​It appears that last year, local underground rap's most impressive in a handful of terms, was not an anomaly. Six weeks into the last year of human existence (goddamn you, Mayans) and Houston's burgeoning stars are moving as fervently as ever.

Ten relatively new bits of music for your brain:

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​It's been reported that last weekend, a group of people was turned away from Washington Avenue's Roosevelt Lounge for, according to the aggrieved, having "too many black people." Reports of exactly what happened have been conflicting.

Wednesday, the Houston Press spoke to two eyewitnesses close to the situation to get a proper account of what occurred that night. They told us that thus far, four things have been reported inaccurately:

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"I am not one of these rappers that be rappin' just for shine, for these skeezers on these pics on inDmix. Bottom line: I gotta grind." --Doughbeezy

Twelve months is all it took.

At the beginning of last year, Doughbeezy, a 5'7" high bald fade with a rapper underneath, was an unknown. UNKNOWN. Shit, the first time we covered him here in this space, we weren't even bothering to spell his name right (it's ONE word, duh).

Since the beginning of this year though, he has regularly been touted as one of the city's very best talents by some of the city's very best talents. To list all he's accomplished since last January seems unnecessarily perfunctory (music + tours + followed on Twitter by Barack Obama + coverage by major music magazines and sites, etc). Just know that it's been a ton and it's been a ton and it's been a ton.

And this March, with his "buzz" proportionate to his outsized work ethic, he will release his first proper project, Blue Magic. That up there, that's "Grind," the first single from BM. Listen to it. It's a dervish that manages to feel tempered, which is exactly the type of organic evolution* people were hoping for when he began teasing the tape.

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​Ah, rappers and music videos. Some are vehicles for self-promotion, others are tools used to promote a message, a gaggle of asses or some good ol' wholesome debauchery. In the case of the Houston rap class, music videos are always eye opening glimpses into the future, either telling what a talent could possibly become or how such a talent can make a low budget idea turn into a big budget reward. This week, we get a dose of the '90s, only in 2012. All hail retro!

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Update: After a slight delay, Money and Pain has been made available. Download it here.

That's MUG, the bruising fullback of the Boss Hogg Outlawz.

Were you to place the members* of the BHO on an identity scale based on their characteristics and rap attributes (raptributes?), MUG would fall right in between the postmodern Le$ and the preternaturally ferocious J-Dawg. He is immediately intimidating because of his size, but is more nuanced and contemplative than his cinder block glare might lead you to believe.

Evidence: Follow him on Twitter (@MUGofSDS). Amid the typical platitudes and occasional MP3 links are endearing, humanizing tweets about his son, an apparently gifted young football player. Little will tell you more about a man than the relationship he has with his children, and from across cyberspace, MUG appears to be just aces there.

*The current lineup of the BHO --Slim Thug, J-Dawg, MUG, Le$, Dre Day, Lil Ray, Black-- is the most dexterous, well conceived it's ever been.

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​Counting down the 25 best local rap albums of ANY year is less than easy. Counting them down for this year, the most energetic, frenzied year for Houston rap since 2005, it is more than impossible. Rather: WAS more than impossible.

After countless at-length conversations with those that know better, a complicated mathematics-based computer program that nearly buckled NASA and the death of an IHOP waitress, it is done.

For this, there are no rules. There are no pre-qualifiers. There are categories. This isn't the These Are The Best Mixtapes list or the These Are The Best LPs list or the These Are The Best EPs list. Fuck that. Competition is one of the cornerstones of rap. Every piece of (rap) music that came out in Houston this year was eligible for inclusion here.

These are it.

This is them.

These are The 25 Best Rap Albums From Houston's Glorious 2011. It gets no better.

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photo by Marco Torres

Having a great time? Probably thanks to this guy.

​
Remember that one awesome party, the invite-only one with the open bar that was sponsored by a liquor company, where everyone was beautiful and hip, and you got to mingle with Big Boi or Pharrell Williams or Bun B? Either you do remember, because you wish that every party you attended was half as amazing, or you don't, because you drank way too much.

The man behind many of these events in Houston is 31-year-old David Anderson III, who through his 713Vip machine is able to bring top notch parties, events, and celebrities to the city he calls home. He recalls throwing his first party as a fundraiser for his church's youth group while still a teenager, as hasn't looked back since. Fast forward to the present, and David is now the ambassador for Ciroc Vodka here in Texas, and the go-to guy for all things trendy in the world of events, music, and entertainment.

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So good.

The song. The video. The idea. The levels. Bun's stoicism. Yves's bombast. Yves's during the chorus. YVES DURING THE CHORUS. 2:47 to 2:51. The intro. The outro. Basically everything between the intro and the outro.

So good.

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​So here.

These are the 25 best songs from Houston rap's glorious 2011. They've been pressed onto actual cassettes (not pictured above). We only made ten of them, because, fuck, it takes a long time. They are for sale ($600). And, as a way to honor the city's grey tape past while being entirely self-indulgent (pretty much our two favorite things), they're called the Shea Tapes. Email if you want one.

At any rate, the 25 songs. Now, naturally -- NATURALLY -- there are a few qualifiers:

(a) There was a bit of a hullabaloo this year during the Houston Press Music Awards process when the Best Underground Rapper and Best Rapper categories were squished into one. And that makes sense; it's hard for, say, someone like Delo to keep pace with Slim Thug when fan voting is concerned. So, for here, for this mixtape, only artists that could reasonably be considered "underground" within Houston's sphere were included. Basically, that's goodbye to Bun B, Slim Thug, Trae, Paul Wall, Chamillionaire, Z-Ro, Lil Flip, SPM (he had a tough, tough song released this year called "Pyramid" that nobody bothered to talk about) and, now, Kirko Bangz. You could have them as a guest feature (Le$'s "3rd Coastin'," for example, which has a Paul Wall verse on it, would be eligible), but they can't be the primary. Oh, speaking of...

(b) No artist was allowed to be the primary on more than one song. That's why Killa Kyleon's "Make Me" featuring Jack Freeman didn't make the list, even though it is (arguably) one of the best local songs of the year. You could sneak on twice if you had the good fortune of being a guest feature on someone else's really good song, but that's it.

(c) If your song was just you rapping over someone else's beat, you didn't qualify (there's a vast difference between sampling a beat, which nearly everyone does now apparently, and straight-up taking one). Houston is thriving right now. There are too many talented producers at everyone's disposal. Those beatjack types of things are almost always fun -- did you hear Marcus Manchild yank apart the instrumental for Drake's "Cameras"? -- but they can't be rated higher than tracks with mostly original production. It's just not right. That's why, say, KDOGG's brilliant flow over the "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems" beat or anything from Tawn-P's wonderful tape The Wake Up Kiss didn't get included.

(d) Interludes/breaks/skits weren't included. This rule had to created specifically for DJ Mr. Rogers, who's "RidingThruMrRogersNeighborhood" interlude on Le$'s Settle 4 Le$ Vol. 2 was so gregariously creative and enjoyable that, rapping or no rapping, it very likely would've landed somewhere within the top four. That shit should be 22 hours long. If you ever have to stand in line for anything in Heaven (new robes, get your wings repaired, trade in virgins, whatevs), that's what they should play while you wait. Also, Jett I. Masstyr's "The Madness Pt. 1" interlude would've wiggled its way up to teens, for sure.

Now, the songs, 25th to 1st:

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​Officially: Hoodstar Chantz, Houston's motor-mouthed motor-mouth, is Dionysius. And Before the Fame, his latest tape, is his pinecone-tipped staff.

There are choruses here and bits there that can be passed over -there is a love song called "Far Away" that shows up about two-thirds of the way through the LP; it feels like if someone were trying to have a sincere conversation about love in a strip club--but it is mostly a strong, entertaining, cocksure album.

Chantz does not dabble in allusion. He does not care about your bummy ass clothes or your bummy ass women or your bummy ass anything, really. Matter of fact, he's repulsed by them. And he spends the bulk of BTF, nearly an hour, making fun said bummies.

To wit: There are seventeen songs on Fame. Within them, there 211 instances where Chantz talks shit. TWO-HUNDRED AND ELEVEN, bro. That's nearly a 13:1 insult to song ratio. And that's fantastic fun. Plenty of them are entertaining. Some are plaintive, some are clever, and some are just brutal. These are the 35 best though.

Note: Words in parenthesis are notes from us. Just so you know.

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