American Pimp

Some classic shit by Suga Free. For all you trick-ass-marks out there, Free is the original rapping pimp, and he's been laying his mack hand down on wax for about a decade now. This is a video for "On My Way," off his debut album Street Gospel. Released in 1997, the album failed commercially despite full production by DJ Quik and some of the most hilarious, mind-blowingly misogynistic lyrics ever recorded. The whole disc is classic: Quik drops impossibly smooth grooves throughout, and Suga Free spits game on every track, squeezing an unimaginable amount of syllables into every bar with rhythmic precision.

"On My Way" is probably the closest Suga Free will ever come to a love song, and it still involves threats of domestic violence and a storyline about him kicking a hoe out onto the street. All set to an almost cheesy, undeniably funky track. The video is the perfect visual accompaniment, as it shows Free in all his pimpish glory, waves and shiny shirts included. I never even knew this shit existed--thank god for Youtube.

Suga Free's still puttin' it down, but I don't think he'll ever make another masterpiece like Street Gospel. His last album, Just Add Water, didn't have a single beat from Quik, and feels like a mixtape rather than a proper record. Quik and he had been feuding cause Free reportedly stole one of Quik's beats and sold it to Rappin' 4-Tay, leading Quik to call him out as an untrustworthy junkie (don't know about that, but he has rapped about snorting meth, a new one for hip-hop as far as I know). However Quik and Free have supposedly resolved things, so here's hoping they reunite. Neither one of them is as good without the other (I like to think of them as the B-Squad Dre and Snoop.) I have to admit I haven't heard Free's latest project, Secret Congregation, but that's cause I'm not too fond of rappers' "crew" albums (Though I'd bump it over Cold Summer anyday.) Anyway, while all these rappers brag about their "pimpin'" let's give it up to a real pimp who can still rap circles around most of them. Chuuuuuch.