Bushwick Bill

The Best Hip-Hop at SXSW 2013

I remember going to SXSW a few years ago without a place to sleep, less than $100 to spend, no agenda, badge, wristband, or RSVP. I bar-hopped up and down Red River, made friends, snuck into Stubb's, ate cheese pizza and drank Lone Star. After years of busting my ass as a music photographer and wri ... More >>

Top 6 Rap Songs That Criticize the USA

Word to your mamas, sucka emcees. It's the Fourth of July (or, as the Native American guy that I went to college with used to half-jokingly refer to it, "The Most Fucked Up Holiday I Can Think Of... Why Don't We Just Go Ahead And Start Celebrating 9/11, Because That's Basically What This Is For Me") ... More >>

Willie D & Scarface Reunite For Trayvon Martin Tribute

Last month, Rocks Off talked to Bun B, who has been one of the rap community's most vocal and visible supporters of Trayvon Martin, the teenager who was shot to death in Florida February 26, and who has sparked a national debate over the role the hooded sweatshirts known as "hoodies" popular with hi ... More >>

Circle Takes The Square: Casting The H-Town Version of Hip Hop Squares

News broke last week that MTV2, MTV's sister network nominally dedicated to actual music, is reviving the classic Hollywood Squares format as Hip Hop Squares, an over-the-top tic-tac-toe game featuring urban personalities including actor/comedian Nick Cannon; record producer DJ Khaled; rappers Fat J ... More >>

Geto Boy Alum Big Mike Breaks His Silence with New Album

​Big Mike will always be linked to his ephemeral stint in the Geto Boys. When Willie D left the Geto Boys in 1992, J. Prince called on Mike to replace him. Mike left L.A. and a potential deal with Suge Knight's Death Row to join Scarface and Bushwick Bill in Houston. He featured prominently on ... More >>

Rap Round Table: Which is the Best Halloween-y Rap Song?

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: Slim Thug, Mug, Yung Redd, Delo, Preemo, Chane, Brad Gilmore, Herney the Great, ... More >>

10 Rappers As Movie Villains

​Cunning criminals, violent geniuses, charismatic characters. Villains give us chills and keep us on the edge of our seats. With more rappers now dabbling in acting, we decided to cast some of your favorite hip-hoppers as movie villains. Here are ten rappers and their evil alter-egos.

Recasting The Geto Boys From Houston's Under-25 Ranks

​So here's how this happened: Thursday night, while prepping the next installment Houston Press Underground Rap Awards, which we were planning on featuring in this space at this exact moment, a side note for an award spiderwebbed into a way-too-long e-conversation with several people that wa ... More >>

Coyo Discusses His Top Six Horrorcore Rap Songs

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. Something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email sheaserrano@gmail.com.  ... More >>

Top 10 Mentally Unstable Rap Songs

thesource.com​As you may have already heard, Gucci Mane was recently admitted into a mental-health facility on a "special plea of mental incompetency" in order to delay his probation revocation trial. He has since been released, and got an ice-cream-cone face tattoo in time for his trial this ... More >>

1991: Best Music Year Ever?

Rocks Off Sr.'s choice for 1991's best album.​1991 was one of the biggest years in modern music. It was when metal went pop, radio country ruled, grunge went mainstream, and rap began its climb to chart dominance, even if it was spearheaded by a white candy rapper from Dallas. There were man ... More >>

The Stories Behind Five H-Town Rap Anthems

​You know the song as soon as the beat drops. You rap them better than the artists themselves do at concerts. You'll slap your little brother for butchering the lyrics. But do you know the real life stories behind these five H-town rap anthems? Pull up a chair, grab a bag of popcorn, and a co ... More >>

Remember K-Rino's Book Number 7?

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. K-Rino Book Number 7 (Black Book Int'l, 2007) ​We have written at length about the brilliance of K ... More >>

"Rap Song Or Murder Ballad" Revealed

​ Rocks Off is really enjoying these little quizzes we've concocted, because it gives us a chance to revisit some of our favorite rap tunes and bask in the comforting knowledge that, whatever their time, place and circumstance of origin, songs about killing are pretty much all the same. We only wi ... More >>

Remember Bushwick Bill's Phantom of the Rapra?

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. ​At the peak of his insanity, Bushwick Bill was the most ferocious of the Geto Boys. He was never a ... More >>

Five Spot: Linking Jay-Z To Houston, And Not Through Beyonce

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. Jay-Z is in town Monday. This is huge. Jay is the most commercially, mainstr ... More >>

The H-Town Countdown, No. 1: The Geto Boys' We Can't Be Stopped

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. Note: With all due respect to Prince Johnny C, Raheem, K-9, ... More >>

The H-Town Countdown, No. 6: Scarface's Mr. Scarface Is Back

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. Scarface Mr. Scarface Is Back (Virgin, 1995) ​There's this phenomenon ... More >>

The H-Town Countdown, No. 8: Devin the Dude's Just Tryin' Ta Live

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. Devin the Dude Just Tryin' Ta Live (Rap-a-Lot/Asylum, 2002) ​In t ... More >>

The H-Town Countdown, No. 9: E.S.G.'s Ocean of Funk

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 sheaserrano@gmail.com. ​In last week's feature we wrote about E.S.G., we mentioned briefly that, fo ... More >>

Five Spot: New Videos from Bushwick, Chamillionaire, Trae; A Classic from Big Mello

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. Several key artists in Houston released new videos this week. However, before ... More >>

The H-Town Countdown, No. 12: Street Military's Don't Give a Damn

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, m ... More >>

The H-Town Countdown, No. 16: Bushwick Bill's Little Big Man

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, ... More >>

He Said She Said: Songs Guaranteed to Offend the Opposite Sex, Part 2

It's been 25 years since Tipper Gore and the ladies of the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) self-righteously rode the the rescue of delicate ears across America, claiming that rock music was "infecting the youth of the world with messages they cannot handle." It was the 1950s all over again. Th ... More >>

They All Look Alike To The Chronicle

Perusing the "Hot Ticket" spread in this week's Chronicle's Preview section, we came across this little doozy of a mislabeled photo:The caption reads, in part, "Trombone Shorty (pictured here in Guitar Shorty mode) and Orleans Avenue will headline A Gulf Coast Juneteenth...7 p.m. Friday at Miller Ou ... More >>

Turning The Screw: Jay'Ton, Bushwick, Nas, Akon, Dre, Diddy, DJ Hero, Grandmaster Flash, The Kanye, T.I., Three 6 Mafia, Bubba Sparxxx, and more

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: "We Here," Jay'Ton feat. Trae and Yung Quis Wire To Wire: Nas is not a fan of Canada. Akon, who ... More >>

Five Spot: Flying the Mddl Fngz

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.Mddl Fngz is a hard hitting (and totally texter-friendly) rap group that forme ... More >>

Five Spot: Hangin' With the Geto Boys (Almost)

If we had to rank the three most disappointing things not to happen in our lives, it would be these. We have never: 1. Dunked a basketball on a regulation goal. We play basketball, in some form or fashion, at least five times a week. Frankly, we love it. Yet apparently we did something so horribly a ... More >>

Aftermath: Geto Boys at Warehouse Live

Over the Weekend: Geto Boys, Willie Nelson, Hot Dogs and Vintage

The Geto Boys Reunite

Juneteenth Revisited

Two arts organizations attempt a new spin on an old event

Googlism with Houston Musicians, or Why Beyonce Is Stealing My Mojo

Willie D's Birthday Party

Hip-hop as She Is Rapped

Translating the German Wikipedia entries of Houston's top MCs

Scarface

My Homies Part 2

Best Beats from the Bayou

H-town's top ten rap jams

Answering the Musical Question

Wesley Willis's ghost in the machine pays rock 'n' roll tribute to notorious Houstonians

Mouth of the Dirty South

The Geto Boys showed the nation hip-hop with real staying power

Local Rotation

En Fuego

The Arcade Fire burns Mary Jane's Fat Cat down to the ground; also: Scarface/Geto Boys news and the fate of Mary Jane's

Mama's Got a Brand-New Bag

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings carry old-school funk into the new millennium

Wesley Willis

Wednesday, April 23

Willie D

Unbreakable (Relentless)

And Then There Were Two

Alison Cook looks back at 1997: The Year That Bit

Static

Static

Static

Big Mike Attack

The sinister turns serious with a new take on rap