The Game (Rapper)

NBA All Star Weekend: 5 Observations And A Plea For More Barkley

In the spirit of full disclosure, I feel like I should tell you that I chose not to stick around Houston for the NBA All Star Game and it's peripheral festivities (up to and including the transformation of the Galleria into some kind of three-story clown car on Saturday) this past weekend. As a br ... More >>

Friday Night: Whitechapel and Emmure at Fitzgerald's

Whitechapel, Emmure Fitzgerald's January 11, 2013 While Houston's past three generations of metalheads gathered at Warehouse Live for sludge supergroup Down's biennial stop through town, the youngest generation --throngs of deathcore fans -- packed Fitzgerald's to the rafters to see three of the bi ... More >>

Chad (Ochocinco) Johnson Has A Sex Tape? Of Course He Does

Chad Johnson has always been one of the biggest attention whores, not just in sports, but really, well, anywhere. When he's not legally changing his last name to "Ochocinco," he's taking a stab at professional soccer for no real reason. When he's not trying to be a professional bull rider, he's film ... More >>

College Football: Bear Bryant Award Finalists Revealed (Aggies Will Be Happy)

If you're a prominent, successful college football player or coach, it is usually necessary to block out the second week of December. This is when most of the college football awards are handed out, the week after the regular season ends. For many, it's an exhausting, circuitous journey across the n ... More >>

The 12 Days Of Christmas, Houston Texans Style on 12/12/12

Well, Monday night wasn't very much fun. Patriots 42, Texans 14. As bad as it must have been for all of you who had to watch the Texans lay an egg on the big stage from the comfort of your living rooms, I had to go through the pain of the live Chowd audience, complete with all of their Marty's and ... More >>

Ranking The 2012 Heisman Finalists According To Music Videos

Last week in this space, I speculated that the Vegas big board for the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner released back in June, 23 candidates in all, would actually turn out to contain no eventual 2012 finalists. If you go back and look at the list, it didn't take Kirk Herbstreit to figure that out. On M ... More >>

Hearing Garth Brooks' No Fences for the Very First Time

Twenty-two years ago this week, Garth Brooks' second album, No Fences entered the charts and made itself comfortable. It was a titanic, monumental record for country music, eventually going platinum 17 times over on its way to becoming a global smash. No Fences is often credited with ushering in a ... More >>

Zapruder-Style Breakdown Of The Worst National Anthem Performance Ever

My general rule of thumb when it comes to snark or out and out ridicule is that kids are off limits. I have three kids of my own, and they're not perfect. I get it. However, there are rare exceptions, and on those occasions what you'll usually find is that any derision of young people doing offensiv ... 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 >>

5 Things Texans Safety Troy Nolan Could Be Doing in This Picture OTHER Than Urinating

This just in -- sometimes men pee in places other than the bathroom. Sometimes it's out of choice, sometimes it's out of necessity, sometimes it's out of spite. Or it can be a combination of all three. (My co-host on 1560 The Game and noted LSU fan John Granato famously tells a story about a crowd ... More >>

In Honor of Hulk Hogan, 5 WWE-Storyline Sex Tapes (w/ VIDEO)

I'm sure many of you have heard of (and some of you, admit it, have probably participated in) a death pool, where you and, say, four of your friends each get to pick ten people and you accumulate points depending on how many of those people die that year. (For the record, the formula for points scor ... More >>

Chase Budinger's Painfully Awkward Dialogue with P-Diddy at the NBA Slam Dunk Contest (w/ VIDEO)

The logical evolution of most things brings about positive change. This is especially true in the world of sports and entertainment. Think about anything in either of those realms which you consume, and ask yourself, "Is this experience better now than it was 25 years ago?" For almost everything, be ... More >>

A Drunken Wade Boggs Channels Garth Brooks (w/ VIDEO)

We interrupt your Texans-versus-Ravens coverage for some drunken quasi-karaoke video! Let's face it, there's only so many different angles you can take with analysis of a football game over the course of seven days. I'm a little Texan-ed out at this point, and besides, I won't have anything more in ... More >>

Merry Christmas! This Weekend's Football Best Bets

Santa's offering up some money-line action​Before I get into this weekend's best bets, a couple paragraphs on the Texans' 19-16 loss to the Colts last night: Was that officiating crew terrible last night? Yes. But good lord, I've never seen a bigger bunch of whiny babies than Texan fans last ... More >>

Last Night: Sting At Verizon Wireless Theater

Sting Verizon Wireless Theater November 17, 2011 Photos by Jason Wolter​Sting gets a lot of shit that Rocks Off has frankly never really understood. Is it the myriad social causes? The way he expected you to know who Chaucer was? The tantric sex thing? We're not going to sit here and defend a ... More >>

"Drank In My Cup" Producers Sound M.O.B.'s Top 5 Beats

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 introducingliston@gmail.com ... More >>

University of Minnesota Horrible Promo Video Allows Me To Dust Off A Few Others (w/ VIDEO)

YouTube. If you're a blogger or a talk show host (or someone like myself who is attempting to be both), it is the gift that keeps on giving. If you're trying to be a productive member of society or a contributor at your place of work, it's the silent killer, especially "Related Videos." If you ge ... More >>

Five Reasons To Watch The Texans Tonight

It's another big night for you, Matt Leinart​I don't know that there was ever any point during the NFL lockout where I was fearful that we wouldn't have football this season. Still, the specter of the work stoppage that loomed over us throughout thus summer made us at least ponder life without ... More >>

What Hip-Hop's Cash Kings Should Buy With All That Loot

​Forbes has unveiled its annual list of hip-hop cash kings. The Top 20 includes 21 big shottas - who said math was a requirement to work at Forbes? - with whom we'd gladly trade bank accounts. Pop the hood to see Rocks Off's breakdown of the Top 10 earners and what they should buy with all th ... More >>

Joey Chestnut's Stomach Is an American Hero

Joey Chestnut: Proud to be an American, where at least he knows he's free.​It's funny, about 25 years ago, right in the middle of my teenage years, I remember being figuratively beat over the head with constant reminders of "world hunger." If it wasn't the Band Aid video from a bunch of Euro a ... More >>

Dear Penis: 20 Songs About The Tube Snake Boogie

prince.orgGuess who turns 53 today?​Good Lord, what would we do if not for Weinergate? It's hot as hell outside, the Astros are terrible and Rick Perry might run for president next year. But as long as there are congressmen tweeting pictures of their junk to women they barely know, Rocks Off h ... More >>

ESPN Headlines -- Sex, Lies, And Shrunken Testicles

It's a bad news day when you're hoping for stories on barry Bonds' shrunken balls​"I see trees of green ... red roses too I see em bloom ... for me and you And I think to myself ... what a wonderful world." -- Louis Armstrong Clearly, Louis Armstrong would have never made it as a sports fan ... More >>

Five Terrible Rap Acts Who Will Never Crack the "Diddy List"

The Super Broker Shuffle: Your eyes and ears will never forgive you​I'm a sucker for lists, I've said that before. If it makes me a less cerebral person, so be it. I'm not apologizing. For a "list addict" like myself, Forbes magazine is like a big plate of list cocaine. They'll come up with a ... More >>

Super Bowl XLV -- At Least It Was A Good Game

This means sonething different when Ben Roethlisberger does it​Okay, so now we can put the whole Brett Favre/Aaron Rodgers thing to bed, right? While Aaron Rodgers still has a ton of work to do to build the overall resume of the Ol' Dongslinger, yesterday's win over the Steelers, and just as ... More >>

Remember Dante Higgins' School Boy Music?

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. ​Dante Higgins School Boy Music (Self-released, 2010) Dante Higgins is a baby-faced college kid ... More >>

Time Waster Tuesday -- NBA Superstars Videos (via YouTube)

"'Remember when' is the lowest form of conversation." -- Tony Soprano Tony was right, you never want to be "remember when" guy, and I try my best not to be. But the fact of the matter is, for many of us, what happened between the ages of 16 and 28 constitute the "good times." High school, maybe ... 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 >>

NFL, College Football and Brett Favre's Wiener -- 5 Winners, 5 Losers

Brett Favre can't get out of the headlines​I hope everybody had a lovely Texans bye weekend (insert lame joke about "Texans giving up fewer than 300 yards passing to BYE" here), and that you're refreshed, rejuvenated and ready for the back half of the football season. I'm on vacation this week vis ... More >>

Texas Longhorns: The Most Laughable Report Card Ever

Longhorns: Grading on the curve​There's an episode of The Sorpanos in Season 5 entitled (ironically so) "All Happy Families." Sopranos fans will remember the fifth season as the one where Tony and Carmela spent a majority of the season separated, so in turn, they also fought a lot. In "All Happy ... More >>

Game Time: Whaler Fan Fest -- Houston Oiler Fans May Know How I Feel

Hartford Whalers: They live on as a dessert​"Somewhere along the line, we will see you in another place in another time. God bless all of you fans. Remember one thing, you may have lost the NHL, but you have not lost the memories." -- Chuck Kaiton, the voice of the Hartford Whalers after the Whal ... More >>

Game Time: LeBron is Making Me A Texas Longhorn Fan

Kevin Durant -- the anti-LeBron​It's July, it's the All-Star break, the Astros have reached the "what P.R. grab can we make?" part of the season about six weeks earlier than usual, and if I may say, hiring Jeff Bagwell as hitting coach should have far-reaching ramifications on the ball club that w ... More >>

Game Time: LeBron James -- Seven Scenarios For Thursday Night

@dramaqueen​"Hello World, the Real King James is in the Building 'Finally'. My Brother @oneandonlycp3 gas'd me up to jump on board so I'm here. Haaaa" -- LeBron James (oh sorry...@KingJames on Twitter, and what is sadly his most interesting tweet thus far)I've always thought that when Twitte ... More >>

Game Time: JaMarcus Russell -- The Raiders' "Purple Drank"

Svelte, he ain't.​His Wikipedia profile merely describes JaMarcus Russell as follows: JaMarcus Russell is an American football quarterback who is currently a free agent. Right about now, the only items that are true in that statement are Russell's first and last names, because as of Monday morn ... More >>

Game Time: FREE BEER!...Now That I Have Your Attention, Behold My TEXANS HOME RUN DERBY Dream Team

The thrill of Celebrity Home Run Derby​Save the date!Free beer will be served at Nick's Place on Friday, May 28. Well, to be clear, since there are probably legalities involved in a bar literally giving away beer, someone will be paying for the beer -- and that someone is my co-host John Harris. ... More >>

Before the Flood

West Texan Ned Sublette reflects on pre-Katrina New Orleans in a new memoir.

SugarHill In The '90s: Jazz, Jazz, Jazz... And A Little Group Called Destiny's Child

Ed Note: All this week, to celebrate the release of Dr. Roger Wood and Andy Bradley's new book House of Hits: The Story of Houston's Gold Star/SugarHill Recording Studios and preview this weekend's related festivities at Sig's Lagoon and the Continental Club, Rocks Off and Lonesome Onry and Mean are ... More >>

Ultimate Victory

Fences with Paul Wall mended, upcoming tour planned, Chamillionaire is comfortable being the rapper next door.

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 >>

Game Time: The 24 Trim Report Card And "I Know That Dude!" Scoreboard

​I was actually going to do my Rockets midseason report card today. I really was. But I got home last night, and despite telling myself that I would hold off on watching the next two hours of the new season of 24 until after I got my "sports related" work done, I just couldn't do it.As outlandish, ... More >>

Game Time: Five Biggest College Football Title Game Implosions

It's almost here. After wading through the sludge of bowl season, with just one more "go get me some popcorn" match left tonight between Troy and Central Michigan (Admit it, ninety percent of you reading this have no idea what state "Troy" is in), finally tomorrow Alabama and Texas will meet for a ... More >>

Game Time: Try As You Might, No One Can Take Down Tiger Woods

​I start this post with the premise that we all love attention. We crave it. Even if you don't openly admit it, there's a small part of you that likes it when you're recognized for, as J. Peterman would say, a "job....done."It's not often in the sports world that one person can usurp everyone's ... More >>

Turning the Screw: Hollywood F.L.O.S.S., LL Cool J, The Kanye West, Lil' Wayne, Russell Crowe (!?), MF Doom, Beyonce and More

Turning the Screw: Nosaprise, (More) Trae vs. Mike Jones, Slim Thug & Devin the Dude, Jin, The Game, Kanye, GZA and More

Little Brother

Little Brother performs Friday, June 29, at Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel, 713-225-5483. Orgone and DJ Haul also perform.

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Home Alone Again

Panic Room is a great movie -- if you've never seen one

Playbill

Lucky Boys Confusion

Pop Moment