RESPECT. The Verse: Chamillionaire - "I Think I Love You" - RESPECT.

We know Chamillionaire can rap. Sometimes he’ll go braggadocios, sometimes he’ll look inward and get introspective. Other times, though, he paints vivid stories that captivate the listener for an entire song.

After striking platinum with the Sound of Revenge, the Houston MC was poised to go again, but the masses didn’t connect the second time at bat. Koopa’s sophomore major label album was a solid piece of work that was hindered by poor marketing and timing (it arrive just a week after the epic 50 Cent/ Kanye West sales showdown). While Ultimate Victory didn’t impact the charts in a huge way, it was loaded with mature and ambitious records. Plenty of tracks deserve a spotlight, but the highlight of the LP came in the form of “I Think I Love You.”

There have been numerous occasions where Chamillionaire (and basically every other rapper) used a woman as a metaphor for cash, but this time around the idea was fully fleshed-out, inspired, and masterful. On the track, Cham paints the tale of a relationship that starts off great and corkscrews down to hell. The song kicks off with a happy verse detailing all the great things going on in the relationship, while the second verse creeps with paranoia, detailing the threats of other men taking his woman. The third and final verse is cinematic.

“He introduced her to his mother, his mother said that she love her/And after that he discovered, his brother done tried to cut her/They messin with one another, saw her under the covers/And now he gotta show his brother the meaning of keep it gutter.” After finding his “woman” under the covers with his brother, Cham attempts to take her back and when his brother protests, Cham shoots his brother and flees the scene, cash in hand.

“Pulling and grabbing her, now he already damaged her/He throws her in the trunk, and the talks to her like a passenger/And that’s when uh, he hearing the tires peel/He’s speedin out of the driveway, approaching the highest hill.” The song reaches a frantic pace at this point, as Cham is on the run, with his mind racing. “I fought to keep you in my life and this the thanks I get?/Well thanks for all the good memories/I think I’m sick” is the final, cryptic line of the verse as Cham’s character’s gun goes off again and the car crashes.

“I Think I Love You” is as cinematic as hip-hop gets and Chamillionaire paints an ugly but realistic picture of what money can do to relationships around you. The song ends with a news soundbite reporting the car crash, which then leads perfectly into his news announcer record. Ultimate Victory, despite its lackluster sales, was a creative highlight of Koopa’s career and, if nothing else, this song alone proves that he’s still deeper than “Ridin’ Dirty.”