Sick 'em, Earl

Double page spread of Phunk Phat Graph-X designed Sick Wid' It album adverts from The Source's 100th issue in 1997 :



That Southwest Riders album doesn't quite live up to its cover despite the fact that it's a trans-coastal double CD compilation which features 1997 regional gangsta-rap royalty like E-40, Celly Cel, 3X Krazy, WC, Twista, Tela, Mystikal, Master P & Silkk, Brotha Lynch Hung, Three 6 Mafia etc because, well, how can any music possibly rival a stagecoach rollin' on solid gold wheels the size of Droop-E and D-Shot? That's a vehicle which manages to juxtapose classic American utilitarianism with ancient Egyptian ostentatiousness, dah-ling. The album's most known songs would be the two singles, Yay Deep by E-40 & B-Legit with Richie Rich and Represent by A-1, but its choicest cuts were found elsewhere on the two discs in amongst the joints by SWI weed carriers like The Mossie and Mr Malik :

Luniz - Capable
(From Southwest Riders; 1997)



San Quinn & Messy Marv - Playa Haters
(From Southwest Riders; 1997)



UGK - Hiside
(From Southwest Riders; 1997)



8Ball & MJG - N*ggas Talk Shit
(From Southwest Riders; 1997)



The Luniz and 8Ball & MJG joints are both particularly great as I'm sure you'll agree, but the highlight of that batch would have to be Bun's "'cause a pussy ain't nothin' but my hand with a face" line on the UGK cut; a lyric so magnanimously misogynistic it could even make Suga Free pull the "yo, I wish I'd written that one" face. By my reckoning E-40 and Suga Free have only recorded together twice and '40 has rapped over DJ Quik production just the once on the Quarterbackin' remix so Sug' & Quik's rumoured Street Gospel II reunion album would be the perfect opportunity to right both wrongs and '40 is their most obvious spiritual soulmate since he's another one of west coast gangsta-rap's great eccentrics, as well as the owner of the most risqué rap song of 2011 thus far on some Biggie - 1, E-40 - 2 type shit :

E-40 - Me And My Bitch
(From Revunue Retrievin' : Overtime Shift; 2011)



TheSinglesJukebox.com's double-whammy of blanking Me And My Bitch and then not utilising Tray in the team who reviewed Beat Of My Drum by Nicola Roberts forced me to forever remove that site from my bookmarks. Fuck y'all.