Houston Music Blog

Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we'll examine a recent bit of music news and list five reasons why it's either brilliant or dumb-assed. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com.

We've got this notebook that we carry around pretty much everywhere with us. A few bullets from there before we get into the videos.

• Skippy-dippy do! Jay-Z just announced new tour dates, and guess which major Texas metropolitan area landed a show? Yep. You got it: Dallas! (Oh, yeah, Houston scored a spot, too - February 22 at Toyota Center.)
• ​We've been having some trouble sleeping lately. The world is a different place between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. Like, if you stay up late enough, the line-up of movies on the premium channels (Showtime, Starz, Encore, etc) invariably turns to one of two subjects: wacky movies about skiing and soft-core porn. The porn we were expecting, but skiing? Is that the other thing night owls are interested in? Did not see that coming. And what's weirder, you have to watch them both. You can't turn on a movie about skiing at not watch, somehow. It's impossible.
• To that last point, there is no way to buy anything from Wal-Mart at three in the morning without it looking like you're involved in some crazy gay-sex orgy. That's just the way it always looks to the cashiers: "A shower rod? It's 3 a.m., man. You're so going to put this in your butt," their eyes say.
• Right around this time last month we mentioned a then-forthcoming tape from Swishahouse called The Usual Suspects. It's since been released and we've since digested it a few times. While songs from the big names were mostly stuff we'd heard before, there were a few unexpected points on it.

Namely, these five:

Roughly 84,000 rap albums have been released in Houston since 1989. We're counting down the 25 best of all time every Thursday. Got a problem with the list? Shove it. Just kidding. Friendship. Email it to sheaserrano@gmail.com.

Street Military

Don't Give a Damn (Wild Pitch, 1999)

​Surprise.

Kids, meet Street Military. If you know who they are, then you no doubt sing their praises at parties, business meetings, funerals, whatever. If you don't know who they are, don't feel too badly. They've somehow slipped their way into "It Might Make Me A Houston Rap Elitist That I Listen To These Guys Still" status.

Street Military was a five-member rap team made up of four MCs (KB Da Kidnappa, Lil' Flea, Pharoah, Icy Hott) and one hypeman (Nut) that peaked early in the mid-'90s. For some reason, Icy Hott is regularly listed as an accompanying DJ and Nut is listed as a rapper; however, this is incorrect. KB confirmed this in a recent interview. And since he a) has a video or two of himself on Youtube knocking people out; and b) carries a snake around town that's so large it literally wears its own necklace, we're inclined to pretty much never question anything he ever says.

Snake be damned, at the beginning of writing The Countdown, we had every intention of leaving these guys off the list. We really, really did. We even specifically mentioned them as not making the cut during our precap of the rules. But, ultimately, their seven-song strong thunderstorm of an EP, Don't Give A Damn, had two things going for it that just could not be ignored.

Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies.

Single of the Week: "She Love It" remix, feat. Bun B, Slim Thug and Killa Kyleon

After watching the actual video for this song about 15 times, were able to deduce that some might consider it to be fairly derogatory towards women, so we decided to use this version instead. You're free to find it on your own though. And if you like butt cracks, you'll be happy that you did.

Wire To Wire

Of course Bun B is on Wale's CD. Bun B is on everything, everywhere. He is all things. Matter of fact, he's sitting right next to us right now hyping us up as we type this. Say hello, Bun. "Hello. UGK fo' life." See, told you.

Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we'll examine a recent bit of music news and, sometimes awkwardly, tie it to a bit of Houston rap. It's five videos and occasional cussing. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com.

​

What a fortnight it's been for Trae. First, his Restless album was named the 14th best rap album to ever come out of Houston. Then his newest son, Houston, was born. Then he released the anticipated The Incredible Truth mixtape. (We're assuming those are listed in order of importance.)

And THEN, early this week, a minor controversy erupted on Twitter when a rumor began circulating that his music had been banned by 97.9 The Boxx. Which left everyone asking the same question: Does the only rap station in Houston really have the gall to ban not only one of the city's key rappers, but a noted civil servant?

Basically, no. Or maybe yes. But really, this is mostly a non-story. Or an old story that's become a new non-story. Ack.

All of this (it appears) can be traced back to the Trae Day shooting. If you'll recall, there was an interview on The Boxx shortly after Trae Day where Nnete - and we're recalling this from memory now - asked Trae, in a somewhat derisive manner, why he was not holding the event closer to his home base in Katy.

We met Nnete once at a wedding, and she came off as a nice enough person. Her tone here, however, seemed to imply that Trae was somehow responsible for the shootings that took place, leading to a somewhat tense remainder of the interview. So that was that.

Roughly 84,000 rap albums have been released in Houston since 1989. We're counting down the 25 best of all time every Thursday. Got a problem with the list? Shove it. Just kidding. Friendship. Email it to sheaserrano@gmail.com.

DJ Screw

3 N' Da Mornin, Part 2 (Big Tyme Records, 1995)

​While researching the Countdown, we came across two very distinct opinions regarding this album; naturally, they were almost diametrically opposed to one another.

People either argued that it should be placed somewhere near the No. 4 spot - this was most often the position of rappers who knew Screw personally, hip-hop heads over 30-years-old, white music intellectualists and the homers over at the Texas Takeover forum, where Screw serves as the mascot. Pretty much everyone else argued that it shouldn't be included at all. As preposterous as the latter opinion initially feels, there's a certain amount of logic to it.

Essentially, two requirements that must be satisfied to qualify a rap album as an actual rap album, thus qualifying it for this list. First is that it overtly revolves around one single act; this makes up about 96 percent of all albums. Second, if it does not feature one specific act - we're talking compilation albums here - it must be comprised of all original songs. This is why something like Swishahouse's The Day Hell Broke Loose would work while a similarly themed Greatest Hits album wouldn't.

Those who argued against 3's inclusion, whether they realized it or not, took issue with it not meeting either of the two requirements. And technically, this is absolutely correct. It's also fatally flawed, but we'll get to that.

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place - lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good - so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email it to introducingliston@gmail.com.

dasouth.com

​Note: Normally this space is a semi-tongue-in-cheek back-and-forth with a rapper about some aspect of the rapper lifestyle. However, last Sunday, Christian rapper Juan "Enock" James passed away from what appears to be a heart attack. We reached out to Much Luvv label honcho Tre9, with whom Enock lived prior to getting married, to talk about it.

This Week's Rapper: Tre9

This Week's Subject(s): The sudden death of fellow Christian rapper, Juan "Enock" James.

Ask A Rapper: So we had the news passed on to us recently about Enock. That's terrible. Do you mind speaking to the details of that situation?

Tre9: He had a heart attack on the job and, the memorial was [yesterday] and we're having a benefit concert for him [today]. He was only 35. He's leaving behind a four-year-old daughter, Jana, and his wife, Natalie.

AAR: Geez. That's awful. Were there any previous medical conditions?

T: He had high blood pressure, he was taking pills for high blood pressure. But there wasn't anything else that I know of. He was only 35; nobody saw this coming. It was a shock to everyone.

Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies.

Single of the Week: "Still Here," Lil' Keke

Wire To Wire

Again, congratulations to Trae and the newest tiny Trae.

Hey, Rush: Fuck off. Sincerely, Dr. Dre.

Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we'll examine a recent bit of music news and, sometimes awkwardly, tie it to a bit of Houston rap. It's five videos and occasional cussing. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com.

​In June 2007, we became papa to twin boys. It was wild. And they were so, so beautiful the first time we saw them. Actually, "beautiful" isn't the right word; at least, not literally. That's just something fathers get used to saying because it's easier than explaining the truth.

The experience was amazing (we were in the room when it happened), and the concept of having our own children was beautiful. But at birth, no, they themselves technically weren't very attractive. They were pretty much the opposite of that. "Gross" is a more accurate term. They were all purple and bloody and gooey and their heads were shaped like ball point pens. They looked like tiny versions of that guy from the original Hills Have Eyes. Those first few seconds were really off-putting.

But they are rambunctious, goofy, lively man-cubs now, and our life is completely devoted to them. It's wonderful fun, even though every day they do at least one thing that makes us think that God hates us.

Trae, "I Could Use Somebody"

Thursday evening, for example, Boy B, who periodically has the disposition of a bag full of wasps, thought it appropriate to drop a roll of electrical tape into our drink during dinner.

​We couldn't even tell you where he even found electrical tape, only that he had it and, apparently, was in dire need of a place to set it down. He just strolled up, dropped it in before we could react - you see a two-year-old holding electrical tape, "Protect your drink" ain't the first thing that comes to mind - and then walked off.

A toddler, or he at least, is very protective of his beverages. Touching his drink before he has completely finished it is sacrilege, so we have to assume what he did was his way of saying, "Hey, fuckface. Eat it."

Trae, "Universal Language"

That's just the way things go. But then he'll hug us or ask us to help him catch a lizard and we realize we would kill for him (or at least raise our voice at a stranger). Because being a father is the greatest, most important thing that has ever happened to us. Which is why we want to make sure that we send a hearty congratulations to Trae, one of our favorite rappers, on the birth of his newest son, Houston. (Of course he named him Houston.)

We'll be looking for Houston's mixtape to be dropping in about two weeks. In the meantime, get after it with these five fatherhoodly rap songs.

Roughly 84,000 rap albums have been released in Houston since 1989. We're counting down the 25 best of all time every Thursday. Got a problem with the list? Shove it. Just kidding. Friendship. Email it to sheaserrano@gmail.com.

Trae

Restless (Asylum, 2006)

​Disclaimer: We dissected this album without referencing "Swang," the album's best song and possibly the finest representation of what it is that makes Trae Trae. We did this in part because we wanted to see if we could do it, but mostly because a) we've already written about the layers of "Swang" several times before, as has just about anyone who has ever written about Trae and/or Restless; and b) if you've made it this far into the countdown, you're no doubt familiar with all that went on with that song anyway, namely Fat Pat's posthumous appearance and H.A.W.K.'s non-posthumous posthumous appearance.

There's no need to waste your time rehashing everything. Although, we suppose it would've been easier to have just gone ahead and explained everything rather than fumbling through this now hamfisted disclaimer. So, moving on...

Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies.

Single of the Week: Slim Thug feat. Lil Ray, "Salute Me"

Note(s): Yes, this is a remake of the same-named song from Fabolous' Loso's Way. Yes, it lists Lil Ray as the featured artist but is actually Lil' Wayne rapping/singing. And yes, the unintentional juxtaposition of the video's "Look How Much Money I Have" premise with the "Look How Much Money We Clearly Did Not Have to Spend On This Video" vibe is humorous.

Wire To Wire

Shortly after the Trae Day shootings fiasco, we tagged along with Trae to Austin as part of an upcoming article we're still working on. Prior to leaving, we were hanging out at his house - we're not saying we're BFFs or anything, but that is something that BFFs do - and he was working on a remake of that Drake and Weezy song where they say "it's okay" about 100 times. Audio of his take (finally) hit the Web this weekend. It's dope. Listen to it. And like it, because we feel kinda like that might make us cooler somehow.

Roughly 84,000 rap albums have been released in Houston since 1989. We're counting down the 25 best of all time every Thursday. Got a problem with the list? Shove it. Just kidding. Friendship. Email it to sheaserrano@gmail.com.

"You drop one track, he's still alive." - Chamillionaire, on why he aimed an entire dis album at Mike Jones rather than just one track

Chamillionaire

Mixtape Messiah (self-released - it's a mixtape, duh - 2005)

For the most part, we've tried to avoid including mixtapes on the Countdown. But there is no justifiable way that you can make a list of the best rap albums to ever come out of Houston and not include Chamillionaire's original Mixtape Messiah.

Within the context of Southern music, it is a mini-watershed moment, signaling not only the birth of one of the most hallowed mix-tape series in the region, but also the viability of Cham as a solo act. Besides, you can buy it on iTunes and at Best Buy. With the exception of the title, it's closer to an album than a mixtape anyway.

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place -lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good- so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email it to introducingliston@gmail.com.

​This Week's Rapper: cARTer

This Week's Subject(s): Houston's next to blow up; do rappers ever make a bad song; what's good vs. what's popular.

Ask A Rapper: So you're from the new, new school of Houston rappers. Geto Boys and UGK were the originals; Slim, Paul, Mike, Flip, Cham, etc were round two. Do you think anybody from Houston is ever really going to break big again?

cARTer: Yes. I feel I'm the next new artist to have major crossover success that could "break big" coming out of the Houston music scene (even though I'm based out of LA, not to sound cliché). With my experience and cultural background, I have created a project that best represents me, where I'm from and where I am now. In my own way, [I'm] evolving the Houston sound and making something based from that of my own with a twist of my L.A. lifestyle.

Carter, "Stay Down Forever"

Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies.

Single of the Week: "I Look Good" remix, featuring Bun B, Slim Thug and Juvenile

Note: We initally hated Chalie Boy's "I Look Good" song until we realized that he's from rural Texas. We still don't like it very much, but we've actively stopped wishing for him to get polio.

Wire To Wire

Here's the album version of that Royce track Bun is on. Cool stuff.

Before this past weekend, we had never heard of Atlanta rapper Donnis, but we're going to assume he is either terribly unsmart, or a big, big fan of irony, seeing as how he just signed with the imprint Fool's Gold Record Label.

Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we'll examine a recent bit of music news and, sometimes awkwardly, tie it to a bit of Houston rap. It's five videos and occasional cussing. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com.

​First, a bit of housekeeping: In this space last week, we wrote about the rumored Z-Ro album, Cocaine. It is, in fact, real and we were able to get our light-brown little hands on a copy. After listening through it, we're 100 percent certain it isn't the Cracc mixtape everyone has been waiting on, but it is very clearly a mixtape. It's hosted by a husky-voiced woman named DJ Drama Queen (we've never heard of her either) and is a double-disc feature.

There's certainly some solid stuff - that "Round Here" song 'Ro did with Billy Cook is used, which might be reason enough to get it - but it also has far too many skippables. Get it if you're a collector (the cover is very cool), but you won't be missing a terrible amount if you don't. Your call.

Now, for this week, we've got a new tape we're lusting for. Courtesy of the Screw Heads Only site, which, if you're a Texas rap fan, you should check out because the dude that runs it periodically puts some gems up there, we caught a glimpse of the new Swishahouse compilation tape and it looks fly as eff. We're totally pretending like we don't know Justus League did something very, very similar.

Rocks Off loves songs about Houston. Here's a pretty good new one by a rapper called Young Twinn.

While the video doesn't offer much we haven't seen before - please, one shot of the skyline as seen from the Interstate is enough - we do really like some of the words, especially the lines toward the end about Hurricane Ike. The beat is well above-average too.

Houston's own Boss of All Bosses, Slim Thug, got six minutes of face time on The Daily Show Wednesday night, in correspondent Wyatt Cenac's report on how the recession is affecting the economics of making it rain and other perks of the baller lifestyle. Some of the things Thugga has had to adjust to, he says, are downsizing from a tour bus to a van, eating in strip clubs in place of making it rain, and not only a reduction in the number of "video hos" on hand at shoots, but said hos' children running around on the set and taking all the food from craft services. The segment concludes with an Apprentice-style boardroom meeting where Slim has to serve walking papers to one of his entourage. Rappers: They're just like us!

Tune in to TDS tonight for the premiere of Slim's new video, "Still a Boss," featuring recession-conscious lyrics like "messin' mothafuckas up with my credit score."

Roughly 84,000 rap albums that have been released in Houston since 1989. We're counting down the 25 best of all time every Thursday. Got a problem with the list? Shove it. Just kidding. Friendship. Email it to sheaserrano@gmail.com.

Bushwick Bill

Little Big Man (Priority, 1992)

​"Get to the house, all I'm thinking 'bout is shootin' her/ 'Cause shootin' her would be sweet/ But you know what'd be sweeter/ if I made her shoot me."

Scarface will always be the best rapper from the Geto Boys, but the gap between him and Bushwick Bill was narrower than a lot of people realize. The ironic part of this statement is that we have to use "was" here because since 'Wick ventured down the Christian rapper trail, it has widened substantially, basically to the original girth most people assumed was the case anyway.

Anyhow, Little Big Man, Bushwick's 1992 debut, represented the most honest, visceral effort of his career. For this duration of this one album, he was rap's Hannibal Lecter: A wildly charming nutbag who was trying to either sleep with you or eat you.

​Most people in the world of music videos may not recognize the name Nahala Johnson, but lately, they've recognized his nom de film: Mr. Boomtown. The Port Arthur native (he now splits his time between Houston and Dallas) is a nominee for the BET Hip Hop Awards' Director of the Year. The show will be held October 10th in Atlanta.

He's nominated for his work on two videos that really couldn't be any more different from each other -- Slim Thug's "I Run," with its breathtaking night-time aerial views of Houston, underground clubs, bling, and wads of cash; and Mike Jones's "Next to You," which features the aforementioned Mr. Jones and his sweetie shopping at Greenspoint Mall and eating Corn Flakes in unbridled domestic bliss.

But after ten years of producing videos for the likes of Scarface, Bun B, Paul Wall, and Mya, Mr. Boomtown is ready for just about anything. We caught up with him this week, but only for a brief phone chat -- as you can imagine, a fellow with the name of "Mr. Boomtown" has quite the busy schedule.

We started by asking him what Slim and Mike differed in their approaches to making videos.

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place - lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good - so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email it to introducingliston@gmail.com.

This Week's Rapper: Troublesum

This Week's Subject(s): Do rappers really think it's fun for concert goers when performers just stand around on stage with a bunch of people gathered around them?

Troublesum, "SWAG"

Ask A Rapper: We assume you're tired of being asked about being a female in a male-dominated genre and blah, blah, blah, so we'll touch on something else we've received emails about: live performances.

What's up with those? We mean, a large percentage of the rap shows that we've been to consist of the rapper simply standing there and reciting his or her rhymes. Sometimes there's a group of people standing around in the background, sometimes there's not. Do you all really think that's enjoyable for fans?

Troublesum: Yes and no. Some [artists] have a following that supports them being on stage with an entourage or them being up there solo. That's them in their element, so if it works for them, why switch it up, dig me? However, I'm a performer as well as an artist so I like to give my audience a show, something that they'll leave talking about.

Welcome back to The Five Spot. Every Friday, we'll examine a recent bit of music news and list five reasons why it's either brilliant or dumb-assed. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com.

​Okay, let's get you all caught up.

Back at the end of the summer, word spread that Z-Ro had been jumped outside of Houston's classy, classy hangout High Rollers. We were hesitant to believe it happened at first, because how does someone even go about beating up a nightmare, but Ro later put up a video on YouTube speaking on the incident.

Shortly thereafter, an email appeared in our inbox from ***** explaining that the attack (presumably) had come at the hands of a Rap-A-Lot goon squad and occurred because some remarks made by Z-Ro in a previous interview re: the label and his album's still-unreleased status were taken to be disrespectful. This was verified on numerous message boards, the same message boards that also "verified" that Z-Ro had been killed on two previous occasions, mind you, so make of that what you will.

Here's the fun part though: The album at the center of all of this is Heroin, Ro's perpetually postponed follow-up to last year's Crack. Wednesday afternoon, a picture of someone holding an album titled Cocaine started popping up on the internet (if there were a Google Trends: Down South Edition, there is no doubt Z-Ro fodder would clog up at least 17 of the top 20 spots daily).

The rumor now is that Ro has apparently become so disenfranchised with Rap-A-Lot that he or someone close to him has pressed his own copies of Heroin and is offering them under the new name.

There are a bunch of different explanations for this "new album." Actually, there are five.

Roughly 84,000 rap albums have been released in Houston since 1989. We're counting down the 25 best of all time every Thursday. Got a problem with the list? Shove it. Just kidding. Friendship. Email it to sheaserrano@gmail.com.

South Park Mexican

Never Change (Universal, 2001)

A few months ago we interviewed a Northside rapper named Coast for Artist of the Week. One of the things we mentioned about him was that lyrically he had a remarkable ability to deliver a powerful sentiment without feeling at all forced. It's not an easy thing to do (see: 85 percent of all rappers). But as good as he as is at doing it, he's only about half as good as South Park Mexican was on 2001's Never Change.

Nobody before or since has marshaled the dejection and isolation a lot of inner-city Mexicans feel) near as well as SPM. It's one of the things that made him so necessary. For example, on "Real Gangsta" (When Devils Strike, 2006), which tells the story of how a kid is pulled into the hustle, he wraps up a kid's entire youth by mentioning that even when his mom finally was able to buy him some new shoes (on sale), "She didn't know, she bought the wrong color/ and they stayed in the closet all summer."

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place -lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good- so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email it to introducingliston@gmail.com.

This Week's Rapper: Summertime Johnny

This Week's Subject(s): Lil Boosie's brush with the law; the credibility of a prison hitch; gangster rap and real gangsters

Ask A Rapper: Last week Lil' Boosie got sentenced to two years for fooling around with guns and drugs and whatnot. Why does stuff like that consistently happen? Like, obviously this doesn't apply to all rappers, but it seems like more than any other genre, people involved in the rap industry get caught up in things like that.

​Summertime Johnny: It's an interesting story to read about and watch. Money doesn't fix all your problems, though, and apparently doesn't grant you intelligence. I imagine these things keep happening because there's nobody around them to tell them to chill out with that kind of stuff.

Why didn't he just pay somebody he knows to "handle his lightweight," like we say from where I'm from. I mean, and why is it always a rapper in the news? Of course rappers are the ones all over the media. [sarcastically] It's obvious rappers are becoming extinct and they have to carry a gun to ensure their survival.

A lot of these rappers have identity issues. I mean, they make all this money so they can be in a better position, but then bring drama on theirselves. I figure the only reason these rappers keep on getting these criminal records once they "make it" is simply because they don't know how to use their fame to make money; they got the game all backwards.

Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we'll examine a recent bit of music news and, sometimes awkwardly, tie it to a bit of Houston rap. It's five videos and occasional cussing. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com.

​"I Need Mo," feat. Kobe and Travis Barker: A day or two ago, the video for Paul Wall's "I Need Mo" featuring Kobe - the singer, not the basketball player, although after that Brooke Hogan collaboration disaster you'd be forgiven for assuming otherwise - began popping up on all the hip-hop blogs and sites. Now, save for the fact that stylistically it's about two years away from being original, it's actually a fun song*. Nice production, fairly catchy hook, and so on and so forth.

*In the beginning of the video, he implies that he's out on the corner possibly participating in some unruly behavior. Had we not seen him tweet ad nauseum about baseball and trying to lose weight, we might've believed him. That part's kinda weak. And because it's nice outside and because we've been in a somewhat masochistic mood lately, we decided to peruse Wall's catalog and find five other collaborations of his that do not make us want to step barefoot onto a thumbtack.

Note: We will be ignoring all tracks from Get Ya Mind Right because that'd be way too easy.

Roughly 84,000 rap albums have been released in Houston since 1989. We're counting down the 25 best of all time every Thursday. Got a problem with the list? Shove it. Just kidding. Friendship. Email it to sheaserrano@gmail.com.

This is the first album we've seen on The Countdown that has aged its way to a spot on it. What we mean to say is that, if we simply considered this tape in a vacuum, it probably wouldn't have made the list.

Mind, it's certainly good, but time has swelled its significance considerably. First, it was put together right near the end of the '90s, a couple of years before the new-money Houston rappers (Cham, Paul, Jones, Slim, Flip, etc.) were able to piece together a marketable enough version of the sound that would personify - still personifies - our city.

South Park Mexican, Lil' Mario and Slim Thug, "Hay Hay Hay"

TDHBL is all warbly voices, "I done came down"s and synthy production that sounds way better once it's been Screwed, which is not an accident. Listening to this tape now is an easy way to recapture the earnest days of Houston's second-generation rap pre-boom. It's remarkably nostalgic; were there a barber shop open at 11 p.m. (which is when we were writing this) we almost certainly would've woken up the next morning with a ball-fade haircut.

Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies.

(Sexy, Spoony) Single of the Week: You(genious), "Sex on a Spoon"

[Note: How many Houston musicians can you spot in that video? We're at six.]

Wire To Wire

Fat Tony and Nosaprise are, hands down, two of our favorite underground Houston rappers. We can't say enough good things about them. Unless we're talking about their freestyle battle rap showing, that is. Then we totally can. (Hat tip to reader Carly for passing along the link to that six-month-old video we somehow managed to miss.)

Why the eff is everybody dying this year? R.I.P. Roc Raida.

Photos by Larami Culbertson

At long last, Devin the Dude.

9:44 p.m.: So we're outside waiting to be let in to the show. Apparently, when a PR person tells you in a few emails and a couple of text messages that your name is on the list and you're all good to go for the show, that really means your name is not on the list and you're not all good to go for the show. Fun, fun, fun.

10:09 p.m.: We've been inside for a few minutes. Checking out a few of the crowd members, we're suddenly inspired to start a TV show. It's going to called "You Seriously Thought It Was A Good Idea To Wear That Out?" and it's going to consist of us walking up to people, pointing out something ridiculous that they're wearing, and then saying "You seriously thought it was a good idea to wear that out?" That's it. It's going to be eight seconds long. Our first guest: the guy standing near us in an Ed Hardy sports jersey.

10:21 p.m.: Why do Rastafarians always have backpacks on? What could they possibly be carrying around? Incense? Six packs of Red Stripe? More locks of dingy hair? A huge tub of Patchouli? Somebody please find this out for us. [Ed. note: Any HPD drug-sniffing dogs on hand at the show would likely have solved this mystery straightaway.]

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place -lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good- so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email it to introducingliston@gmail.com.

This Week's Rapper: Lil' Flip

​This Week's Subject(s): Liberace; whether or not grills are rotated in and out like tires; the importance of a rapper's jewelry.

Ask a Rapper: You've got a ton of nicknames, but one in particular sticks out: when you go by Flipperace. Is there some type of story behind that because Liberace doesn't seem like somebody a lot of rappers would tie themselves to, what with the whole "everybody thinking he was gay" thing.

Flip: When I did the Flipperace, [laughs] I was really being funny. That's why I spell it like Versace spell his name. Back when I was in high school all I used to wear was Versace and Armani so I really was playing off Versace's name. He had a lot of diamonds too, but, yeah, I used to wear Versace all the time. That was my thing in high school and middle school.

Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies.

Courtesy Dustin Prestige

​Single of the Week: Dustin Prestige (right), "Polos and AKs, Pt. 2"

Wire To Wire

Counting down the days until ESG releases his album. Please don't let it be crappy, please don't let it be crappy, please don't let...

And for this week's installment of Books That Probably Aren't Helping The Book Industry: 50 Cent's The 50th Law.

Did you know there's actually a Hip Hop Chess Federation? And there tagline is "Using Chess, Music and Martial Arts to promote unity, strategy and non-violence." There are so many jokes to be made there that we're at a loss.

Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we'll examine a recent bit of music news and list five reasons why it's either brilliant or dumb-assed. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com.

Marco Torres

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Yesterday, N.O.R.E. released "Set Trip," a wispy, "Look How Tough I Am," available-via-Internet track that nobody's going to care about in four or five days. We mention it though, because it features a swift contribution from one of Houston's hip-hop archetypes: Bun B.

We actually saw Bun B not too long ago backstage at a concert and finally worked up the nerve to talk to him.

Now, we'd seen him out at concerts plenty of times - he has an unofficial residency at House of Blues - but we always panicked ourselves into silence around him. This one time we were at his listening party for II Trill and he came up to us just to quickly say hello while he was working the room. He was all, "Hey, I'm Bun B. Thanks for coming out." It was like, here's the guy who put together the most dynamic three-song set from any rapper we've ever heard (his work on "One Day," "Murder" and "Pinky Ring" from UGK's Ridin' Dirty is amazing), and he's just walking around telling people what's up? It blew our mind.

​Self-proclaimed king-of-rap Jay-Z unveiled his autumn tour schedule last week. The 26-date jaunt - which began Monday night in Chi-town and winds down just in time for Thanksgiving - will take Hovito all around the world, from New York to London to Kentucky to noise-rock haven Providence, R.I., to Ontario to Mexico. He will rock El Paso; he'll thrill Austin.

But the absence of a date for Houston - the hometown of wifey Beyonce - is perplexing, not to mention a bit insulting. Dude's gonna treat the UK to a string of shows so he can smoke Cuban cigars with homeslice/Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, but no love for Sasha Fierce's burg?

Something's up, or seems to be up, anyway. Without spies in the Jay-Z camp to hook us up with insider dope - and with Blueprint 3 MP3s still ringing in our cerebelums - Rocks Off decided to make a few semi-baseless guesses.