Slim Thug Balances H-Town And Mainstream In Tha Thug Show

Slim Thug thinks he might have veered too far left on his debut album, 2005's Already Platinum. And the follow up, last year's Boss of All Bosses might have shot off to the right a bit too much.

But for his latest salvo, Tha Thug Show, released this week, the Texas titan said he hit right on the mark.

"My aim for this album was to give the fans the Already Platinum feel and my second album and even it out," he told. "The response I've been getting has been good. But my first album was kind of mainstream with all the Pharrell stuff, but the people of Houston felt like they didn't get enough of the old Slim Thug. And then on Boss of All Bosses, I gave them nothing but H-Town. [Laughs.] But on this one, I wanted to give them half and half, and I think I did a good job of mixing it up."

The project features collaborations with B.o.B ("So High"), Yo Gotti, Nipsey Hussle, Big K.R.I.T. and Rick Ross.

Ross and Slim Thug were involved in a minor dispute over the summer via Twitter over their shared nickname, "Boss," and a dated Ross record that leaked. But the pair patched things up and released "Paid the Coast" as a sign of solidarity between the rappers.

"For a record to surface and me being a little slow on Twitter, I didn't really peep it until two days later," Ross told at the time. "When I found out about it and heard about it, they said I'm dissing Slim Thug.

" 'What's the name of the record? "King Boss"?' '' he remembered asking. "I never had a record called 'King Boss.' I just left it alone. After the fact, [Slim] asked me about it. I told the homie, 'Of course it ain't nothing but love between me and you, big dawg.' We got in the studio later that night. The night we spoke. I e-mailed him something; shot him something, did something for his album. It's fire. Then I leaked 'Paid the Cost,' just to show the haters."