Super Tight

Two hard slaps of snare, a puff of Hammond B-3, and all of a sudden we’re smack in the middle of a new UGK album. “Return” is a perfectly relentless re-introduction to a duo that has only grown in strength and focus since Too Hard To Swallow. At 11 songs and 50 minutes, Super Tight is exactly what the title promises. Produced entirely by Pimp C, the album is the kind of vice-grip, no-filler affair that just doesn’t happen in the rap world anymore. Like Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, the album is an illustration of a lifestyle where Cadillac cruising and pistol grip conflict share equal space in a day’s events. “It’s Supposed To Bubble” is intoxicating enough to make a teetotaler tipsy, while the sub-bass of “I Left It Wet For You” rumbles as if erupting from the hollow corridor of a sawed-off barrel. The album’s centerpiece is “Front, Back & Side To Side,” a jaws-of-death bounce based on the Meters (original guitarist Leo Nocentelli appears to reprise his part); it remains rap’s all-time great ode to car culture. Meanwhile, Bun B takes storytelling to new heights on “Feds In Town,” an ode to rebellion that is as much about UGK’s career as it is its drug trafficking narrator. With boundless style and Southern blood, Super Tight is a hip-hop high water mark.