Fanatic Of The B-Word
UGK f/ Devin The Dude – “Ain’t That A Bitch (Dirty Version!)“
from Dirty Money (Jive/Unreleased, 2001)
UGK f/ Ron C, Ganksta C & DJ Bird – “Texas“
from Use Me Up Retail 12″ (Jive/Unreleased, 1992)
Klas One f/ UGK – “Peep Yo Gal“
from Once In A Blue Moon (Kross Road, 1999)
More UGK minutiae for today. Though it’s one of the stand out tracks on Dirty Money, “Ain’t That A Bitch” is also something of a blemish on that album being that it appears as a clean version. Presumably these edits were made because of sample clearance issues, but you can understand the dilemma in cutting almost every instance of the word “bitch” out of a song called “Ain’t That A Bitch,” especially when the word is replaced with some of the most awkwardly jarring punch-ins ever put to tape (laying wit that… TRICK.) The dirty version, to my knowledge, never saw an official release and has since become something of a holy grail for UGK fans. It’s also been one of the most consistently requested records in the history of this site. So it was a bit of a shock when it so nonchalantly turned up in a post at the soulstrut boards.
Two more bonuses that I don’t think I’ve posted here before: a vintage UGK collab with 4 Deep’s Klas One and “Texas,” a giant posse cut featuring Dallas legend Ron C, his brother Ganksta C and a rare rap verse from DJ Bird. The latter, a Too Hard To Swallow B-Side, is notably one of the earliest tracks where you can hear *that* Pimp C production aesthetic starting to take shape.
May 21st, 2009 at 5:23 am
that dirty version of aint that a bitch is much appreciated!! i always wondered why they made it clean (the same goes for protect and serve off of super tight where pimp c’s last verse gets jumbled), but now i can see why.
May 21st, 2009 at 6:43 am
oh shit “texas” is huge !!!
May 21st, 2009 at 7:40 am
The urban legend about the “Ain’t That A Bitch”-edit is that the daughter of some Jive exec heard the dirty song and was appalled. Doesn’t make much sense but… who knows.
May 21st, 2009 at 9:23 am
Whoah, major props on the dirty “aint that a bitch”
May 21st, 2009 at 9:44 am
“The urban legend about the “Ain’t That A Bitch”-edit is that the daughter of some Jive exec heard the dirty song and was appalled. Doesn’t make much sense but… who knows.”
Yeah I’ve heard that too but it makes no sense. I always just assumed it had to do with the johnny guitar watson sample. Maybe HIS daughter heard it and wouldn’t clear it with profanity?
May 21st, 2009 at 10:30 am
there’s still dirty words in the clean version iirc!
i kind of like the jarring, collage aspect of the album version, but this is nice too
May 21st, 2009 at 10:40 am
“there’s still dirty words in the clean version iirc!”
Yeah. It’s always been my interpretation that whoever was censoring it determined the word “bitch” to be acceptable only in cases where it was referring to a non specific problem (”ain’t that a bitch”) and not when it was used in explicit reference to woman (”years passed by now you’re stuck with that bitch”).
May 21st, 2009 at 11:23 am
ignorant morons
May 21st, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Maaan, I’m at a loss for words, lol.
http://screwheadsonly.blogspot.com
May 21st, 2009 at 2:04 pm
noz, i jsut wanna say thanks for “texas” big time.. i used to have the damn cassette when i was a kid but who the hell knows what happened to it. i’ve been searchin for this track for a damn decade.
May 21st, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I love Ain’t That A Bitch! I always thought my cassette was fucked up, or I had somehow found the clean tape or something. Thanks for the link.
May 21st, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Also funny that the dirty version reveals a censored out “bastards” in Bun’s verse. The story that I heard is that Johnny Guitar Watson wouldn’t clear the sample with all the cussin’, which is ironic, as his song is entitled “Ain’t That A Bitch.”
Follow-up question: How the fuck you gon’ outfuck James, ho?
May 21st, 2009 at 4:24 pm
“Also funny that the dirty version reveals a censored out “bastards” in Bun’s verse.”
Actually, I think it’s still there, unless there’s more than one utterance in Bun’s verse.
May 21st, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Noz is the man, but YALL should be thankin’ MARTIN from SOULSTRUT.
May 21st, 2009 at 5:43 pm
while we are on b-word fanatics, Ying Yang Twins first album, has a similar issue, on one version of the album, all domestic violence related references are censored while the curses run rampant. Grab a by her head is replaced by Grab-a, grab-a, grab-a…… This is blogworthly noz
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:31 am
I know that UGK had issues with the promotion of Dirty Money but did they also make Pimp and Bun rerecord/lose certain songs?
That Kurupt verse on “We Get It Crunk” on Cool Breeze’s album is a pretty epic example of censored words seemingly outnumbering the uncensored ones.
May 22nd, 2009 at 3:58 am
Yeah censorship isn’t really the most consistent thing in rap records. I noticed that rape, super anti-religious, and gay hating are the things that get censored while shooting people, saying “fuck” 40 times and selling coke stays in.
Like on Ghostface’s Pretty Toney Album, the hook of the first song is “Y’all faggots don’t want no beef,” twelve tracks later, they censor “Splatter faggots in lobbies, the heat burn off his eyelashes” with an awkward pause in between.
Anyway, thanks so much for posting this song, I never go on Soul Strut so I would never have caught it. I have been looking for this unedited for YEARS, I was under the impression an uncensored edition might not exist. Classic fuckin’ song in my book.
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:06 am
“Texas” is monumental.
I’d love to see that “If you don’t know the following albums by heart, you shouldn’t be reading this site” post you alluded to maybe writing one day in the October 2005 Dirty Money post.
And, hell, I want Noz’s Top 50 Emcees list.
This site introduced me to UGK four years ago and since then I haven’t gone a single day without listening to their music. True story!
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:14 pm
“And, hell, I want Noz’s Top 50 Emcees list.”
word up, top ten even.
May 23rd, 2009 at 10:39 am
“Texas” should be used by the state for tourism ads.
And it’s ironic, “welcome to Texas, bitch” is repeated about 50 times in that song, but Jive got squeamish about that word 9 years later.
May 24th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Thanks for the dirty version Noz/Martin.
Here’s the question this raises for me: was the clean version included on the European release as well? Granted, Watson wanted the profanity removed, but he might only have had control over the American release as that’s as far as his sample arm reaches. There are a few instances of only American releases being effected like this, such as openly gay Labi Siffre making Eminem remove the beating up of his gay teacher from “My Name Is” despite it being intact in the foreign release.
Rappers should really be allowed to lay it down hard more than one damn time.
May 24th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
The main sample is from B.B. King’s “Chains and Things”, not the eponymous Johnny Guitar Watson song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJJ4lI631Ng
I luckily stumbled on the unedited version on Limewire of all places 4 or 5 years ago.
May 27th, 2009 at 12:52 am
I’ve been a UGK fan since Tell me something good when I was a freshman in high school. But Ain’t That a Bitch is one I’ve been looking for since the album released. I was outside doing The Pimp’s trademark and thought to search for it! Long Live Pimp C
May 27th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Thank you (and the strut) very, very much. Please insert holy grail gremlin.
May 28th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Damn, Fam i remember telling u about that “Texas” joint about 4yrs ago. B-side of Use Me Up Cassingle….Classic….I just opened up a box the other day and found that damn cassette….good shit
June 2nd, 2009 at 1:18 am
texas!
June 4th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
funny thing is ive had the dirty version to “aint that a bitch” since atleast 2005 and didnt even know it….I got into UGK around 2005 and downloaded Dirty Money like 3 times by mistake…always thought i had the dirty version and clean…but never played the clean…fast forward to 2008 im going through my files and find that the “clean album” was all dirty except “aint that a bitch” ….scary thing was i almost deleted the dirty one hahaha then i found out the story about it being edited and my jaw dropped…i been listening to the dirty one for YEARS and didnt even realize it. SICK.
June 15th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
thank you…. this made my night.
June 30th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
[...] UGK (ft. Devin the Dude) – Ain’t That a Bitch Noz unearths the (apparently rare) dirty version of the Dirty Money [...]
July 21st, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Whoo!