer. To finish off, you would not catch a suspect line from UGK like Dre to Luke with “…gap teeth in your mouth so my dick’s gots to fit…” Pause

Closing:
“What’s in a name?” – As famously said by many. Even though The Underground Kingz had success later in their career with doing features for other artists, their name truly stands and represented them to the fullest. Not only have they inspired many artists of the South that would go on to top charting mainstream success. Some artists like David Banner and Lil Wayne had stated that the group had laid the foundation for the South. To this day, you can hear an artist like, Big K.R.I.T., who is still carry that style and flavor of UGK

Each Hip Hop regions or coasts all have their respective pioneers and early trendsetters that never got their just due with fame and fortune. Folks like Grandmaster Caz (Cold Crush Brothers) and Schoolly D never made it to the major limelight. The latter gave Ice-T a style to run with which then paved way for a group like N.W.A. to come out full force with gangster rap. Those aforementioned artists never broke records, but, they have earned their respective place in the culture of Hip Hop. UGK, Geto Boys and the folks at Rap-A-Lot were early artists for the Hip Hop scene in the South. Therefore a group like UGK helped spearheaded the movement of the South that gave acts like Chamillionaire, Paul Wall, Slim Thug, Big K.R.I.T. and etc. a platform to blow up. UGK's vernacular could still be heard today. "Ridin' Dirty" might not be as successful or well known as "The Chronic." However, that does not negate their importance and respect in Hip Hop

Lastly, you cannot find a more soulful track like "One Day" anywhere in "The Chronic," even if an album was full of co-writers
"Ridin' Dirty" got art and soul

InspectahDUCK - The Chronic by Dr. Dre

Opening Statement:
When it comes to forming a groundbreaking album such as The Chronic, you need to have revolutionized the game in certain ways, and retain a high level of quality in some of the other factors that go into the overall album composition. Few albums could boast the same levels of overall success as Dr. Dre’s debut solo album of 1992

The first and most standout factor is undoubtedly the production. This was the first album that was entirely G-funk from start to finish, a sound style that had been invented by Dr. Dre to begin with. Dre used heavy sounding and heavily layered funk beats sampled from the likes of George Clinton and added synths and more liquid baselines (rather than thumping ones) to create what we now recognize as that patented ‘West Coast sound’: laid-back and mellow. Not only was Dre’s production sonically different to the rest of hip-hop at the time, but also his sampling techniques. Unlike The Bomb Squad who would use a myriad of different samples in each track, Dre stuck to one or two. Dre was also one of the first hip-hop artists to use live instrumentation, and that ultimately is what separated G-funk from other forms of funk sound

The second biggest factor is critical acclaim. Critics were very welcoming of an album that deviated from typical subject matter in the genre at the time; the ‘gangsta’ style of rap clearly contrasted the likes of highly fueled socio-political or pure comedic party music. The Source, who were extremely reluctant to give out 5 mics to any album, gave The Chronic 4.5 mics, calling it “an innovative and progressive hip-hop package that must not be missed” [The Source ‘The Chronic’ review]. Critics were also in high praise of the lyrical abilities of the emerging superstar Snoop Dogg, who was essentially a co-feature on the album. Acclaim of this album has continued to this day, and I think the overwhelming majority of hip-hop fans and critics alike would argue that this is a 5 mic album, one of the best of its genre, and maybe beyond, for the earth-shattering impact it had musically

The final factor that I will mention in this introductory statement is influence. Obviously the aforementioned g-funk influence was telling. It became the principal sound of the West Coast, and even had some influences on other regions in the country. Many albums that followed from The Chronic would start to use g-funk style production, notably artists out of the Death Row camp. Speaking of Death Row, the album’s label, Dre’s album helped launch the careers of artists such as Snoop Dogg, who went on to become one of the biggest hip-hop superstars and legends of all-time. Further to Snoop, you saw a development in the careers of Daz Dillinger, Kurupt, Nate Dogg, Warren G, and other West Coast greats

I could write 2000 more words, as there is still more to The Chronic’s greatness

Rebuttal:
My opponent makes a plausible point whereby he states that Dre was way more likely to blow up being in the LA market. That being said, I think going down the route of popularity is ill advised, as we all know The Chronic trumps Ridin’ Dirty in that department anyway. I noticed the first opening argument in defense of UGK was talking about record sales, and how that proved important to the South. Sales arguments are out of the question when comparing these two albums, as The Chronic as of today has sold roughly 5.7 million units, compared to not even 1 million for UGK

In fact, in the last paragraph of my opponent’s opening argument, a huge point was made indicating the correlation between an artists’ popularity and the album sales and charting. All I got from that point is that UGK are a talented duo and worked really hard to achieve mediocre numbers, and that somehow should be praised, sort of like a gold star for effort award. It’s well documented that Ridin’ Dirty had no official singles or music videos, but is that an album direction we’re supposed to praise? On the other hand, The Chronic had 3 singles on the album: Nuthin’ but a G Thang, Dre Day & Let Me Ride. The first two sold over a million and half a million copies respectively. What that should tell anyone is that The Chronic managed to remain a well focused and cohesive album like UGK’s Ridin’ Dirty, but still managed to release those hit singles that put the album on a higher platform that couldn’t be reached by UGK at any point in their careers

The next point made in my opponent’s opening argument was about the way in which UGK transformed the Southern sound with the release of Ridin’ Dirty. There’s little doubt that UGK changed the game in the South, but was their ingenuity spread onto other scenes around the country? You could easily make an argument that Dr. Dre himself was a big influence on UGK in a few ways. First of all, the game changing production for a region was done by Dre before it was done by UGK. Secondly, whilst the UGK sound wasn’t necessarily g-funk, there were certainly elements of that sound infused into their own production, and the sound of UGK albums, not least of which Ridin’ Dirty, sounded more like a Dre album than they did other acts of the South that came before them. Thirdly, UGK were clearly influenced by Dre because in one of their prior albums, they talk about having “them sixteen switches like Dre/Cos where I’m from nigga that’s what everybody play”

The final argument I wish to address in short was the nitpicking of Dre having too many guest features. However in my opening argument, I mention how those guest features weren’t any ordinary features, and would blow up to become some of the biggest acts in hip-hop especially that decade. Meanwhile, UGK admirably decided for the most part to just go with the two of them, and Pimp C’s relative lack of rapping talent was sorely highlighted on verses with Bun B; Dre was smart in that regard

Closing:
Overall, I refer back to the opening paragraph of my opening statement. In order for one to create a groundbreaking album, it had to change the game in some way. While I respect Ridin’ Dirty for its influence in the South and to some extent its originality, it didn’t have nearly the earth shattering impact on the genre of hip-hop that The Chronic did. UGK may have changed the landscape of the South forever. Dr. Dre changed hip-hop forever. Big market exposure or not, Dre is a mastermind in hip-hop, landing on a level matched by the fewest of artists. When it comes down to discussion, The Chronic is remembered for an album of the highest quality in terms of production, influence, impact, exposure and a host of other factors. It will forever remain an elite tier album

The Chronic sold more, got more acclaim, had a larger impact on hip-hop as a whole through a multitude of factors already covered in previous arguments; I’d also argue that track by track, The Chronic simply has more firepower and no weaknesses, in comparison to Ridin’ Dirty which falls flat in certain areas track-wise. Ultimately, all the arguments I posed are reasons I feel The Chronic is a superior album to UGK’s Ridin’ Dirty