Photos via Bun B on Twitter

Bun B and Trae tha Truth (center) at a local rally for Trayvon Martin

​When Rocks Off researched our hoodie history, we found its roots and its perceptions to be as complex and racially charged as the death of Trayvon Martin. The hoodie, of course, has become the visual rallying cry for Martin's supporters on Twitter and Facebook profile pages nationwide.

While the hoodie may forever be redefined in the U.S. after the events in Sanford, Fla., last month, negative belief systems about hoodies and hip-hop are no doubt prevalent beyond our borders.

In a May 12, 2005 article in British newspaper The Guardian about a shopping center in the United Kingdom that chose to ban hoodies, Angela McRobbie, a professor of communications at Goldsmiths College, was quoted as saying:

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Snow Tha Product inked a deal with Atlantic Records.

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"You mean to tell me that you think I don't know that I ain't black?

Or that I don't know that usually Latin girls ain't really been all up in rap?

I didn't know that my color or gender could be the preventer of getting on tracks

See the last time that I checked they play hip-hop in the hood

And I dare you to find a hood with no Latins in it because I don't think that you could."

Almost two years ago, Rocks Off featured a promising California-raised, Texas-based MC Snow Tha Product. According to her management, Rocks Off was the first major media outlet to write about her. Back then, we wrote: 

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​Well, he started off as Doom The Strange and he was one of several underground Latino hip-hop artists in the 90s, but as he got older he shed the rap skin and now sports an R&B coat. And he changed his name.

Several artists have gotten at Rocks Off about Milton Bradley. "Milton Bradley this." "Doom that." "He's making noise." We didn't know if they were talking about two people or one person. In fact, Doom is Milton Bradley. Milton Bradley was Doom. Today, in the Latino hip-hop circle he's one of the most sought-after feature artists. He sings really catchy hooks and elevates tracks with his voice.

But he doesn't want to talk about himself when we speak. He wants to talk about the past. He's been following Rocks Off religiously and he isn't happy with most Latino hip-hop artists not paying homage to the originators of Latino hip-hop in Houston. He wants to educate the Latino youngsters in Houston taking the mike. He feels its their responsibility to know their roots. It's important that they know who paved the road they walk on.

He's not playing around. Carry on Milton Bradley. Carry on.

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Anna Laura Gonzalez, 29, known to the hip-hop world as LALA, makes her own luck - straight up and down. And if we're going to keep it real, straight up and down, she's really easy on the eyes.

The beautiful Latina, born in Monterrey, Mex., and raised in H-Town, had a dream of having her own television show, so she went out and created a pilot for LALA's World, a once Internet-only program that gives viewers intimate and fun one-one-ones with Houston's most beloved hip-hop artists, as well as big stars that pass through our city. LALA pitched her pilot to Channel 55 and within days, they were all about it. LALA's World is now airing on Channel 55 on Wednesdays at 2:30 a.m. and on Saturdays on 12:30 a.m.

Meet LALA. Travel into her world.

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In Monday's mix bag we plugged a video, "It's About Damn Time" by under-the-radar - maybe not for long - 24 year-old hip-hop artist Gotty. You know, when we first took a listen, we were really digging it, but we took it for what it was - probably a track being played all over 97.9.

We assumed this because we felt it was definitely a good-enough, catchy radio track, but we are anti-radio, so we weren't for sure, because we don't listen to it - at all - and we turned out to be wrong. It's not getting much airplay according to our conversation with Gotty, but he was on his way to New Orleans for a radio-media tour so perhaps it'll break soon.

Gotty and Rocks Off have a mutual friend in our boy Will Paz, who works with OG Ron C's Gizzle Management and is always introducing us to hot Houston music. He introduced Rocks Off to the video, and after dozens of listens (we work well to the track), we said to ourselves, "You know, with all the B.S. and hate going on in the world, this could be a 'stand up for change' type of track," but we're constant soul-searchers and there are times when we cry when seeing beautiful flowers, so maybe we were looking too much into it.

Or were we? Meet East-sider Gotty, more than meets the eye or the hip-hop ear.

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Everyone is talking about the controversy surrounding Arizona's SB 1070, and Rocks Off was curious to take the temperature of the Grand Canyon State's hip-hop community. So we got in contact with our current favorite Arizona Latino hip-hop artist, 23-year-old Garrett Antunez, better known as G-MOE (Get Money Over Everything). Damn, that last name alone might get you deported. G-MOE hails from Avondale, Ariz., and we figured we'd ask a true Arizonan about what's going on in the state that has the nation's attention. Oh, and about his music too.

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Let us be forthcoming about 22-year-old, San Jose, Calif., native Claudia A. Feliciano. We'd put her up against any female MC in the game, and we're confident she'd give anyone of them a run for their money... or take their money. She's a versatile, bilingual lyricist who can fluently chop you up in English or Spanish, so take your pick. She has the swagger, attitude, fine-ass looks and in-your-face rhyming abilities to be a hip-hop sensation in the U.S. or Latin America, if only major labels could get their shit together.

For now, Feliciano, better known to the streets as Snow Tha Product, is going to have to settle for being an international underground buzz-maker. We're not exaggerating. You can find her on anything from videos with major-label Spanish-pop sensations like Jaime Kohen, to hit rap videos in Latin America to underground Mic Passes in Texas.

Initially, we didn't approach Snow for The Hot Seat because we thought she was a talented artist, although we had been jamming a track she did with Houston's Stunta, called "The Future" and we were scoping her out multiple times on the Murdaworth Mic Pass. In reality, we wanted Snow because we stumbled upon her weekly live web show she does on Wednesdays.

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Pre-med. University of Houston. John Mayer. Atheist. Anesthesiology. These are all terms that aren't associated with hip-hop. Or could that change? Acres Homes' own Edwin Penn may change all that if he stays his course... or, should we say, passes his courses.

Eddie, known better to the streets as DJ Eddie Deville, DJs at more than 50 nightclubs throughout the United States and has given Houston some of the hottest mixtapes in the last decade. He's the president of the Texas Chapter of the Bum Squad DJz, a worldwide fraternity of DJs. He also embodies the five words at the beginning of this blog. OK, he doesn't embody John Mayer - he's not that pretty - but he is a pre-med student at U of H on a career path to becoming an anesthesiologist, who doesn't believe in common conceptions of God, though, he does indulge The Hot Seat's religious questions.

He also talks to us about the DJ equivalent to no-talent MySpace rappers, why you don't want to fuck with the Kansas City Police Department, mother-daughter combos at the club, why Coast is so special and why not everyone should be able to buy Serato.

Join us in talking to DJ Eddie Deville, the man who just might make college cool.

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Writing on hip-hop, we see lots of hip-hop videos, so we see lots of video girls igniting our manly senses, but few make us want to know more about them. They're hot. They serve their purpose. Game over. But Houston's Athena Anesti took our damn breath away.

When we recognized her on our MySpace page comment section, we clicked away. We found that "hot video chick" is much more. Try entrepreneur, try model, try finance manager, try (here comes the bad news) taken. Fuck our life.

Most importantly, Athena brings Yo Gotti's track "5 Star," to life. Oh yeah, she's a five-star chick.

Rocks Off: It's hard to see past how hot you are, but looking closer, you've got lots going on: A barber shop, finance manager, spokesmodel, etc. But lots of people in Houston know you for being in some of Houston's hottest videos. What is it that you want to be known as?

Athena: A businesswoman. Music videos are fun to be in, but what interests me more is how they're made - the directing and producing part. A lot of things are easy to achieve, but to do good in a lot of things you must know how to handle and manage a business, whatever it may be.

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​So when a man beats you to your own video shoot, there's a problem. That's how we really took notice of 34-year-old Mikell Limbrick, the Trinity Gardens representer known to the streets as Fetti.

When we filmed the Houston Press Mic Pass (now in its final stage of editing), which he got no invitation to, he was standing on an abandoned downtown block with us waiting for the production crew and first artists to show up. On top of that, every show we've ever been to or informal hip-hop gathering we've randomly showed up to, he was there, filming for his company, R.I.S.E. TV/DVD, which stands for Real Independent Street Entertainment. Sometimes you just can't ignore the hustle.

Fetti is dedicated to catching every moment of Houston's underground hip-hop scene on camera, so we thought we'd get him in The Hot Seat while he's on his, well, R.I.S.E.

Rocks Off: Every hip-hop gathering we've ever been to, you've been there, including the filming of the Houston Press Mic Pass. You're everywhere. Why is that? Why do you love Houston hip-hop so much?

Fetti: Houston artists have mastered the Internet tools to get their audio tracks to the world. I believe visuals of their work ethic, performance, and lifestyle should be displayed also. That's the objective of R.I.S.E. DVD.

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