Subject: Rihanna

• I Can’t Stand the Rain...

  August 31, 2007

• Miss Pop Rocks: Britney Spears VMA Redux

  September 17, 2007

• My Music Tastes Suck Now and I Couldn’t Care Less

  February 1, 2008

• This Just In: “Bodysnatchers” at the Woodlands

  February 12, 2008

• Exclusive! Uncovered Vanity Fair Memo to Annie Leibovitz

  May 5, 2008

• I Watched Eight Minutes of the VMAs Just To See What Brit Would Do

  September 8, 2008

• Tonight: Shontelle at House of Blues

  November 11, 2008

• Turning the Screw: T-Pain & Friends, Pimp C, Asher Roth, Kanye vs. Colbert, Q-Tip, Suge Knight, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Young Jeezy, Paul Wall 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: "Chopped and Screwed" Lil' O, T-Pain and Ludacris Wire To Wire Matt Sonzala et al. paid tribute to the late Pimp C last week on KPFT's "Damage Control." If you didn't hear it, download it here. As Mr. Sonzala is fond of saying, "It went down, mayne." Arrest warrant issued for DMX. In related ne

  December 8, 2008

• Top Ten Pop Songs of 2008

  Pop music often gets a bad rap for being disposable or vapid, and in many cases that's true. (Katy Perry, Danity Kane and the Pussycat Dolls, step right up!) But every year, a few irresistible bits of innovative ear candy rocket up the charts and seep into our subconscious. The following ten singles saturated the Top 40 -- or what passes for hit-oriented radio in this topsy-turvy musical climate -- while proving that accessibility doesn't necessarily preclude creativity.

  December 29, 2008

• Hitsville: The Year in Music, by the Numbers

  You don't need a half-wit music critic to tell you it's been a remarkable year for America, one historians will be discussing and researching for centuries to come. War, financial collapse, politics, technology: All have been dinner-table topics for many Americans. Racial barriers in 2008 were demolished by a Midwestern black man, and gender barriers were hurdled by an Arkansan and an Alaskan.Democracy has a few awesome new dance moves rolling into the Obama presidency, and it'll be a feast for

  December 31, 2008

• Turning the Screw: Dustin Prestige, Kid Cudi, King Tut, Rick Ross/50 Cent, Ludacris, Lil' Kim, T.I./Chris Brown, Fat Pat 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: "Dope," Dustin Prestige Wire To Wire Kid Cudi was tasered at an NBA All-Star Game party in Phoenix for wearing Jordans. One day after being released from jail on bail, Dipset BFF King Tut was charged with stabbing a woman. (No word on whether or not she was wearing Jordans.) He was origina

  February 16, 2009

• Turning the Screw: OG Ron C, Bun B, "5000" Watts, DMX, The Kanye, Rihanna/Chris Brown, Big HAWK 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: "Killa Joe," Michele Thibeaux Wire To Wire Houston's OG Ron C, head honcho of the GO DJ Coalition, was allegedly assaulted and tased by security at TOC Bar this past Thursday night. Chris Brown doesn't see what the big deal is. Bun B is talking about the final UGK album again, so we're liste

  March 2, 2009

• Turning the Screw: G.R.I.T Boys, Coolio, Nas, Eminem, Tupac, Lil' Kim, Chris Brown, R. Kelly, Snoop Dogg, Scarface 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 "I'm Fresh," G.R.I.T. Boys ft. Trae and Tum Tum Wire to Wire Brooklyn's Uncle Murda was convicted of ID fraud. Said the airport employee who figured out the ID Murda presented was not his own, "I don't know why he did that. I mean, I've never even heard of the guy.His own ID would've been a good en

  March 9, 2009

• 9 Questions With Stephen Lynch a.k.a. Yusuf Mohammed

  Photo by Brian Friedman Rocks Off was recently able to conduct an e-mail interview with comedian / musician Stephen Lynch, who plays tomorrow night (Saturday, April 4) at the Verizon Wireless Theater. Rocks Off: We'll get the dry, technical question out of the way first: what comes first, the music or the lyrics? Do they arrive together? Stephen Lynch: It's different every time. Sometimes the music will come to me, and bounce around in my head for a year or two before I figure out the lyrics.

  April 3, 2009

• Boxing, Sex and Madness

  Mike Tyson's many personalities are on display in James Toback's new documentary.

  April 9, 2009

• T.I.

  March 12, 2009

• Young Mammals Chow Down on First LP Carrots

  Dynamically Yours

  February 26, 2009

• Beyoncé: I Am...Sasha Fierce

  December 11, 2008

• An Evening with Thee Armada, Houston's Next Big Thing

  Rock, Shock and Load

  July 24, 2008

• Kanye, Jay-Z, Mary J. and Rihanna Clamor for Diva Status

  May 1, 2008

• The-Dream

  Love Hate

  January 17, 2008

• 2007 Music Year in Review

  December 13, 2007

• Stuff you need to know to avoid musical ostracism

  Cred Sheet

  June 28, 2007

• Rihanna

  Her new CD is better than expected

  June 14, 2007

• Hip-hop as She Is Rapped

  Translating the German Wikipedia entries of Houston's top MCs

  June 22, 2006

• Turning the Screw: Dead End Alliance, Bun B, DMX, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Eminem, The Kanye, Beyonce 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: "Heart of a Hustler," Dead End Alliance feat. Lil Keke and Mike D Wire To WireHow bad-ass is Bun B that he can endorse a book called The Year of Magical Thinking and not get killed by snarky music blogs? Jesus must really, really love us: DMX to appear on VH-1's Celebrity Rehab. Then again, maybe n

  April 27, 2009

• Turning the Screw: Bun B, Trae & Lil Keke, Rihanna, Snoop, Eminem vs. Nick Cannon, Jay-Z, T.I., E-40, South Park Mexican 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: "Grey Cassette," Trae feat Bun B and Lil Keke Wire To Wire Ummm, we're not going to link to them, but should you be curious to see some pictures of Rihanna sans clothes, you presumably know how Google works. (And, wow.) All is not well in the house that Run built: Jo-Jo arrested. Snoop Dogg does not ha

  May 11, 2009

• Turning the Screw: Chamillionaire & Z-Ro, UGK, Slim Thug, Trae Day, Chris Brown, Meth & Red, Diddy, MCA, O.G. Style 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: Chamillionaire feat. Z-Ro, "Denzel Washington" Wire To Wire Slim Thugga cut off his braids. Not sure how we feel about that just yet. Check back with us next week. Been listening to UGK's Ridin' Dirty a lot lately. What Bun B does on "One Day," "Murder" and "Pinky Ring" might be the best three-song set

  July 28, 2009

• Turning the Screw: Killa Kyleon, Chamillionaire, Wendy Williams, 50 Best Rap Albums of the '00s, Drake, Weezy, Chris Brown, UGK, 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: Killa Kyleon, "Ego" (remix) P.S. Kyleon is one of Houston's best remixers. Remember his "A Milli" remix? Or his "Paper Planes" freestyle? Wire To Wire Chamillionaire held everyone's feet to the fire before he released Mixtape Messiah 7, the final installment of the series. Brisco Pistol got his shit

  August 10, 2009

• Five Spot: We Are Totally In the Tank for T-Pain

  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.​As indicated in that italicized synopsis above, this is usually an area where we find some news that we can funnel into an opportunity for us to talk about whichever Houston rapper we happen to be jamming at the time. However, we hit up the T-Pain show last night (full revie

  August 28, 2009

• Turning the Screw: New Trae and G.R.I.T. Boys, R.I.P. DJ AM, Kings of Leon Remixed, Jay Z vs. Rush Limbaugh, Uncut Pimp C, 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: Trae, "Letter to tha King" Wire To Wire The G.R.I.T. Boys finally put out some new music. Make sure you download it. It's free. You know, when we first heard "Forever," the Drake/Eminem/Weezy/Kanye collaboration, we were pretty underwhelmed. But the more we listen to it, the more we like it. Sorry, you

  August 31, 2009

• Turning the Screw: Chamillionaire, Kid Cudi & Jay-Z, Mike Epps, The Kanye, T.I., Chris Brown, DJ AM, Slim Thug, 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: Chamillionaire, "Good Morning" Wire To Wire Despite what you initially want to think about Cham's new single "Good Morning," it is very cool. We know people are going to try and hate on it like, "This sucks. Pimp C sampled 'Free Fallin'' like ten years ago." To which we'll reply, "Actually, it was thre

  September 8, 2009

• All Falls Down: Kanye West's Six - Well, Seven Now - Douchiest Moments

  ​If you're aware of Kanye West's - whom Pollstar is reporting stops at Toyota Center with Lady GaGa January 22; good luck selling tickets for that one now, kiddo - past behavior at all, then you're probably surprised this article isn't longer. His habit of blurting out inappropriate, nonsensical non sequiturs, his tendency to throw a tantrum at the tiniest provocation, his love of blogging in all caps - you'd normally expect this kind of behavior from a 12-year-old Xbox Live player in Ritalin

  September 14, 2009

• Life on Mars

  September 17, 2009

• Turning the Screw: ESG and Friends, Chamillionaire, Dustin Prestige, 50, Eminem, Jay-Z, Chris Brown, Jeezy, Rihanna, 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. Single of the Week: "Break Dem Boys Off," ESG feat. Slim Thug and Big Hawk Wire To Wire Chamillionaire continues to market himself as one of the smarter rappers in Houston, speaks on independent promotion within the music industry at Stanford. The Single of the Week reminded us of the same-named song from Dallas' B. Hardy

  November 9, 2009

• He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss): Chris Brown and Other Infamous Musical Woman-Beaters

  See the rest of Rihanna's 20/20 interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer here. Chris Brown brings his "Fan Appreciation Tour" to town this weekend, leading to several questions. Not the least of which are, "Who the hell is still a fan of this guy?" And, "Will his 'appreciation' of same take some form other than beating the shit out of them in a parked car?" Brown's assault on Rhianna and his subsequent mealy-mouthing about the incident paint an unkind portrait of the R&B singer, but where does

  November 11, 2009

• Is It Still Too Soon to Forgive Chris Brown?

  Chris Brown - Yo (Excuse Me Miss) (Official Music Video) - Click here for more blooper videos Sweet little Chris Brown. This is how we prefer to remember him. This video came out when he was, what, 16? He's so young here, so adorable, so polite! The way he calls that girl dressed entirely inappropriately for her age "miss." The way he explains to her the simple steps of dancing while performing his own fancy footwork and kind of stalking her down the sidewalk. His voice hadn't even finished cha

  November 13, 2009

• Aftermath: Ladies of All Ages, Shapes and Sizes Still Love Chris Brown

  Photos by Marco Torres​7:54 p.m.: The show is sold out, so we were hoping to have left for it already. However, there is a major crisis in our home right now: Boy B is certain he caught a glimpse of the Cucuy. (The Cucuy is the boogeyman for Mexicans and he is fucking terrifying.) To compound the situation, he has also convinced Boy A of this as well. There is a dark spot on one of the planks of our hardwood floor that Boy B noticed earlier today. He believes this serves as indisputable pr

  November 16, 2009

• Does Anyone Care About Super Tuesdays Anymore? Besides Us?

  ​Time was that Tuesdays used to be the best day of the week for your average recorded-music consumer. Since Rocks Off was just a wee music nerd, Tuesdays were his favorite days of the week because it was always the universal day for all new releases to hit the stores. It started with begging our parents drive us to Best Buy or Wal-Mart, and soon morphed into illicit school-ditching trips to Soundwaves on Montrose or the old Cactus Music off Shepherd. In these days of album downloads and illega

  November 17, 2009