Slim Thug is not a complicated man. The enormous Houston MC relies almost entirely on the intertwined lyrical themes of I'm Awesome and I'm Rich, sometimes dipping into I'll Kill You or I Don't Care About Women. But that's OK-- the anticipation surrounding Already Platinum, Slim's debut album, has nothing to do with the man's lyrical prowess. It has everything to do with his voice: a swollen, slurry, guttural drawl that rumbles under tracks like an earthquake and hammers vowels until any one word can rhyme with any other word. It's all hard consonants and long, luxurious vowels; he says "ball till we fall" like "bowel till we fowl." When DJs slow Slim's voice down, it barely sounds any different.

Slim has bragged for years that he'd probably never record a solo album, just because no label could offer him the kind of money he made pushing mixtapes on Houston's independent circuit. "Labels musta got tires of hearing me say 'fuck a deal'/ Cuz they put something in my pocket made a nigga chill," Slim raps on the intro to Already Platinum. But when Slim signed to Geffen, the label matched him up with the resurgent superproducers the Neptunes, and it didn't seem like a good match. The Neps have had a few monster hits in the past year ("Hollaback Girl", "Drop It Like It's Hot"), but most of their tracks have lost the gleaming, clattering swagger they once had, relying instead on bloodless synth lines and itchy, nattering drums. On "Like a Boss" and "I Ain't Heard of That", the first leaked Neptunes/Slim Thug collaborations, Slim's flow sounded awkwardly shoehorned into the cold, brittle tracks, allowing the rapper none of the breathing room that he'd had on the slow, gooey Houston funk tracks that had been his bread and butter.

And parts of Already Platinum have no chemistry whatsoever. "This Is My Life", the Neptunes' attempt at greasy Houston funk, is tinny and overproduced, while "Ashy to Classy" is the Neps' attempt to jack Biggie's "Juicy", the pillowy quiet-storm guitars and inspirational lyrics dispassionately falling short on every possible level. The shockingly limp love-jam "Miss Mary," produced by Cool & Dre, is even worse; nobody wants to hear Slim Thug saying "To my nose, you're smelling just as sweet as a rose/ I wasn't impressed with them others, so you the one I chose".

But elsewhere on the album, Slim hits his stride. If his chemistry with the Neptunes seemed shaky at first, it comes together beautifully on dipping, floating hypnotic strut of "Click Clack" and the lighter-than-air gliding pianos and typewriter percussion of the title track, complete with a surprisingly non-shitty guest verse from Pharrell. Slim also shows impressive versatility on his work with other producers, murdering a gloomy, cinematic Sha Money XL beat on "The Interview" and a rippling, summery Jazze Pha beach-funk track on "Incredible Feelin'".

But Slim still sounds best on tracks like "Diamonds" and the mixtape banger "3 Kings", both from Houston producer Mr. Lee. These tracks are classic Houston screw-- they sound like mid-90s G-Funk played on fucked-up, broken car stereos with the bass jacked up to seismic levels, the hooks coming out sick and damaged and wrong, slow and heavy drums slamming through the murk. Slim sounds perfectly at home on these tracks, making room for a jaw-dropping virtuoso Bun B guest spot, threatening crosstown rival Lil Flip, and smothering the tracks his creeping bottomless depth-charge snarl. On tracks like this, Slim sounds prehistoric, like he's always existed, like this voice has been echoing over canyons and through caves since before time began.

-Tom Breihan, July 13, 2005