UGK

In the late 1980s, Southern gangsta rappers Pimp C and Bun B established UGK, also known as Underground Kingz, and secured a contract with Jive Records that yielded their first major-label project, the 1992 album Too Hard to Swallow. Their follow-up, Super Tight..., paved the way for R&B chart traction when 1996's Ridin' Dirty climbed to the number-two position. Late 2001 brought the release of Dirty Money. Pimp C entered a three-year prison term in early 2002, suspending UGK's progress until the double album Underground Kingz surfaced in 2007.