Of all the albums that dropped back on December 15th, the best of the bunch belonged to an artist who’s quietly been in the game for years but didn’t receive close to the level of attention garnered by other hip-hop mainstays. Unlike Eminem and (no longer young) Jeezy, this artist didn’t sound stale, contrived, tired, or over the hill. Slim Thug’s The World Is Yours was a pleasant surprise from an artist unfairly left for dead by the mainstream.
Thug’s career started in the late 1990s, but his official debut Already Platinum hit stores in 2005 and, with the backing of Interscope Records, rose to #2 on the Billboard 200. He rode that wave to features with Beyoncé and Gwen Stefani among others. Things fizzled from there despite a steady output of records, and Thug never really recaptured that spotlight. The Houston wave of the early and mid-2000s seemingly picked him up and dropped him high and dry.
The World Is Yours took me by surprise because it doesn’t sound like what’s been leaving Houston in the last few years. It’s more Paul Wall than Travis Scott, but Thug isn’t stuck in 2005. He combines the best of both, creating the heavy, mellow vibe expected of vintage Houston by smartly wielding huge bass lines and drums taken from modern sound boards. There is not a single light, quick, clean beat on the album; the production is booming, excessive, and self-indulgent from start to finish. It’s a beautiful mess that clicks in the hands of Slim Thug.
There are 15 tracks on The World Is Yours, and there are features on all but two. Many of these featured artists are Houstonians young and old ranging from Sauce Walka and Cam Wallace to Z-Ro and Paul Wall himself along with more established mainstream acts like Rick Ross and Big K.R.I.T. There were a bunch of standout tracks that made it into my personal rotation, the best being “Run For It” with 52 Savage. Thug raps in detail about how to survive life in the rap game as well as its potential pitfalls over a snappy, modern drum kit and whining, weirdly pitched synths. Thug’s industry savvy quickly becomes apparently, demonstrating a penchant for detailed storytelling bars as well as an ear for hooks. “RIP Parking Lot” dusts off the saxophone and Paul Wall for a laid-back trunk-rattler about hanging out that will induce a rush of nostalgia as Wall sounds engaged and keeps pace with Thug. “Ringing” with Cam Wallace and Sauce Walka brings it back to the current day with a common bass/drum combo made uncommon by the hollowed-out bass hits and obligatory money machine sound effects. “Trap” is another keeper, featuring booming bass and drums along with that characteristic funky, pitched, shifting chord in the background.
“Twiy,” “Cali” and “Wide Frame” round out my favorites. Slim Thug’s tales of the rap game and the streets prove an entertaining companion to the slightly modernized Houston production. It’s a late career renaissance of sorts for Thug, who flew under the radar for me despite years of solid releases. G-funk and boom bap have both undergone modern re-workings during the 2010s, and this feels like the first significant step in that direction for Screwston. To a degree, Travis Scott has been doing that for some time, but The World Is Yours seems to be more about preservation than innovation. That’s not to say the album is stale (quite the contrary), but rather an unexpected, fruitful step from an artist who knows the game well enough to execute such an effort and include much of the city’s musical future along the way. A full-blown Slim Thug renaissance, along with a larger Houston breakthrough, could be in the works for 2018.