Charles "Lucky" Luciano

Top 20 Songs Dedicated to Drank, Part 2

Friday we brought you the first installment of songs passionately devoted to syrup. So far we've confirmed that Houston is indeed the only City of Syrup. It's also safe to say that the late Screwed Up Click legend Big Moe sang about sipping more than anyone ever could, as he dominates this list with ... More >>

Locals Grandfather Child, Le$, Tontons, Killa Kyleon Added to SXSW 2013 Roster

Houston acts Grandfather Child, The Tontons, DJ Buddha, Beat King, Hoodstar Chantz, Slim Thug, Z-Ro, Killa Kyleon, Branzil, Le$, Lucky Luciano, and Essay were among the artists added to the SXSW 2013 lineup today. Previously announced were Young Von and The Linus Pauling Quartet. As it stands now, ... More >>

Last Night: Swishahouse Reunion At House Of Blues

Photos by Marco TorresBirthday boy Michael "5000" Watts backstage at House of Blues​Michael "5000" Watts Birthday Celebration & Swishahouse Reunion House of Blues June 9th, 2011 The premise was simple: bring together every Swishahouse artist, past to present, for a reunion concert, invite 2,0 ... More >>

San Antonio Director Taps Houston Rappers For Powderkids

​San Antonio independent film director Buddy Calvo of Machina Cinema is all about his city. He films movies in his city and uses local city talent to make those movies, but when it comes to his flicks' soundtracks ... let's just say they couldn't be any more Houston. Such was the case with Ca ... More >>

Rock Stars' Troublesome Family and Friends

​Wednesday, the NAACP released an extensive, in-depth study of the main six groups which provide the lion's share of support for the infamous Tea Party movement, and the results of their study are not encouraging. It chronicles a great deal of cross-pollination between Tea Party and white supr ... More >>

A HPMA Latin Hip-Hop Video Sampler

​Since this is the first time the "Best Latin Hip-Hop" category is in the Houston Press Music Awards mix, Rocks Off thought we should provide those voting for this year's awards - but not familiar with Latinos in Houston hip-hop - a visual of who is up for this inaugural honor. Voting starts July ... More >>

Mayalino And Chingo Bling Square Off On Twitter

"Fuck it. If they want to use this shit against me in trial, I don't give a fuck, nigga. As long as the nigga got his head blown off, I'm happy." - Mayalino, "187" ​"Deporting All WetWacks" (Houston Press, May 27, 2010) turned out to be a controversial piece of work, to say the least. The fal ... More >>

Breaking Down HPMA's Best Latin Hip-Hop Ballot

​Nearly eight months ago Rocks Off began covering the hip-hop movement in Houston's Latino community. Latino hip-hop artists in Houston have been putting out music since the early '90s and have largely Latino followings. Some have a bit of crossover appeal, but for the most part, it lives with ... More >>

2010 Music Awards Nominees, Part 1

​Rocks Off is sorry this took so long, but between sifting through dozens of categories with dozens of nominations apiece, and shuffling back and forth to the doctor's office thanks to an unfortunate spill last night, we've been working as fast as we possibly can. Even so, we decided to split ... More >>

Welcome To LALA's Late-Night World, Houston

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 televis ... More >>

Dead Prez Taps "Richmond Revolutionary" Lee-Coc To Open

Photos by Kris SearsM1 of Dead Prez at the Houston Palestine Film Festival​ Lee-Coc at the HPFF​The Houston Palestine Film Festival (HPFF), which features a wide range of films that highlight the unique strength and struggle of the Palestinian people featured the legendary M1 from Dead Prez on S ... More >>

Arizona Rapper G-MOE Talks About His State's Situation

"DRANK SIPPA" from ALONSO MURILLO on Vimeo. 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- ... More >>

Mayalino's F*** These WetWacks: A Mixtape Must-Have

Mayalino - We Alive Now from Chase Rees on Vimeo. Rocks Off drowns ourselves in mixtapes, and we've come to one conclusion: It's hard to find a good one. But like a domestic violence-prone girlfriend, we keep going back to the mixtape circuit because we think, "he'll change." Mixtapes feel cheap, f ... More >>

World Premiere: Coast's "Still Walking" Video

​ If you're new to Coast or if, perhaps, this is your first listen to arguably one of the most embraced underground hip-hop artists in Texas, you might click other write-ups hyperlinked throughout this blog to know more about him. You'll see lengthy proclamations in the comment section, which serv ... More >>

Dope House Records Invades San Antonio

Photos by Rolando RodriguezCarolyn Rodriguez moves the Fiesta crowd.​ If you know anything about San Antonio's annual Fiesta celebration, you know it's a two-week excuse to show up three hours late to work hung over and throw up in your company's restroom a few times throughout the day without ... More >>

DJ Eddie Deville: Mastering Turntable Artistry; Pursuing Anesthesiology; Liking John Mayer

​ 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 ... More >>

J-Dawg is HataProof; Lucky Luciano Blows Candles At Zona Latina; Fort Worth Holds it Down for Latino Hip-Hop

J-Dawg BHO CD Release Party 4-16-2010 from Hata Proof Films on Vimeo. Over the weekend, J-Dawg of the Boss Hogg Outlawz paid a visit to Hata Proof Records on the Northside for a CD release signing of his anticipated Behind The Tint, Vol. 2. You'll remember the piece we did on Big Cease and the multi ... More >>

Behind the Lyrics: Bunz is Twin City's Lifeline to Houston Hip-Hop

[Ed. Note: We temporarily interrupt our real-time SXSW coverage to give you something else to read about for one of the last times this week.] Richmond and Rosenberg are tough places to describe, partly because there are many faces to the two towns, which are referred to on the streets as just one ... More >>

Felony: It Would Be a Crime Not to Listen

Every Friday, Rocks Off will beam hip-hop artists into our demented, imaginary, incredibly witty, fantasy world of pretend scenarios. We predict it'll soon be known as a feared interrogation of hip-hop artists, revealing their innermost thoughts and desires. In reality, it's just a fucking cool Q&am ... 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 >>

Recovery Has Exorcised Lucky Luciano's Demons. This Rapper Is Clean.

In the January 5th edition of the Houston Press, you read about a small piece of Lucky Luciano's life - his addiction to drugs and alcohol and life of pimping strippers. What you didn't hear about is how he escaped death on Houston's freeways several times. You didn't hear about the time he flipped ... More >>

Magnolia City Mixtape: Houston's Grammy Haul, A Brown Dog Affair, New York Times Lauds Houston Symphony, And A Bunch of New Music

Once we realized what she was singing, Rocks Off was hoping Beyonce would include the "Would she go down on you in a theater?" line when the six-time winner sang Alanis Morrissette's "You Oughta Know" at Sunday night's Grammys. She didn't, and she didn't drop the f-bomb either (though she came pret ... More >>

Low-G: From E.S.L. Mockery to Historic Spanish Hip-Hop

"When I'm on my last line I'm gonna let ya'll know." "Yo, yo I want to welcome... welcome everybody to Hustle Town. Are we recording? Alright, let's do this, fellas." True Houston Latino rap fans don't need us to cite the opening lines of this track or what album it appeared on, but maybe you need ... More >>

1992 Redo: DJ Flea and Dat Boi T Give Underground Artists (and Listener) a Free Weekly Music Platform

​ It's something we haven't addressed yet, but it's been brought up numerous times in our talks with Houston's underground Latino rappers. When Univision's hip-hop stations in Houston went away this last decade, so did those artists' airwave platform. But sometimes you have to look back in order t ... More >>

When It Comes to Latino Rap, Trae Is Part of La Familia

A couple of years ago, our brother was attending San Antonio Community College. One evening, he told us a story about a young cutie he was trying to spit game to at the end of his day. "So I walk her to her car after class," he recounts. "And sitting there is the new Trae CD." "Are you serious?" I ... More >>

Up on His Hustle

How Lucky Luciano went from pimping strippers to stacking six figures.

The 2010 Census Launches the Latino Underground Into the Mainstream; Other Bold Predictions for the Coming Decade

Will Lil Young be one of this decade's breakout Latino rap stars?​ Can Latino hip-hop in Houston continue to thrive as a black-market force, of sorts, whose sales are invisible to the IRS, and evolve into a powerful underground economy without the acknowledgement or praise of mainstream music medi ... 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 >>

Low Points Dominate the Decade for Houston's Latino Rappers

​ Sunday, Rocks Off crept down Little York on the "Nawf" side of H-Town to scope out Northside rider Big Cease's video production of "So Off the Chain," featuring Dat Boy X of Dallas and Houston's Lucky Luciano (above). Sure enough, Houston's underground scene was in full effect to provide support ... More >>

Rob G: Houston's Great Brown Hope

Step into the hip-hop elevator of the Dirty South with Rocks Off. We're going on a field trip. Don't worry. We'll let you "press the button." ​Right now we are on floor "B," which stands for basement...more like rap basement, where Houston's Latino rap underground is bubbling with heat ready to v ... More >>

It Was What It Was

Amid a wash of national phooey, plucking Houston rap's pivotal 2009 moment is easy.

For Hip-Hop, Brown Could Be the New Black... or the New Wetback

​ For anyone following the Houston Latino rap theme as of late and are wondering why Rocks Off might be telling more of a cultural story than a hip-hop one with our artist profiles, it's because amongst the traditional hip-hop following in America, Houston's Latino rappers may very well be looked ... More >>

Dat Boi T: A Screwed Up Love Story

Screw Love. It's a term commonly used amongst the Screwed Up Click (S.U.C.), the bigger-than-life Houston-based rap label, which was founded by the legendary DJ Screw himself. If Houston hip-hop is the Bible, Screw is the book of Genesis. ​There are two types of Screw Love. There's Love for Screw ... More >>

Getting "Passed" Up OK with Houston's Latino Rappers... Well, Not Really

There's no doubt that Corporate America knows how to enter a market, break down consumer attitudes and needs, and sell them a product they're going to buy. Pepsi's been around for a minute so you know they know what's up. But in an effort to sell the urban community more of their product (trust us ... More >>

Lucky Luciano: Boss of Houston's Latino Rap Family

​ Deep underground; way below the mainstream music land of Top 40 Billboard Charts and MTV countdowns thrives another existence entirely, made up of independent, Houston Latino hip-hop artists who didn't get the memo. You know the one. It reads: "All aspiring artists must plead big record compani ... More >>

Pitbull, Baby Bash, Rob G, Robert Horry, Scantily Clad Women and Obnoxious Drunk Guy Salute Latium Entertainment

[Note: Monday evening, Houston label and management company Latium Entertainment, which has sold more than 15 million digital singles ringtones of artists such as Baby Bash, Frankie J and Pitbull, celebrated its 10th anniversary at Washington Avenue nighspot Reign Lounge. We had some trouble getting ... More >>

Grand Theft Auto X: The Screwston Chronicles

Get Lit: The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, by David Hajdu

Luciano, with Dean Fraser, Irie Time, Bigga Boss and Manjaro

Friday, June 24, at Club Riddims, 8220 West Bellfort, 713-779-0033 or 713-981-6677.

Defending the Dirty Thirty

And coping with Yankee slander

Always Darkest Before the Dawn

Trotting out the clichés for a year-ender piece

Hip-hop, Tejas

Latinos take on rap music and make it their own

Robin Hoodlum