Peanut Butter Wolf

Our prayers have been answered! Peanut Butter Wolf is finally bringing his crates and his turntable know-how down to these parts. For a while there, some of us thought it would never happen. We thought there'd be another Bush in the White House (Jenna, probably) before someone from the Stones Throw camp would come down here and feed us hip-hop-hungry masses.

Thankfully, it took the keeps-getting-popular-by-the-day Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit at the MFAH to get the Wolf to play here, as part of the exhibit's "Beats of Basquiat" event series. It does make sense for Wolf to hit the decks as spectators view works by the late-'80s underground artist, since the same rebellious, streetwise artistry that Basquiat excelled at is also what made Wolf the acclaimed hip-hop DJ he is today. As founder of the West Coast Stones Throw empire, Wolf has established an indie label that's given us Renaissance man Madlib and his 88 or so aliases, the '70s funk/soul reissue imprint Now-Again, such on-the-fringe MCs as Medaphoar, Oh No and that rambling weedhead Dudley Perkins, and the belief that hip-hop can still be both offbeat and on point.

So, when he comes down here, make sure to be on your p's and q's and greet him with the respect he deserves, or else not only will he not come back but he'll tell his Stones Throw fam not to show up here when they're on tour. Remember, in this time of platinum grills, candy-painted rides and potent oil, we need all the outside perspectives we can get.