Houston’s Geto Boys and UGK land on Billboard’s list of best rap groups of all time
A pair of acts with Houston ties are among the 50 greatest rap groups of all time, according to Billboard.
Houston’s Geto Boys are at No. 28 on a list conceived by the music magazine’s editorial team that took into account body of work, cultural impact and longevity.
The Geto Boys released seven albums and took the 1991 single “Mind Playing Tricks on Me” to No. 1 on the rap chart. Billboard calls it “one of the darkest, most vividly intense hip-hop songs of the past four decades.”
“Simply put, the Geto Boys put Texas, and the South as a whole, on the map. Propelled by the group’s most consistent lineup — Scarface, Willie D and Bushwick Bill — they were innovators and trailblazers, the ones who introduced the world to Rap-A-Lot Records and the gangsta rap lyricism of Houston and paved the way for other Southern groups to follow,” reads the entry.
Though UGK is from Port Arthur, the duo of Bun B and the late Pimp C “came to define (Houston’s) trunk-rattling grit with albums like 1996’s classic “Ridin’ Dirty.” Bun B has since evolved into a multifaceted entertainer, teaching at Rice University and creating what has been called the nation’s best burger.
UGK took its sound far beyond Texas with a pair of rap classics: “Big Pimpin’ ” with Jay-Z and “Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You)” with Outkast, who is No. 1 on Billboard’s best rap groups list. Pimp C died in 2007 from a combination of sleep apnea and an accidental overdose of cough syrup.
“The duo’s influence extends even further than their output; artists from Kendrick Lamar to A$AP Rocky to Megan Thee Stallion regularly invoke their style, while Bun has become one of the true elder statesmen of the game,” Billboard says.
The top three rap groups of all time, according to Billboard, are Outkast, Wu-Tang Clan and N.W.A.