Good folks! How's everyone?! I'm really enjoying doing these salutes to highlight these great albums that were either genuine classics within the annals of hip-hop history or just simply some very acclaimed work that solidified the statures of some artists. There are still a few more salutes to give but we will focus on this one from the No Limit camp. This album, many feel, was one of the single most successful albums to emerge from the "tank". This group of blood brothers delivered an album that was completely filled with gritty street tales of violence, drugs, and hustling. Not a lyrical masterpiece by no means, it didn't need to be. The aura of this album, especially when it was at the peak of No Limit's hottest period, was appropriate and fitting. The result of this double album was a double platinum effort and part of southern hip-hop's celebrated legacy in the late nineties. With that being said, here's the salute to TRU's TRU 2 Da Game.
With the south experience a newfound level of notoriety not seen since the emergence of the ever infamous 2 Live Crew, the mid-nineties opened for acts such as Outkast, Three 6 Mafia, Eightball & MJG, and UGK. In fact, it was in this mid-nineties period where some of the acclaimed work ever to come from that region was released such as UGK's unforgettable classic, Ridin' Dirty, Scarface's game-changing The Diary, and Outkast's breakout, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. However, there were also labels from the south that were quite noted as well. Labels such as Rap-A-Lot and Suave House were in constant rotation, but there was one that slowly blew to being one of the most recognized labels in all of the game, and that label was No Limit. Headed up by Percy "Master P" Miller, No Limit was a regionally-based label from New Orleans, and was responsible for acts such as Mia X, Mac, Fiend, Kane & Abel, Skull Druggery, and Big Ed. It was also known, at that time, for Miller and his brothers Corey "C-Murder" Miller and Vyshonne "Silkk The Shocker" Miller. Although they were solo acts, they were also a group, and they were known as TRU, an acronym for The Real Untouchables. The group originally consisted of them and several others including Big Ed, King George, and Cali-G.
In the early days of No Limit, they released albums such as Understanding the Criminal Mind and True, releasing cuts such as "I Ain't Going Out That Way" and the anthemic "Bout It, Bout It". By the time '96 came around, the buzz from this label was slowly building, as Master P delivered his Ice Cream Man album and it became his official breakout album, eventually selling one million units. Plus, Silkk dropped his debut, The Shocker, album. It was time for another TRU album, only this time it would consist of the Miller brothers. It was filled with everything that made No Limit what it was. Plenty of gangsta stories and real tales of hustling and crime galore.
The only official singles released from the album were "I Always Feel Like" and "Feds", which both unapologetically jacked Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me" and Aaliyah's "If Your Girl Knew" respectively. The rest of the double disc contained cuts such as "Final Ride", the C-Murder solo cut "Eyes Of A Killer", "1nce Upon A Time", and the haunting "The Lord Is Testing Me", which all completely quenched thirsts of diehard No Limit heads. Although not a game-shifter, it didn't need to be. What it lacked in originality, witty metaphors and sample-free production, it made up for with honest, brutal imagery of the bloody streets within the Calliope Projects in New Orleans.
What the Miller boys delivered to us with TRU 2 Da Game ultimately and throughout time was an important album in the growth of southern hip-hop. Continuing the traditions of Geto Boys, UGK, and Eightball & MJG, TRU had a gangsta album for that ass. One that contained all the necessary ingredients for a gangsta's soundtrack. Guns, bitches, drugs, crooked cops, and trying to make it out the ghetto were the themes of this album and it didn't reinvent the wheel. They put out other albums such as Da Crime Family and The Truth, but TRU 2 Da Game was the group's most commercially successful album, selling double platinum units. This, along with Ice Cream Man at the time, officially let the world know that the tank was in the building and they were gonna be here for a while. Salute to TRU 2 Da Game.
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