Underground Hip-Hop

The Five Best Songs That Sample the Beatles

Pop and R&B superstar Frank Ocean has recently opened up to MTV News that he's been on a Beatles and Beach Boys binge when seeking inspiration for his upcoming second full-length record. While it's not exactly surprising to hear of a young artist gorging himself on Beatles classics for ideas, it is ... More >>

The Best of Coachella, Weekend One

Ed. Note: Rocks Off proudly presents to our readers coverage of Coachella's first weekend courtesy of our sister papers LA Weekly and OC Weekly. Karen O's Outfit Karen O's wardrobe on Friday night was bad-ass. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs front woman appeared on the main stage in a technicolor cape draped o ... More >>

HSPVA's Robert Glasper: Jazz's Newest Hip-Hop Star

If you're looking for homegrown musical success stories of 2012, you could do a lot worse than Robert Glasper. True, technically he lives in New York, where he became such an in-demand session player he called his 2009 album Double Booked, but now the Missouri City native and HSPVA grad is on the ve ... More >>

Friday Night: Aesop Rock at Fitzgerald's

Aesop Rock, Edison, Dark Time Sunshine Fitzgerald's August 10, 2012 It was a characteristically hot August night in the H on Friday, but I'd wager that no place was hotter than the upstairs room at Fitzgerald's. The club was crowded with sweating hip-hop heads anticipating hot rhymes, hot beats and ... More >>

Friday Night: El-P & Killer Mike at Warehouse Live

El-P, Killer Mike Warehouse Live June 22, 2012 A small but lively crowd packed into the studio at Warehouse Live on Friday night for performances by two polarly opposite yet complementary artists, who together have created two of the most adventurous and innovative rap productions to be released th ... More >>

Bun B, Murs Guest On Fat Tony's New Double Dragon LP

Double Dragon, rapper Fat Tony's sophomore album hits the streets on June 1, with help from Tecla, Bun B, Murs, and others. The disc will be released on the brand-new imprint Young One Records, based out of Brooklyn. The youthful Young One label is an off-shoot of Partisan Records, home to Deer Ti ... More >>

The 2012 Houston Press Underground Rap Awards: Vol. 1

So, 2012 is 33 percent of the way done. And (thankfully) the antiheroes of Houston's Underground Rap World have been just as busy trying to make music being made in the rest of the country entirely obsolete as they were in 2011. Seems fitting then: Let's run through the first installment of the Ho ... More >>

Rap Round Table: The Best Female Rapper Of All Time Is...

Some rappers happen to be thoughtful, intelligent people. Each week, Rocks Off will have some of them here discussing issues relevant to their culture. This Week's Panel: Zavey, hasHBrown, Scooby, Medicine Girl, Nicki Minaj, Renzo, Rob Gullatte, more. Not Invited: Hologram Tupac This Week's Promp ... More >>

Hail Doughbeezius: The Southeast Beast Preps For His Magicianship With "Grind"

"I am not one of these rappers that be rappin' just for shine, for these skeezers on these pics on inDmix. Bottom line: I gotta grind." --Doughbeezy Twelve months is all it took. At the beginning of last year, Doughbeezy, a 5'7" high bald fade with a rapper underneath, was an unknown. UNKNOWN. S ... More >>

Y'all Musta Forgot: CQ and t.h.e. MisFit Crazy-8's The Sunday Soapbox

​Houston's history is dotted with albums that, fairly or not, have been swept aside. We'll examine them here. Have an album that you think nobody knows about but should? Email sheaserrano@gmail.com. (Self-released, 2011) CQ & t.h.e. MisFit Crazy-8 Note: Heretofore, whenever t.h.e. MisFit Cra ... More >>

Murs

SXSW Last Night: LL Cool J Knocks Out Red Bull Thre3style

Marco Torres​The largest party of this year's SXSW included eight world-renowned DJ's, one legendary hip-hop group, a rap pioneer, and more than 10,000 screaming fans who took over a entire city block of Austin's Warehouse District Saturday night. Fueled by Red Bull and love of the turntable ... More >>

Top 10 Mentally Unstable Rap Songs

thesource.com​As you may have already heard, Gucci Mane was recently admitted into a mental-health facility on a "special plea of mental incompetency" in order to delay his probation revocation trial. He has since been released, and got an ice-cream-cone face tattoo in time for his trial this ... More >>

Homecoming

Gang Starr's DJ Premier still mourns partner Guru.

Fitzgerald's Reopening Weekend

The Top Five Hidden Rap Tracks

​Life bursts at the seams with mysteries we'll never fully understand, like the Texans' decision to pass on Vince Young, Kesha's entire existence and the strange concept of hidden songs. Some of them are superior to the ones that make an album's final cut and track listing. Why hide a song th ... More >>

"What Up": Drake And Bun B Summon The Spirit Of Pimp C

​ If you woke up this morning wishing for a Pimp C/Drake collaboration, then consider this your lucky day. You should also go ahead and play the mega-lottery while you're at it. Why, yes, the paths of Chad Butler and Aubrey Graham have finally crossed on "What Up," the lead cut from Pimp's f ... More >>

The HPMA Results' Implications For Local Hip-Hop

Marco TorresFat Tony accepts his third consecutive Best Underground Hip-Hop award at Wednesday's HPMAs.​"Dubious." That was the text that we received when they announced the winner for the Best Latin Hip-Hop category Wednesday night at the Houston Press Music Awards, or as President Obama ha ... More >>

Up on His Hustle

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

Last Call For Art: Mack The Knife, French Film And Invisible Billboards

​Get ready for the closing curtain of Rice University's production of Threepenny Opera. The grand story by Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill is being touted as "a musical of murder, mayhem, and matrimony!" Meant to satirize traditional opera while creating an new kind of musical theater, Threepenny is ... More >>

Busdriver

Kashmere Reunion Stage Band

Got Live If You Want It

Our Spring/Summer concert preview, part deux

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 ... More >>

Fried Rice: In the Hot Seat with Tyler from Balaclavas

Fried Rice: In the Hot Seat with Ben from Basses Loaded, Tha Fucking Transmissions

Galactic

Local Motion

Tim Fite

Singer/songwriter jumps from rock to country to hip-hop

Pase Rock

Pase Rock performs at Rockbox, 10 p.m. Thursday, July 26, at Proletariat, 903 Richmond, 713-523-1199.

Live Shots: Red Bull Big Tune Beat Battle

Rotation: Popular Demand

Don't Fear the Reaper

The annual return of the Greil Marcus Rock Death Meter

Peanut Butter Wolf

Saturday, December 17, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 5601 Main, 713-639-7300.

DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid

Saturday, November 26, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1001 Bissonnet, 713-639-7300.

No Grae Area

Hip-hop's most ferocious female MC spits it like it is

Dangerdoom

The Mouse & The Mask

Catchin' Rayz

C-Rayz Walz digs the underground

God Save the Scene

Sassy Brits, hoochie mamas and a dude named Beans attempted to invigorate a stagnant year for hip-hop

Fresh Produce

With underground hip-hop or mass-appeal club records, RJD2 is a stickler for details

The Class of '03

Grab your gift certificates and trade in your white elephants -- here's what you really wanted for Christmas

Best New Magazine

Rap Illustrated

Best Hip-hop Radio Show

Vinyl Frontier

Hawk

Saturday, December 7

Cex

November 9

YZ, Special Ed, Bobbie Fine

Saturday, June 22

Anti-Pop Consortium

Wednesday, April 10

Big Moe

City of Syrup (Wreckshop)

For Me?!

Rotation