Kingpin Skinny Pimp

Did you know Magnum clip rhymes with wig split? Kingpin Skinny Pimp does. The Memphis, Tennessee, gangsta-rap veteran makes ample use of similarly snoozeworthy clichés on his seventh effort, Still Pimpin and Hustlin, a record so steeped in played-out thuggisms that it makes one wonder if Memphis exists in some sort of hip-hop time warp. Pimpin‘s artwork features the requisite Cubic Zirconia lettering and $100-bill motif used by every dirty-South wanna-be at the players’ ball — a surefire omen of the disc’s musical contents. Crammed with more cameos than Larry Blackmon’s CD collection (including a penniless appearance from Cash Money’s Lil’ Wayne), Pimpin is pepper-sprayed with laughable odes to chopper-bangin’, balla-blockin’, cheddar-chasin’ and syrup-sippin’.

But Kingpin hasn’t sold 300,000 indie albums for nothing: He’s a talented MC with a nuanced flow who’s capable of overcoming the hoodrat surroundings. “Running Wild” takes a liberal slice of Curtis Mayfield’s “Little Child Runnin’ Wild,” reconfiguring it into a delicious chocolate soulcake that provides a perfect backdrop for Kingpin’s knowing tale of urban strife. Also, the MC deserves some sort of award for not including a single “skit” on this sixteen-track, 80-minute behemoth.