1992 Redo: DJ Flea and Dat Boi T Give Underground Artists (and Listener) a Free Weekly Music Platform

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It's something we haven't addressed yet, but it's been brought up numerous times in our talks with Houston's underground Latino rappers. When Univision's hip-hop stations in Houston went away this last decade, so did those artists' airwave platform. But sometimes you have to look back in order to know how to map forward.

That's what Southeast's Dat Boi T and Missouri City's DJ Flea decided to do. They are bringing something back from 1992.

"Just like DJ Screw did it," Dat Boi T tells Rocks Off . "Screw always said 'If the radio ain't gonna play it, I'm gonna play it.' That's what we wanna do. The radio is so fucked right now and it's playing nothin' but bullshit. We gotta hold it down for all these underground artists that are in the studio day-in and day-out and making music for the streets."

A couple of weeks ago, T and Flea released the first of a free, soon-to-be-weekly mixtape download called "Bring It Back," and it's open to all underground artists of all colors and sides of Houston to submit their best work. Email tracks to BringItBackmp3@gmail.com.

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"Bring it Back" will be "Slowed Down and Chopped" - not "Screwed and Chopped" because Flea is paying a rare respect. If it's not "Screwed" by Screw himself, then it isn't Screw.

We have to say that the first one was a respectable first release. You can download it here. Rocks Off did, and our-already-scared neighbors will have more of a reason to think a demon with a really deep voice lives with us.

Reasons to download it?

• If you like Bun B, Middle Fingaz and Z-Ro, those are the only three that you need. But let us give you a couple more.
• "Kush," featuring T, Stunna, GT Garza and Bunz, is a real nice opening track. Rosenberg's Bunz gives you a little bit of what's coming in his upcoming projects. We're excited about this cat.
• "Drank Sippa," featuring Arizona's G-Moe, has a real tough sample from J-Dawg.

But our favorite line of the whole mixtape comes from Lucky Luciano on T's "I'm So Throwed" track, which has a sick Pimp C sample from "Gitcha Mind Right":

I got my foot up on they neck/ Man, my new name is Houston Press and all I do is represent/ Screwed Up, Tex written on my flesh.

The best way to keep abreast of Bring It Back developments is to follow both T and DJ Flea on Twitter.

Speaking of free music...