Big Pokey

Kris Kross and DJ Screw: The Lost Connection

When Chris Kelly, one-half of the teen-rap duo Kris Kross, was found dead of an apparent drug overdose last week, it was a tremendously sad day for Southern hip-hop. Not just because it provided a tragic ending to another tale of a child star struggling with post-fame adulthood, but because his pass ... More >>

Last Night: Screwed Up Click at Warehouse Live

Lil' Keke, E.S.G., Big Pokey Warehouse Live June 27, 2012 June 27 isn't an official holiday in Houston -- yet. But the date remains the preferred occasion for formally celebrating the life, career and influence of Robert Davis, our beloved DJ Screw. On Wednesday, the remnants of the Screwed Up Clic ... More >>

Upcoming: Guided By Voices, English Beat, Gaslight Anthem, Yanni, Cave Singers, Etc.

3 Doors Down: Sat., June 23, 7 p.m., $35-$65. Bayou Music Center, 520 Texas, Houston. Big Pokey, Lil Flip, ESG, Lil Keke, Yungster: Wed., June 27, 8 p.m., $25/$30. Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel, Houston. The Cave Singers: Sun., June 10, 8 p.m., $8. Continental Club, 3700 Main, Houston. Citizen ... More >>

Six Years Gone: Big Hawk Remembered

Six years ago last week, on May 1, 2006, local rapper and Screwed Up Click Five-Star General Big Hawk was gunned down outside of a friend's home on Redfern on Houston's Southside. He was 36. While it's never acceptable to lose a gifted artist to violence in the prime of his life and career, Hawk's ... More >>

10 Things We Learned At The Awready! Houston Hip Hop Conference

The much-anticipated Awready! Houston Hip-Hop Music Conference was held Wednesday at the University of Houston, drawing in academics, screwheads, and media alike. The conference is a joint venture between the University of Houston Libraries and Rice University's H.E.R.E. Project (Houston Enriches Ri ... More >>

Last Night: Dante Higgins At Warehouse Live

Dante Higgins Warehouse Live March 6, 2012 In the grand scheme of things, any time an artist is holding an album-release concert you know the crowd will be eating out of the palm of his hand while dismissing the offers from everyone else. You know this, I know this. There's no way around it. For a ... More >>

The Dante Higgins Story

The winner of last year's Houston Press Best Lyricist award preps his first album.

Tops Drop: A Larger-Than-Life Fat Tuesday Playlist

​Happy Fat Tuesday, y'all! Rocks Off mentioned in a previous post, about rappers and Houston restaurants, that some of the best artists are "Big" and "Fat": Big Pokey, Fat Pat, Big Moe, etc. Every day is Fat Tuesday for these rappers. They're all about overindulgence and that's why we love th ... More >>

Eat It: Houston Rappers Love to Write Songs About Eating

Photo by Chase Steely ​One thing Houston rappers are proficient in-besides rapping great-is eating well. Many of the more influential artists were/are big and fat: Fat Pat, Big Pokey, Big Moe, Big HAWK, Big Mello, and Big Steve. Even DJ Screw was a husky man. That's not to say that their wei ... More >>

Trae Tha Truth Pumped For Today's Trae Day

​Rejoice. Today is Trae Day, a city-sanctioned holiday that was established in 2008 and champions the efforts of rapper Trae tha Truth, a noted humanitarian, social activist and Asshole by Nature. Two years ago, Trae Day was marred when, following the festivities, gunshots were fired into a ... More >>

Tow Down: Busted Rapper/Grower's Lyrical Tipoffs

keepittrill.comTow Down (left) and Big Pokey​The Bubba Sparxxx of Fort Bend County, Tow Down, was arrested Wednesday for using three houses as weed nurseries, where he and several associates including his older brother cultivated more than 600 marijuana plants, the U.S. Attorney's office annou ... More >>

Happiness Through Hustle

Cordial but guarded promoter H-Kane has become one of the local hip-hop scene's most important movers and shakers.

Last Night: Lil Keke's Birthday Bash At House Of Blues

Photos by Marco TorresLil Keke​Lil Keke's Birthday Bash House of Blues March 30, 2011 9:51 p.m.: Got the tickets. Waiting outside to meet a guy that was supposed to be here 30 minutes ago. There's a white guy here dressed like he had auditioned for Reservoir Dogs and didn't get a part and nev ... More >>

Upcoming: Motley Crue, Owl City, Primus, Skatenigs, Etc.

​Black Queen Speaks: Fri., May 27. Warehouse Live. Dredg, The Dear Hunter: Thu., May 26. Warehouse Live. Face To Face, Strung Out: Thu., June 2. Warehouse Live. Fair To Midland, Periphery, Scale The Summit, thelastplaceyoulook, Hindsight: CHANGED Mon., April 18. Warehouse Live. Jessica Le ... More >>

DJ Screw: Remembering Him 10 Years After His Death

Some rappers happen to be thoughtful, intelligent people. Every Monday Rocks Off will have some of them here discussing issues relevant to their culture. Photo illustration by John Seaborn Gray​This Week's Panel: Chris Ward, Chuckway, Kyle Hubbard, Brad Gilmore, Simple Success Not Invited: ... More >>

Last Night: Screwed Up Click At House Of Blues

Photos by Marco TorresLil Keke​Screwed Up Click House of Blues October 14, 2010 8:19 p.m.: The doors opened for the show at 8 p.m. today, which is precisely why we plan on continuing to not be there until about 10 p.m. Fools no longer, we are. 10:00: Just walked in. Already saw a guy uniron ... More >>

Screwed Up Click

Why Is Promoting Local Rap Shows So Difficult?

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 introducinglisto ... More >>

Remember Big Pokey's Warning Shot?

Houston's history is dotted with albums that, fairly or un, have been swept aside. We'll examine them here. Have an album that you think nobody knows about but should? Email sheaserrano@gmail.com. ​Big Pokey Warning Shot (Oarfin Records, 2010) Ah, Mr. Croc Bull, perhaps the most underappreci ... More >>

The Ultimate Houston Rap Battle Royal: Who Should You Fight?

Photo illustration by John Seaborn Gray​Of all of the Rap Round Table columns that have gone up, none generated more emails than this past Monday's "Which Rappers Would You Fight?" segment. Some people were pissed, some people were entertained, but most everyone had the same basic question: Wh ... More >>

Trae Day Moved To Northwest Mall, Says Trae

​Well, there you have it, hot off of Twitter. Trae Day, which had been searching for a new venue since the International Ballroom backed out a couple of weeks ago, has found a new home at Northwest Mall (9600 Hempstead Hwy., aka U.S. 290) on the same day as originally scheduled, July 22. Trae' ... More >>

Raekwon The Chef Can't Cook Up A Delicious Performance

Photos by Marco Torres​Rap is a cultural celebration of telling, through music, what it is real today, right now; not what was real two years ago as happened on June 19, 1865 when word finally reached Galveston that President Lincoln had freed the slaves... two years previous. At midnight on ... More >>

The Walking Dead

Texas City's Come See My Dead Person is very much alive.

Screwed Up Click Reunion: "If You Take A Bath Every Day, Make Some Noise!"

Photos by Shea Serrano Don't Worry About Mine: Big Pokey (left, onstage) gets him some at the Southside Smoke Shop.​2:58 p.m.: So this thing was supposed to start at 2 p.m., right? And we purposely got here an hour late so as to miss a significant portion of the standing around portion of t ... More >>

Trae's MTV2 "Jam Of The Week," Devin the Dude's 4/20 Tips, New Scarface Track List, Lil' Wayne As Prison Guard?, Etc.

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: "Inkredible," Trae feat. Weezy and Ricky Ross Congrats go out to Trae and the rest of the ABN camp. "In ... More >>

Y'all Musta Forgot: Big Pokey's Hardest Pit In The Litter

Houston's history is dotted with albums that, fairly or not, have been swept aside. We'll examine them here. Have an album that you think nobody knows about but should? Email sheaserrano@gmail.com. Big Pokey Hardest Pit In the Litter (Chevis Entertainment, 1999) ​Big Pokey mostly existed in the fr ... More >>

New Devin, Scarface And Big Pokey Product, The Kanye Abides, Snoop <3s Justin Bieber, Akon Vs. Sri Lanka, Etc.

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. Unexpected Fubu Advertisement Featuring Slim Thug That Bites Apple Commercials of the Week Wire to Wire Here's that Devin t ... More >>

Turning The Screw: Big Pokey, Bun, Trae, Jeezy, Z-Ro, Ice Cube, Waka Flocka, Dame Grease, Jay-Z & Jack White, Lil Flip, Etc.

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. "Hey, Remember That?" Single of the Week: "Who Dat Mad," Big Pokey, Big Steve and Big E Wire to Wire Bun B interviewed with ... More >>

Mix Bag: An Exclusive With Aztek, A Night At The Electric Company And More Mixtapes Galore

Courtesy of AztekL-R: The Kanye, Jay-Z and Aztek​Man, what a weekend. We sat down and chopped it up with them Southeast Houston hip-hop veterans Sen and Lil Villain, and Kansas-raised artist Uno. They gave us a rundown of an entirely un-talked about dimension of Houston's hip-hop history. More on ... More >>

The H-Town Countdown: Clearing the Table and Tying Up Loose Ends

Roughly 84,000 rap albums have been released in Houston since 1989. We're counting down the 25 best of all time every Thursday. Or we were. Got a problem with the list? Shove it. Just kidding. Friendship. Email it to sheaserrano@gmail.com. Well, it's over. We stretched it out just about as long as ... More >>

It Was Hard Out Here For A Pimp. Latino Rap Made It Easier to Deal with the Decade.

​If we had to pick one song to define the decade, we'd have to choose "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," by Three 6 Mafia. It was a hard decade for the people of this country. You had September 11, the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina and the financial crisis. We even think Obama might want to thro ... More >>

Turning the Screw: Lil Keke, Trae, Dre vs. Rush Limbaugh, Weezer, Weezy, Chamillionaire, 50 vs. Jay-Z, The Kanye, Nas, DMX, Big Pokey, etc.

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 ... More >>

The H-Town Countdown, No. 22: Big Hawk's H.A.W.K.

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.​For all of the talent and charm and natural charisma that Hawk brought ... More >>

The H-Town Countdown: Setting the Table

Roughly 84,000 rap albums have been released in Houston since 1989. For the next six months, we'll be 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.​For the last few weeks we have pored over ... More >>

Flashing Back to the Heyday of DJ Screw

Ed. Note: To go along with this week's feature on Mike Jones, Mike Giglio takes a look at the origins of Houston rap's once and future calling card, "screw music." Photos by Mike GiglioScrew: The Next Generation (l-r): Randy, Big Bubb, Bird Wearing corn rows, a wife beater and green courdoroys, ... More >>

Five Spot: Big Pokey

Welcome back to The Five Spot, a Rocks Off recurring feature. 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. Wednesday, RapRadar.com threw up an interview with former Roc-A-Fella rapper ... More >>

Bayou City Buzz

Houston's SXSW class — and we mean class — of 2009

Mouth of the South

The South Park Coalition Turns 20

SoundExchange Wants to Kill Internet Radio

On "lost" artists, found money and the murder of free enterprise

Houston Hip-Hop

Mike Watts and his stable of northside rappers take a southside legend's style to the masses

For Your Listening Pleasure

Christmas in July

Six dozen of Houston's finest bands for a mere $7

Back to School

Big Daddy Kane and friends revisit the era of the flattop

Turntable Roundtable

Hip-hop notables get together to rap about responsibility

Project Row Houses Arts and Music Festival

Saturday and Sunday, October 12 and 13

Big Moe

Purple World (Wreckshop/Priority)

Lil' O

Saturday, December 22

Screw Heads

Forever and a Day (Avarice/JCOR Entertainment)

Life in the Slow Lane

DJ Screw lived mostly for his work, as if he would have time later to celebrate his success. That time would never come.

Big Moe

City of Syrup (Wreckshop)