Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we'll examine a recent bit of music news and, albeit sometimes awkwardly, tie it to a bit of Houston rap. It's five videos and occasional cussing. Send tips to [email protected].
First, a declaration: Preemo is fantastic. And his song "New Pistol" absolutely has to be included in any Best Underground Rap Song of the Year talks.
Preemo is one of THE dudes when it comes to Houston's Latino hip-hop culture (if you've not been paying attention, Rolando Rodriguez has been metaphoring and adlibbing-up that specific cohort
every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in this very spot), but, for certain, he should just be one of THE dudes when it comes to Houston hip-hop in general.
The moustache he occasionally sports is pretty ridiculous, but Preemo, he of the velvet-smooth flow and unfettered confidence, has to be considered one of the very best underground rappers in the city, on par with the likes of Fat Tony and Nosaprise. (If you want a racial qualifier, then three best non-black rappers in Houston are Preemo, Coast and V-Zilla, though maybe not in that specific order.) Listen to him.
That said, here a few odds and ends to send you off into the weekend:
Paul Wall, "One In A Grillion"
Holy Christ this song is solid. You get the feeling listening to it that not only is Wall completely aware of his own legacy, but that he's even okay with parodying himself a bit. We mean, "With mink on the seats plus gator on the dash/ Like a luxury turducken that's stuffed full of cash"? That's either a genius amount of sarcasm or a genius amount of eccentricity. Check, Mr. Wall.
Lupe Fiasco feat. Trae, "I'm Beamin' (Remix)"
Of course, you're not going to go more than a day or so without stumbling across a new Trae track. There's certainly no denying his hustle, that's for certain.
More Lil' Flip Mixtapes
Speaking of, Lil' Flip has also been on a crazy grind this year. Whether it's to try and loosen the grip of irrelevancy or simply to hone his skill set, you have to appreciate the way he has saturated the blogs with tapes this year. Or you have to hate it.
Devin the Dude is
"higher than a martian fart"
Here's a glimpse of The Dude working on the his album. We're supposed to be meeting up with him soon to talk about it. Keep an eye out for that.
Z-Ro & Friends, "June 27th 2010"
Aaarrgghh. The new Z-Ro/J-Dawg/Lil C' tape hit the net and, excuse the harsh abbreviations, but that F'n S owns. Please, please, please let 'Ro pull a judge that kept up with The Countdown and read how instrumental he is to Houston rap. Really, we don't even care if he's guilty or not. He could have ran over our little sister, doesn't matter. Have you even heard "Doin' Just Fine"? It's amazing.
Preemo, "New Pistol"
Sorry. We couldn't figure out how to hijack this track from his Preemo's Myspace page so you're going to go there to listen to it. Rest assured that if we could have figured out how to illegally download it, we absolutely would have. Thug thizzle, son.
Thanks for your support. Maybe let the weekend pass without sending us a ton of emails this time, though.