The South, the South should hold a special place for all hip hop fans as without the South we wouldn't have so much funk to vibe out to. We all know about the history of America's southern states in terms of hip hop, but the South is still doing things in this hip hop bizz and with Big K.R.I.T holding it down with the southern drawl, Slim Thug is back on the scene and offers up a thumping southern sound with Hogg Life: The Beginning.

Slim Thug's been representing Houston for more than a decade now and you don't get nothing less that straight up H-town repping on Hogg Life. The title suggests that Thugga is taking us back to the early days and the album cover backs that up, it's not a bad place for Thug to draw some creativity from as he explores the themes and ideas that you'd expect from the early days of a hustler from Houston's north side.

Slim thrives as he spits about hustling and everything that comes with it, whether it be the females or the haters which as I learned can combine...

"Same bitch in my bed about to set me up, send some niggas in my crib just to wet me up" The Top

Slim Thug shares with you, the listener the journey of many young hustlers as they try to juggle conquering their quest while also dodging the pitfalls and negatives that such a life can offer. The pride of doing it by yourself is evident and there's a few low key hustling lessons in this album for any youngster trying to count a few stacks. Slim's much more rounded that just selling drugs on the block, as he says on the album, he bought the hood and now he's got rent houses. There's multiple ways to make money, but you've got to have the Boss/Hogg Life mentality.

It kind of sounds like a generic rap album then right? That's where the southern twist comes in and takes Hogg's Life to a different dimension. Many rappers could out-rap Thugga, or at the very least tell similar stories but the overall sound of Hogg Life gives Slim Thug an edge, it gives him a blank, slowed down canvas to work his magic on.

Most of that magic comes with Z-Ro alongside Thug as they have a certain chemistry, a certain southern chemistry. Z-Ro raps and does his own version of singing where his deep voice spits out a little melody instead of some hot bars, couple it with Thug's deep tone and you have two artists who can work their way through the simple but effective production.

Z-Ro features on four songs - RIP which serves as a shout out to the H-Town legends, 55, Too Much and Smokin which is one of the funkiest herb songs I've heard in a while.

I kind of came up listening to hip hop when Slim Thug was on the radar, just not mine. That's why I love Hogg Life and why I've been bumping it in the headphones for over a week consistently and if I had a whip, it'd be blasting the speakers. It's been easy to listen to because the concept is based around Thug reflecting on his come up and his journey, which is pretty much the bit I missed. Sorry, Houston wasn't on my mind back in 2004.

It's very much rooted in the southern hip hop sound that we love. Laid back, yet aggressive, like if you weren't wiser, you'd think that Slim was playing around because of the delivery. There's enough slowed down tracks to work well when you're zonin' (R 'n' B Thugga) but there's many songs that could be played anywhere and have the party rocking thanks to a hard hitting sound.

My Bang Up Banger is a jam that could serve as a trap anthem, for all the hustlers in the kitchen and does nothing but make you feel some type of way. Ignant "Getting In" is essentially Thug all the way down to the bone as he spits hard hitting bars that could be looked at as encapsulating the whole vibe of the album in one song.

What is it? Hogg's Life is just that solid hip hop from the South.