​The news of Don Cornelius' suicide earlier this week left many stunned and hurt, especially those who were fans of the legendary TV show Soul Train. Noted for being the alternative to American Bandstand, the show ran from 1971 to 2006 opening the doors to young performers and countless generations starring at Don and muttering "Love, Peace and Soul" right along with him.

Even though the show lost its spark once hip-hop began dominating pop culture in the '80s and early '90s, classic reruns air today on various programming. Still, it would be remiss without thinking - what would Soul Train if they decided to bring it back full time and who could carry the legacy of hosting it?

Here are the requirements to be the host of the revamped Soul Train. One, you have to have a connection to your audience that doesn't make you seem like a curmudgeon, or at least not like that In Living Color "Old Train" skit. Two, you sort of have to be young America goes for that stuff. Three, you can't be Ryan Secreast. Should be simple enough, right? Good.

More >>

​In Huntsville, back somewhere around 2000, there used to be this club called The Tin Can. There are a bunch of reasons to remember The Tin Can; two stand out and another is unfortunately appropriate today.

The most nefarious of the three: It had to have been the most unsafe club in American history. Not because the people that went there regularly were unruly and dangerous, because they weren't. It was mostly college kids and, historically, college kids are total pussies. It was unsafe because, structurally, it was a goddamn furnace waiting to happen. It looked like a gigantic soup can had been cut in half and laid on its side. It was like whoever owned it had wanted to be an actual club owner but couldn't afford a proper venue, so he bought a discarded solid metal building, hired a DJ and said, "Hey, come to my new club. It's only $5 to get in. Free drinks before 11 for ladies. Oh, and by the way, pray to God it doesn't catch on fire or all of you bitches are going to be cooked alive. Alright laters, dudes."

More >>

​A white guy, two black guys and a Mexican walk into a club.

Harharhar.

This coming Wednesday, February 1, Warehouse Live will host the inaugural show of the Red Bull Skooled tour. (If you've any concerns about the validity of the relationship Red Bull has rap, you're encouraged to read this, which is a review of the last rap-related event they threw. It was aces.) The premise of the Skooled tour is quite simple, and very respectable:

Five underground rap acts from Texas (each of the major cities has one, with Dallas allowed two because Dallas needs all the help it can get) have been selected to tour with some of Southern rap's greatest personas, including a demigod (Bun B), the greatest shit-talker alive (Mannie Fresh), a platinum selling man that had the Internet going nuts (Paul Wall) and probably the most famous Mexican in the hustle (Chingo Bling). The specific focus of the tour, besides offering free shows in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Corpus Christi and Ft. Worth, will be for the veterans to act as real actual mentors to the newbies. Historically, Texas -or, the South, really--has been wonderfully self-sufficient, so this happening here seems apropos.

Keep it moving for an easy-to-assemble playlist featuring the event's new kids.

More >>

​This week, the new owner of the Houston Astros Jim Crane opened Pandora's Box of Hearty Suggestions For A Struggling Franchise and discussed changes to the team. Cheap beer (yay!), cheaper seats (double yay!) should be one of the first things but Crane suggested that the Astros do the unthinkable and change their name.

In the words of recent murderer of the stage at Warehouse Live Kendrick Lamar, "Fuck Dat."

Music, it's the same way. Once you become a famous brand, there's no going back to becoming PC. Think Rihanna is going to start going by her government name like some cheesy '80s pop starlet? No. (Although, if said move makes her pose for Hef in about 10 years, we're all for it). Musicians with name changes or moves are sad, sad things that should never happen but yet -- they have.

More >>

​There's this deli across the street from our work. It's an okay place to get a cheesesteak but it's an excellent place to get a burger. And for a brief period last year, it was A1 territory for fistfights.

Kids were going nuts with that shit. They'd show up, fight, record it, then run home and put it on Youtube (which, by the way, made it waaaay easy to catch them ex post facto). Around the middle of the last school year, one of them was actually stabbed there. Really, it was more like a slice than a stab, but still, that move is not the shit. Sprouting teenagers are pretty much the most assholey people on the planet, but nobody wants to see any of them get hurt.

So, every business day since then, from 3:15 to 3:45, we've gone to the deli and just stood there, making enough noise to let them all know we're there but not enough to get them more riled up than they would've already been anyway. Given the logistics of the situation, the most ready analogy to make would be that of a guy jumping into a shark tank, but really, it's not near as treacherous. Nearly all of the kids out there are just being colorful and showy, happy to be heading home. If anything, it's more like jumping into a tank full of peacocks. (Do they hold peacocks in tanks? Who knows such things?)

At any rate, we spend the bulk of the time out there chatting kids up, pretending to learn new slang that's actually old (the "FAIL" thing has finally dripped into the South Houston teenager lexicon) and discussing the merit of an untold number of music acts (FYI, arguing with kids about music is likely exactly as fruitful as arguing with peacocks about music).

Some songs that they are currently petitioning for the Music Hall of Fame:

More >>

​Despite a venue conflict, the championship edition of the Space City Beat Battle will go on Saturday evening at the Mercury Room. If you've never been to one it's almost like watching a ritualistic rite of passage where cocksure arrogance and chest pounding reign supreme. Sample based producers who love vinyls going against kings of Fruity Loops and MPCs. In other words, shit gets real at these things.

With previous winners George Young (he of the rag timey "Houston" beat on KAB Tha Don's monstrous Bully On Tha Beat mixtape), Tony Dark, Risky Boi, V12, Black Keys Productions, Y Phoenix & Steezilla all in attendance vying for the crown, some of the H's best young producers also get to be in the presence of legendary producer DJ Scratch & Port Arthur's own DJ DMD.

To get you prepared, let's take a trip down memory lane and grab five of the best Houston based producers of all time. We might have to add an SCBB participant to this list when it's all said and done.

More >>

​Tonight, KAB tha Don, monsterly dignitary, will host a mixer celebrating the release of his first proper mixtape, Bully On The Beat, at SF2 North (215 W. Greens Rd).

Now, KAB is nothing short of a Houston Press fan favorite. He is big and mean and, should he choose to be, hyperintimidating. His menace is entirely believable. He is perfectly built for the gangster rapper role, and we've been excited about hearing his tape since his surprisingly sunswept single "Good Music" made its way onto the Internet near the beginning of last year. But still, we, very likely, will not be in attendance tonight.

See, tonight is Movie Night at the Serrano household. Every Friday night, we pick up the boys from Tae Kwon Do, take them to Blockbuster, let them pick a movie, then go home and watch it together. It's a proper good time, and one of the few instances during the week that the boys get to watch TV. We've not missed one in more than two years.

We explained this to KAB, even (jokingly) suggesting that he postpone his mixer until tomorrow and join us instead for a viewing of Diary of a Wimpy kid. His gorgeous response:

​And that's the story of how the KAB Knows Children's Movies feature came to be. What follows is a list of ten beloved children's movies, along with a (mostly sic'd) synopsis of each by one of the most imposing rap forces in town. It couldn't be a better fit.

More >>

Peter Beste

​Well, the first week of 2012 is done, which, duh, means it's time for everyone to begin putting together their Best Of 2012 lists. We're working on ours already. Some doozies are included this time (75 Best Songs With Titles That Have The Letter "F" In Them; 31 Best Albums That Have Album Covers That Look Like Fruit; 12 Worst Rap Names Of Jewish Descent). In the meantime, let's look forward a bit.

Last year, local rap had all sorts of twists and turns (chief among them: Kirko Bangz shooting into the stratosphere). Here are a few things we're looking forward to in the coming months.

Show Getting Out Of Jail: Nobody has explained why, but Show, one of Houston rap's most mysterious characters, is in jail. And that sucks, even if it's kind of the normal shitty thing that seems to happen to him regularly (his Loud Howard mixtape was criminally underappreciated in 2011). It's hard to predict if his return will be glorious or furious, but, either way, it'll be good. The world is a sunnier place when Show is allowed to make music. (Word to Sais Yero, who actually mentioned that this needed to be on the list.)

More >>

Photo by Marco Torres

​When Kanye West tweets, magical things happen. West's high powered account lay dormant for quite sometime after his My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album but last night, the floodgates were opened from West's creative mind. What emerged was a sprawling 85 tweet rant that commenced for three hours. In short, Kanye yelled from his giant mountain top "YOU SIT THE FUCK DOWN TWITTER WHALE, I'M TALKING!"

The fullness of West's epic rant last night was this: he wants to create a think tank company envisioned after his mother, his thoughts about school systems, creativity, design and more. Titled DONDA, the 22-division company would exist, in West's words, "with a goal to make products and experiences that people want and can afford." It's ballsy as fuck but we're talking Kanye here, the entire Watch The Throne tour was an example of how zany and awe-inspiring he can be.

When he tweeted out the e-mail account to submit applications to his mythical company, numerous appliers got the "This Inbox Is Full" message. I guess that's another step Kanye has to figure out, an unlimited cache of messages in an e-mail account.

Here are four more epic Twitter rants of recent memory.

More >>

​The '80s and '90s will never die as long as young artists continue to keep their influencers alive in song. When news broke earlier this week that D'Angelo of all people have decided to cover Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun", it marked one of the few times that R&B, a genre which now sadly revolves around sex instead of the blues, and grunge, which was heavy blues, made sweet, sweet love to one another.

It got me to thinking -- what four current living artists could touch a grunge track from one of the fore members of the genre? Time to dig in.

More >>