Soulja Slim – Give It 2 ‘Em Raw (5-19-1998)

Posted on May 29 in Rapaveli Retroby adminPrint

By the time May 1998 hit we all knew that No Limit was more than serious about this whole releasing multiple albums in a single month thing. Having released Fiend’s popular There’s One In Every Family just two weeks prior to Soulja Slim’s Give It 2 Em Raw made me kind of skeptical of what the quality of Slim’s album would be like. Nonetheless Slim ended up doing exactly what he said he was going to do on the I Got The Hook Up Soundtrack and he hit No Limit just like Pac hit Death Row. The sad thing is that in the end he ended up a victim of senseless violence just like Pac did also.

Soulja Slim makes a home over Carlos Stephen’s piano laden sound-scape on the opening autobiographical effort “From What I Was Told.” I’m just now noticing but these niggas seriously spelled “write” wrong as hell. Slim had and obvious ability to make some of the most attractive shit ever as evidenced by the Carlos Stephens produced “Wright Me.” I know we like to fuck up spelling in the rap world, but never have I ever seen somebody add extra letters to some shit.

Mega producer KLC blesses the project with two hot back-to-back joints in the Snoop Dogg assisted “At The Same Time” and the storied “Only Real Niggas.” Slim, Big Ed, and Mr. Serv-On combine on the ultra violent sounding “Head Buster.” For some reason or another Serv-On developed this thing for spelling everything like we were the ones who couldn’t spell. Slim reworks his classic joint off the Down South Hustlers: Bouncin And Swangin compilation from ‘95. On the second coming of “You Got It” Slim invited Mia X to rip the shit out of the KLC produced banger.

My favorite track on this tight ass album has always been the C-Murder and Mac assisted “Imagine.” C starts it off with an almost horrific look into the life of a young and rich black male. Two of my other favorite tracks were the bounce heavy “What’s Up, What’s Happening” and “Wootay” both produced by KLC. When we all first heard this track all we could say what the fuck does wootay mean? After some more promotion from the Cash Money crew we proceeded to call each other whodie all through high school.

The Carlos Stephen produced “Get High With Me” is probably one of the top five weed songs ever. If you ‘re smokin’ the right shit you can vividly hear the inhales and exhales all throughout the track. I blame this song for jump starting my personal infatuation with cheeba. As I was listening to this album for this review I found myself developing a newfound love for “Law Breakaz.” Damn near the entire tank shows up for a quick eight bars on the funky as hell Mo B Dick produced “N.L. Party.”

Give It 2 ‘Em Raw is definitely one of No limit’s most well rounded albums ever. Then again the same can be said about damn near every No Limit album ever released. Slim did have a very unique flow and delivery that made him one of the tank’s standouts. That notion is proven to be even further true by the fact that he was one of the most successful artist from No Limit after the tank fell off. It’s just fucked up that he had to go far before his time and so close to the point he would’ve really blown up off the success of Juvenile’s “Slow Motion.”

R.I.P. Soulja Slim (9-9-77 – 11-23-03)