Released on July 15, 2008,
on Rap-A-Lot Records.
Both based in Houston and both affiliated with DJ Screw’s Screwed Up Click, the so-called cousins Trae and Z-Ro had lent their warm, unmistakable voices to countless official albums and mixtapes since the late 1990s. As is often the case with artists this prolific, some of their releases proved uneven. However, that certainly wasn’t true of the outstanding It Is What It Is, their second collaborative album under the name ABN (“Assholes by Nature”—you couldn’t make it up).
Beyond the duo’s undeniable talent – their deep baritone voices, especially Trae’s dark, gravelly delivery, and their confident, rapid-fire flows – every track is backed by exceptional production. Every single one. With the exception of the somewhat aimless “3-16’s,” the album is filled with polished, silky, often melodic beats, frequently complemented by sung hooks.
Combined with the pair’s tales of everyday street crime, their unapologetic gangster personas, and their swaggering bravado, this generally smooth sound, built on sweeping synthesizer arrangements, updates the classic G-funk aesthetic for the 2000s (just listen to “Who’s The Man” or “Picture Me”). Beneath the pride and the chest-thumping, however, lies an undercurrent of melancholy, enriched by the soulful depth so characteristic of the American Deep South.
The album opens with tremendous force, beginning with the stormy, magnificent “Umm Hmm,” where a sharp, aggressive guitar cuts through the mix before ethereal female backing vocals lift the chorus. From there, the record maintains that same remarkable consistency, though several tracks deserve special mention: “Miss My Dawg,” a heartfelt tribute to fallen friends and a call to keep moving forward despite everything; “Turnin’ Heads,” a classy, atmospheric track brimming with swagger, built around a sample of UGK’s “International Player’s Anthem”; “In My City,” driven by its powerful string arrangements; and “Rain,” which reminds listeners that life in the ghetto is far from glamorous:
They say I’m a celebrity with diamonds that’ll blind you
But you can see me order fast food in the drive-thru
Here, Z-Ro and Trae stacked the deck in their favor, even if it meant reusing songs that had previously appeared elsewhere (“No Help,” for instance, had already been featured on Trae’s Restless). The result is one of the finest Texas gangsta rap albums of the 2000s, further proving that, two decades after the Geto Boys first emerged, Houston- and Rap-A-Lot Records – continued to produce artists of the highest caliber.
