Usher (Entertainer)

The Best Hip-Hop at SXSW 2013

I remember going to SXSW a few years ago without a place to sleep, less than $100 to spend, no agenda, badge, wristband, or RSVP. I bar-hopped up and down Red River, made friends, snuck into Stubb's, ate cheese pizza and drank Lone Star. After years of busting my ass as a music photographer and wri ... More >>

What Are the Seven Best Songs to Come Out in 2012?

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? E-mail sheaserrano@gmail.com. ... More >>

Last Night: Pitbull at The Woodlands

Pitbull Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion August 2, 2012 "I went from eviction and food stamps, to baggin work wet & damp, to a passport flooded with stamps. Now its Voli everywhere I land." -- Pitbull The date was December 1, 2006 -- or as I like to call it, the night I almost died at a Pitbull c ... More >>

Senze: Local R&B Loverman Lays It On Smooth

Each week, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? E-mail their particulars to sheaserrano@gmail.com. You know what you can never have en ... More >>

Getting Thumped

The bass line is everything in dubstep, whose core moves like robo-elephants, stomping and booming along.

Last Night: Of Montreal At Fitzgerald's

Of Montreal, Cults, Roman GianArthur, Kishi Bashi Fitzgerald's March 11, 2012 This was a sold-out show where all of the acts really put on a, well, show. Although the theatrics Of Montreal provided at previous shows was toned down, they still delivered a spectacle. In fact, all of the billed acts ... More >>

Top 10 Possible Future RodeoHouston Performers

The hardest thing about making a list of possible future RodeoHouston performers is making sure to color inside the lines, which means the things that I want probably wouldn't work. Sure, the Black Keys on opening night and the Rolling Stones doing an-all country set to close out the season would be ... More >>

A Roundup of the 2011 Music Industry Based Strictly on Band Names

XL/Columbia​Theologians love saying things like "Man is created superior to animals" and "Animals can't be equal with humans." And then we go scouring philosophy books to see if animals have immortal spirits and if this means we'll someday meet our pets in heaven. That's a bunch of horse dung. ... More >>

DJ EQUE: "Bad Azz Red Gurl" Etches Her Name In Wax

Photo by Marco TorresDJ EQUE at the launch party for Pharrell's Qreme liqueur, Las Vilas, September 23, 2011​DJ EQUE has been making her mark in the industry for more than 10 years, but it was never something that came easy for her. The Houston-bred beauty had a lot to prove before she was tak ... More >>

Leave It To Bieber: The Lost Pilot Episode

​Fade in on a darkened Bieber household living room. The porch light snaps on outside, and the door opens slowly and silently. JUSTIN BIEBER sneaks into the house in filthy clothes, carrying a baseball bat and glove. He silently shuts the door and starts walking, tracking mud inside the house. ... More >>

Justin Bieber Movie Reveals Pop Star Shaves, Has Hot Mom

"OMG you can reach and touch his face" ​Thursday night, Rocks Off went to the first midnight screening of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, in 3D no less. Yes we had a chaperone, but the late hour and the theater's location wasn't conducive to masses of screaming girls. The location we saw it ... More >>

Black Eyed Pleeease!: Fergie & The Gang At The Super Bowl Halftime Show

Earlier this week we chronicled for you our favorite Super Bowl halftime shows, from Petty and the Who, to the Boss and the Stones. Tonight we will be live-blogging all the musical attractions from Super Bowl XLV from Dallas, er, Arlington. ​ Lined up in the next few minutes we will see Christina ... More >>

2011 May Be The Year Of Twenty Eleven

​Rocks Off rarely handles the rap portion of Houston's musical wares. There's not a lot of eyeliner in it, and we prefer silver to gold jewelry. However, since Space City Records won Best Local Label last year, we've maintained a pretty steady connection with the label's head and all-around a ... More >>

20 Musician Biopics Currently In Development Hell

Happy birthday, Janis.​News came down last week that Sacha Baron Cohen will be stepping into the rhinestones and glitter as Queen icon Freddie Mercury. It's been a long time coming for Cohen, the Borat and Bruno star who is slowly becoming his generation's Peter Sellers and has been rumored to ... More >>

New Dynamo Stadium May Not Change Concert Climate Much

Marco TorresLady Gaga at Toyota Center, July 25​Conceivably, today's announcement that the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority has agreed to act as landlord for the proposed Houston Dynamo stadium in downtown's East End could present a serious challenge to the Houston area's reigning concer ... More >>

What Rocks Off Found When We Hacked Tiger Woods' iPod

Since Rocks Off kindly suggested several musicians who would perhaps have made better trysting partners for Tiger Woods than waitresses, porn stars and what have you, the number of the maritally embattled golf superstar's alleged paramours has risen from nine to 11. Whoops, it's gone up from 11 to ... More >>

Graveside Songs for Edgar Allan Poe's Long-Overdue Funeral

​Kicking the bucket at the age of 40 is bad enough, especially when, to this day, nobody's really sure how you died (everything from syphillis to rabies to political "cooping" has been thrown out there as a possible cause). But getting buried in an unmarked grave after a three minute "service" is ... More >>

Glee, Episode Six: Shark vs. Bear

​After a filler ep last week that played out the string on the musical subplot, Glee was back on point last night in a big way. Co-creator Ryan Murphy was once again the credited writer this week's "Vitamin D," a fun episode that moved the season forward and had all kinds of conflict. Plus the ... More >>

Rap Vixen And Houston Radio Host Tangle To The Death

 Quick, who's Karinne Steffans?You're supposed to know that. At least, according to her you are.Steffans, massive internet research reveals, is a former model and moneymaker-shaker in videos who wrote a tell-all book about her high-flying life called Confessions of a Video Vixen. (Among the peo ... More >>

Crash Into Me: Predicting the Economy's Impact on the Music Biz

GWAR more important than you might expect.

New Year's Resolutions from a Few Big Musical Names

Fine in '09

Busted Rhymes: The Top Ten Most Preposterous Rap Songs of 2008

Hip-hop A-listers including Rick Ross, Akon and Plies were caught grossly exaggerating their gangster credentials this year. (Turns out they were painfully law-abiding. The horror!) But even if your favorite rapper wasn't caught in a lie, you can bet he or she put out a hilariously absurd record or ... More >>

The Kids are Alright: Seventh Graders Review Usher and Coldplay

Top 10 Most Hated Rappers

Who made the shit list

The Essence of Gordon Chambers

From journalist to songwriter to singer

Sovereign Ruler

Is the U.S. Ready for the S-O-V?

Bunnyface Killahs

A veteran Liverpudlian rock band and a kung-fu-obsessed Staten Island MC have more in common than you think

Whitney's Dookie Bubble

Being Bobby Brown is not all fun and games

On the Down-Low

Shovel away all that Usher, Prince and Lil Jon you've been jamming, and dig this year's buried black-music treasures

On the Down-Low

Shovel away all that Usher, Prince and Lil Jon you've been jamming and dig this year's buried black-music treasures

Anarchy in da USA

Looking for the true spirit of the Ramones? Try going to an underground hip-hop show.

Playbill

Shit Hole

Teen Scheme

A weird wager doesn't make She's All That a good bet

1998 Houston Press Music Awards Winners

Played Out

The secrets of radio success Repetition. Caution. Repetition. Caution. Repetition.

Rotation

Press Picks

Press Picks