DJ Screw

Madman Across the Water

Sir Elton John piano-pounded Toyota Center March 28.

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 >>

Top 20 Songs Dedicated to Drank, Part 1

Some call it lean; others call it barre or simply drank. Whichever you prefer, promethazine with codeine cough syrup is the ever so popular recreational drug used by many people. Houston's hip-hop culture has made lean something everyone has wanted to talk about or even try for decades. If you type ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: DJ Meshak, Hongree Records' Sound Selecter

Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there, too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link. A "selecta" was originally the guy who sel ... More >>

Feliz Año Nuevo: Toy Selectah On the Mayan Apocalypse, DJ Screw & the Beauty of Cumbia

His name is Antonio Hernandez, but the world knows him as Toy Selectah. The producer/DJ is one of the most influential figures in la musica Latina, constantly creating sounds and rhythms for almost 20 years. He enjoyed success with the pioneer Rock en Español group Control Machete, served as an A&R ... More >>

The Top 10 Houston Music Stories of 2012

Looking back over the major music-related stories around Houston the past 11 and a half months, 2012 was light on the kind of headlines you'll usually see in a year-end "music scene" recap: Obituaries, arrests, venues closing down, malfeasance, bad behavior, that sort of thing. There was some of tha ... More >>

The Texas 30: Texas' 10 Best Rap Albums

Texas rap has played no small part in hip-hop's history. More specifically, Houston (and of course P.A.) rap has played no small part in hip-hop's history. (There are other cities in Texas, I hear, though with the exception of Dallas's brief swag-based blip, they've, to this point, remained largely ... More >>

Here's the Screwed Up Click Take on ZZ Top's "25 Lighters" Cover

Rocks Off is a huge fan of DJ Screw and the Screwed Up Click. We also love and adore ZZ Top. So when ZZ reimagined the DJ DMD classic "25 Lighters" as "I Gotsta Get Paid" for their new record La Futura, we had to reach out to the DJ Screw protégé, the great DJ Lil' Randy SUC, for comment. Rewind: ... More >>

Saturday Night: Action Bronson at Numbers

Action Bronson Numbers September 22, 2012 After working hundreds of concerts over the last three years, most of them being rap and hip-hop shows, I feel like if I've seen one rap show, I've seen them all. The rapper arrives late, takes the stage past midnight, gives respect to Pimp C and DJ Screw, ... More >>

Down With the Kings: Rick Ross' "3 Kings" vs. Slim Thug's "3 Kingz"

One of my favorite stories as a kid was Arthur and The Knights of the Round Table. Or The Sword In the Stone, if you liked things animated. Had everything you really wanted in terms of inspiration -- kid always picked on, thought to be of no use to the world then gets courage from a few people, push ... 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 >>

50 Rad Things Now on the Sig's Lagoon Walls

Within the past month, the walls of Sig's Lagoon have been transformed into a sprawling pop-culture collage of posters, photos, newspaper clippings, magazine covers, picture discs and cardboard cutouts courtesy of former Sundance Records owner Bobby Barnard. Since the longtime San Marcos music stor ... More >>

Michael "5000" Watts and Trillstep

The Swishahouse don has a new creation.

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 >>

Saturday: 21st Annual KTRU Outdoor Show At Rice University

KTRU Outdoor Show Rice University March 17, 2012 In spite of groovy, spacey melodies and an air of mystery about their set, emphasized in part by the lack of overhead light during their performance, the Lower Dens got the short end of the stick at the 21st annual KTRU Outdoor Show. Before the band ... More >>

Which Were The Six Best Houston Rap Songs From The Nineties?

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 sheaserrano@gmail. ... More >>

Rap Round Table: The Ten Best Discussions of the Year

Some rappers happen to be thoughtful, intelligent people. Each week Rocks Off will have some of them here discussing issues relevant to their culture. Welp. Ya heard? That's that. It's the last week of 2011. That's cool. Or shitty. Whatevs. No matter. Right here, right now, we're going to take a qu ... More >>

7 Houston Rap Tributes by Non-Houston Rappers

Are you happy with your current city? Yeah? Then feel free to ignore this list of rappers from other cities drooling over all things Houston. It's likely to breed envy. Some of these come from gushing fans and some are random, but the vast majority illustrate just how much rappers love Houston. Dig ... More >>

Funny HPMA Nomination Ballot Fails

​It does Rocks Off's heart good to see that our Music Award nominations have stirred up so much debate. As we mentioned Tuesday, according to our Web people, there were some 9,000 nominations submitted across our 43 categories. Of course there's no way for us to really know, but as far as we ... More >>

South Park Mexican's Dope House Records: Help Wanted

​The other day Rocks Off was unpacking a bunch of old boxes from our recent move and found Disc 2 of South Park Mexican's Power Moves, the one that starts off with a phone conversation between South Park Mexican (SPM) and DJ Screw. It even had DJ Screw's mug on the disc's cover. Fittingly, the ... More >>

History, Screwed and Chopped

Julie Grob just made the U of H Library System a whole lot cooler.

The Five Most Texan Types Of Music

​Happy San Jacinto Day, fellow Texans and people who wish they were; i.e. everyone else. If you don't know why today is special, shame on you. But since us Texans are a friendly sort, allow Rocks Off to fill you in. On April 21, 1836, Texian forces under Gen. Sam Houston (aka "Big Drunk") lau ... More >>

Which Houston Rappers Deserve Their Own Streets?

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 sheaserrano@gmail.com. ... More >>

Killa Kyleon's Epic T-Shirt, Mixtape & Video Party: A Report

Photos by Larami Culbertson​Saturday afternoon, Authentik Music Group's most OMG figure hosted a release party for his new "Don't Mess With Killa" T-shirt that turned into a mixtape listening party that turned into a video shoot at Check Other Outfitters. Rocks Off went, hung out for some ti ... More >>

MCM: More Local Music News Than Ice On The Roads

Rocks Off readers, if the cold weather has bogged down your day, we've got just the trick - a slew of local music news hot off the presses. Our soundtrack this week is the folky Sarah Neidermeyer and the Devil, the new album from Horse. It's available now, so give it a listen and maybe even put it ... More >>

Affiliated Soldierz Explain Longevity In The Rap Game

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 sserrano@gmail.com. ... More >>

Eskabel: Ready To Get All Trae Tha Truth Tonight

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 sheaserrano@gmail.com. ... More >>

Will Lean: Screwed Up Click Alive And Well; He And Flip "Cool"

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 sheaserrano@gmail. ... More >>

The Houston Sound Maps Our "No Zoning" Music Scene

Katya Horner/Downtown DistrictThe John Evans Band in Market Square Park​What is the Houston Sound? Until recently, it was a trick question. Although Houston has produced too many distinguished artists to name across a wide variety of genres from blues, country and jazz to psychedelic rock, noi ... More >>

Which Houston Rappers Are "Blowin' Money Fast"?

​This has been Ricky Rozay's summer, for certain. Teflon Don was, in short, a sparkly, magnanimously produced, well-acted-out album. By the way, let's just go ahead and keep pretending like the entire planet hasn't figured out that Ross employed a ghostwriter for TD. Hard evidence? Well, there ... More >>

What Kind Of Music Stresses You Out The Most?

​Recently, Forbes magazine released a list of America's most stressful, and stressed-out, cities. Houston came in third, behind Las Vegas and Los Angeles. We know, we thought it would be higher, too. Forbes based its calculations on six factors that are either causes or effects of stress, and ... More >>

Purple Drank Goes Pro, Thanks To ESPN

​ESPN's Outside the Lines, the Emmy Award-winning investigative series that examines topical issues off the playing field, aired a feature over the weekend on Houston's very own rap mascot - purple drank - the dangerous mix of prescription codeine cough syrup and any range of mixers from Sprit ... More >>

Lupe Fiasco, Trae And Bun B Pack House Of Blues

Photos by Marco Torres​ For more images from the show, see our slideshow here. 9:10 p.m.: Goodness gracious. House of Blues is stuffed to the gills tonight. And it appears that all races love alt-rap. 9:13: Is it really so much to ask that venues that have no seating to arrange for some type of he ... 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 >>

Magnolia City Mixtape: New Videos, 7-Inches, Poster Shows, National Blogpress... Enough to Make You Think We've Got an Actual Scene Around Here

Well, the Justice Department has approved the Live Nation/Ticketmaster monopoly merger. What does this mean for you, the average concertgoer? Well, even more inflation on the already-ridiculous $6 Lone Stars at House of Blues. Free Press Houston had a well-written cover story last spring about the ... More >>

V-Zilla is Houston's Hip-Hop Monster on the Mike

​ "The reason I want to be alone, is I'm tired of all the things that went wrong that would've went right if I had did 'em on my own." - Nas That quote is perfect for this story because Victor Gurrola, Jr., aka V-Zilla, was once the best rapper the world had ever seen who wasn't known by his own c ... 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 >>

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 >>

The H-Town Countdown, No. 25: Big Moe's City of Syrup

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.​The first thing we thought once this list was compiled and all the records h ... More >>

HPMA Aftermath: Heptic Skeptic, Runaway Sun, the McKenzies, B L A C K I E, the Tontons and Spain Colored Orange

Photos by Shea Serrano​ 5:08 p.m.: About two weeks ago, vocalist Kammera Franklin broke her ankle. It has not stopped her hustle. Sunday, she sang for Heptic Skeptic, Umbrella Man and every single other band on the HPMA schedule. 5:27 p.m.: The Skeptics, who have always been a little more soulful ... More >>

"Round 3"

The works in Lawndale's Studio Program exhibit depict everything from eyelashes to James Byrd

Attention Readers: Music Award Nominees Should Be From, You Know, Houston

When our Rocks Off blog got back from lunch today, a colleague had put a completed Houston Press Music Awards nomination ballot in his mailbox with an attached Post-It note that said "Best Ballot Ever." Rocks Off read it over, and it was both hilarious and heartbreaking. The young gentleman from Mid ... More >>

NOTSUOH'S

TEXAS PRAIRIE FIRE

Get Your Drank On

Pop-Up Pop Stars

With the help of city government, Matthew Knowles hopes to find the next Destiny's Child. You got a problem with that?

Best Battle DJ

Fast4ward

Rules of the Game

Learn the music biz from the pros

The Turn of the Screw

In which a narcotic, native-born music finds a nightclub home

Letters

Residency Woes, Good God!, Organ-ic Giver

That's the Breaks

Houston rap labels and their artists look for that big deal