Rolando Rodriguez

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November 18, 2009
San Antonio Blogger Has Had Enough "Free South Park Mexican" Sentiment
Michael HogueA little over seven years ago, we wrote about the South Park Mexican trial. The rapper, born Carlos Coy, had it all: money, his own record label, a nightclub and, most importantly, the ear of a generation. He was the voice of a new type of person: the Southern and Southwestern Mexica ... More >>
Blogs
December 3, 2009
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 >>
Blogs
December 11, 2009
Don't Call it a Comeback. Call It a Cultural Moon Rising.
During the Washington, D.C. sniper hunt of 2002, you didn't want to be the person who owned a white van in that metropolitan area. That's because the alleged sniper, who randomly killed ten people and critically injured three, was supposedly driving one. Everyone was looking for that vehicle des ... More >>
Blogs
December 14, 2009
GT Garza: Doing Right by Tha Carter - But Not That Carter
In death comes life, so the saying goes. For 24-year-old Southwest Houston rapper GT Garza, the cliché emulates the birth of his career. Ask GT about who inspired him to first take the microphone and he won't spit out the usual suspects in Southern hip-hop. No, he'll talk about a young man named L ... More >>
Blogs
December 16, 2009
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 >>
Blogs
December 21, 2009
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 >>
Blogs
December 28, 2009
Behind the Lyrics: Although Rap Doesn't Pay His Bills, the Northside's Stunta "Keeps It 100"
STUNTA "I'm 100" Music Video from G Films on Vimeo. The last time Rocks Off hooked up with Stunta, there was lots of talk about "keeping it 100." "When I say I'm bein' 100 I'm basically sayin' I'm being 100 percent authentic, 100 percent true to myself and to anybody else," he says. "So to say 'Kee ... More >>
Blogs
December 30, 2009
Coast: Not a Beach, Not a Rapper... Just Damn Good Music
COAST "I CAN'T COMPLAIN" MUSIC VIDEO from G Films on Vimeo Our mother once told us that whenever she went to the coast during life's crossroads, she felt closer to God. That's because people often take their problems to the coast, because whether they are conscious of it or not, they feel they are a ... More >>
Blogs
January 1, 2010
We've Got Flatline. Clear! Houston Can Jump-Start the Heart of a Music Career
Flatline feat. Trae, "Fuckin With Texas" @ Yahoo! Video Back in 2007, we came across a hip-hop video on YouTube that featured Trae, so naturally, we eagerly clicked on it. The track starts off with a sick Bun B sample. "You fuckin with Texas, you fuckin' with the best/ I ain't hard to find/ I'm in T ... More >>
Blogs
January 4, 2010
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 >>
Blogs
January 11, 2010
Carolyn Rodriguez: From Selling Crack to Prescribing "Medicine" for the Soul
One of the first things Carolyn Rodriguez, the Houston-based female singer and rap artist by way of Arkansas, by way of North Carolina, said to us is that she doesn't like bios. "When you make a bio you have to keep it politically correct," she tells Rocks Off. "You can't tell the real story." She' ... More >>
Blogs
January 13, 2010
Cesar Lozano, Illegal Alien, Is Now Big Cease, American Dream Come True
The video that usually crowns our Latino hip-hop blog is going to come at the end of our story today, because without explaining how the American Dream has evolved, the music video won't be given the meaning it deserves. First, you need to know that the American Dream takes on many forms. The Am ... More >>
Blogs
January 14, 2010
Answer an Urgent Appeal to Heal Haiti by Getting Some "Swagger"
[Ed. Note: Please email any news of further music-related relief efforts to chris.gray@houstonpress.com.] Bobby Moon & Lil Flip - Swagger from AK Kurji on Vimeo. If you're looking for a way to contribute to the Haitian relief efforts, Houston-based international pop artist Bobby Moon is going to ... More >>
Blogs
January 15, 2010
Filero Isn't Scared To Tell the Un-fairy Tale. First of a Two-Part Series.
Filero holds the Pioneer trophy he won at the 2009 Texas Latino Rap Awards.This could be our most controversial Latino rap blog yet, or the first of many. We really don't know yet. We can tell you what we do know. We're 16 stories in and just starting to scratch the surface of the dynamics of Hou ... More >>
Blogs
January 18, 2010
Filero Battles with the Past, Takes Control of His Future. Second In a Two-Part Series.
[Ed. Note. See Part 1 of Rocks Off's encounter with Filero here.] A hint of things to come? Filero (left) and SPM square off at checkers back in the day. When we talked to Filero about how much the rap game has changed since he saw the first Texas Latino rap album, actually a cassette, in the Gul ... More >>
Blogs
January 20, 2010
"Weird" and Proud, Preemo Understands the Meaning of "Hustle Town"
We think "Weird Al" Yankovic screwed it up for everybody. There aren't lots of times you can use the word "weird" in a good way. That's one of those words we need to take back, on the real, because when you put "weird" into the right context it can be a positive thing - a differentiator from th ... More >>
Blogs
January 22, 2010
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 >>
Blogs
January 25, 2010
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 >>
Blogs
January 27, 2010
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 >>
Blogs
February 1, 2010
Coast and Stunta Wreck the Mike at Jet, After Zilla Gets Us Drunk At Toc and We Stupidly Stand Up Carolyn Rodriguez
Screw Washington Avenue clubs and their selective admittance. We'd rather hit up downtown and get felt up for guns or knives and listen to some hard-core hip-hop. 11:15 p.m., Saturday: We met up with V-Zilla at Toc-Bar because his studio, or as he puts it, "the dungeon," is nestled underneath the c ... More >>
Blogs
February 3, 2010
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 >>
Blogs
February 10, 2010
Behind the Lyrics: From B-Boy to D-Boy, Mayalino Makes Believers Of Those Who Find His Music
Mayalino - "True Story" from FULL FLEDGE ENTERTAINMENT on Vimeo. We don't know how many times Michael "5000" Watts has hosted a mixtape and didn't chop and screw it down. We can't imagine it's been many. We don't know how many times extremely respected producer Happy Perez has heard an artist on My ... More >>
Blogs
February 12, 2010
The Hot Seat: Lee-Coc, Richmond Revolutionary
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 most-inner thoughts and desires. In reality, it's just a fucking cool Q&a ... More >>
Blogs
February 15, 2010
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 AztekMan, 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 >>
Blogs
February 19, 2010
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 >>
Blogs
March 1, 2010
Monday Mix Bag: A Mic Pass In Atlanta, New Felony Video And Some Wal-Mart Confessions
Back in the day when we were teenagers in the hood, there was this guy with a really great personality who would come to our door once a month with brand new store merchandise. We're talking about anything from bicycles to VCRs (we said it was back in the day) to woman's costume jewelry. They were ... More >>
Blogs
March 12, 2010
The Hot Seat: Pro-Choice, Pro-Flirting, Carolyn Rodriguez Is As Real As It Gets
This past Monday was International Women's Day, and this week commemorates women and the issues that impact their lives. So it was probably important to get a woman in The Hot Seat. The first lady of Latino hip-hop, Carolyn Rodriguez, seemed like the perfect fit. Last time we saw Carolyn was at a ... More >>
Blogs
March 15, 2010
BRWN BFLO Is Ballsy; Preemo's Concrete Dreams Passes the Time
"Illegal aliens come from all over the world, not just from the hole in the fence in San Diego." - George Lopez, "Corazon," on BRWN BFLO's self-titled album. Rocks Off gets lots of thank-you notes from readers showing their appreciation for giving Latino hip-hop a voice, though we find it odd. W ... More >>
Blogs
March 17, 2010
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 >>
Blogs
March 23, 2010
Mayalino's "We Alive Now" Video and Big Dan's "Lentes" Video... Trailer
Mayalino, your favorite JBlock Street Gang member of Southeast's Magnolia, just released a high-quality video, "We Alive Now," from his Fuck These Wet Wacks album, dropping the third week of April. "The song is really real to the Mayalino contrast, rebelling against hip-hop rules, rebelling agai ... More >>
Blogs
March 26, 2010
H-Town's Underground Hip-Hop Scene Rises with Fetti's Commitment To Catching Every Moment On Camera
So when a man beats you to your own video shoot, there's a problem. That's how we really took notice of 34-year-old Mikell Limbrick, the Trinity Gardens representer known to the streets as Fetti. When we filmed the Houston Press Mic Pass (now in its final stage of editing), which he got no invita ... More >>
Blogs
March 29, 2010
Chingo Bling's They Can't Deport Us All Makes Good Census; Still Missing Selena
Our weekend was full of political conversations with folks who we never have political conversations with; let us tell you, we couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised. We decided we were going to try and convince everyone we knew back home to fill out the census. Three different conversatio ... More >>
Blogs
April 7, 2010
The Hot Seat: Athena Anesti, Houston Entrepreneuress And Five-Star Chick
Writing on hip-hop, we see lots of hip-hop videos, so we see lots of video girls igniting our manly senses, but few make us want to know more about them. They're hot. They serve their purpose. Game over. But Houston's Athena Anesti took our damn breath away. When we recognized her on our MySpace ... More >>
Blogs
April 19, 2010
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 >>
Blogs
April 21, 2010
A Playlist For Our Wetbacks in Arizona And For All Who Pray For Them
"It may well be that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition is not the glaring noisiness of the so-called bad people, but the appalling silence of the so-called good people."- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.There's something so powerful about music. It gets us through life's bu ... More >>
Blogs
April 23, 2010
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 >>
Blogs
April 26, 2010
Tejano Ain't Dead; Chingo Bling Puts On His "Lentes"; Flatline Rides For His Block; And The 210 Mic Pass
How can something be claimed dead when it still has life, when it's still living in speakers, iPods, as well as the hearts and souls of red-blooded American music lovers across the country? When it's still being passed on to younger generations? In the track "Pimpin' Ain't No Illusion," Pimp ... More >>
Blogs
April 28, 2010
Porn-Loving SEC Employees Deserve A Helping Hand
When we heard news that Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) employees were watching porn while our country's economy was crashing, it didn't surprise us ... at all. Yeah we know, the SEC was formed to police Wall Street, and while the culprits were getting away like bank robbers, 33 SEC emp ... More >>
Blogs
April 28, 2010
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 >>
Blogs
May 3, 2010
The Worst Rap Battle Ever, And Best-Kept Hip-Hop Secret In Town
There's lots of talk about Cypress Hill coming to Houston next Tuesday. But to get that legendary Latin hip-hop/funk sound on a regular basis, you might not have to go farther than La Porte. That's where you'll find a group called Hafaza, made up of mike-wreckers Frank, Omar, Luno, Gonz and Bar Jes ... More >>
Blogs
May 5, 2010
Cinco De Mayo Tips and a Playlist For Gringos
All right, our non-native Mexican brothers. If you're going out tonight to have some Coronas, hit on drunk Latinas and take silly pictures while wearing a sombrero, at least try not to look like a total jerk. Rocks Off is going to help you, but we need to start by schooling you on the basics. ... More >>
Blogs
May 6, 2010
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 >>
Blogs
May 11, 2010
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 >>
Blogs
May 14, 2010
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 >>
Blogs
May 18, 2010
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 HPFFThe 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 >>
Blogs
May 21, 2010
"It's About Damn Time" You Heard Gotty
In Monday's mix bag we plugged a video, "It's About Damn Time" by under-the-radar - maybe not for long - 24 year-old hip-hop artist Gotty. You know, when we first took a listen, we were really digging it, but we took it for what it was - probably a track being played all over 97.9. We assumed this ... More >>
Blogs
June 3, 2010
Stefani Vara's Operation Musical Rewrite
Wednesday, just a few minutes shy of 4 p.m., Stefani Vara was driving from Corpus Christi back to her home in Houston after a quick day trip. It had been a while since she heard Tejano music. It's what she grew up with and she realized she missed it. She realized it was part of her roots...part ... More >>
News
June 10, 2010
Mayalino's Message
Readers respond to "Deporting All WetWacks."
Blogs
June 16, 2010
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 >>
Blogs
June 23, 2010
V-Zilla, Shunned By HPMAs, Has A Lot To "Talk About"
The monster's been quiet. We haven't heard from V-Zilla in a good while, but the other day when the HPMA ballots hit the streets, we got an interesting text message. It was from Zilla. "There should be a "Best Lyricist category." Yeah, we won't argue. And if someone were to say that V-Zilla ... More >>
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