Yelawolf

Grading XXL's Past 5 "Freshman 10" Classes

Apparently there are still rappers who want to make the XXL Freshman 10 class this year. Take Riff Raff, for example. He wants it so badly that he has been following everyone on Twitter who votes for him in the contest. The magazine began running its annual list of noteworthy, "undiscovered" rappe ... More >>

Will Long.Live.A$AP Be the Biggest Houston Rap Album of 2013?

There are a few things you should know about A$AP Rocky. He's a pretty motherfucker. His new album, Long.Live.A$AP, is at the top of the charts. And it might turn out to be the biggest Houston rap album of the year. Except that it's not really a Houston rap record at all, of course. A$AP Rocky is ... More >>

The Rest of the Best: Houston's Top 5 Hip-Hop Venues

5. Grooves of Houston Grooves is an apropos name for this Third Ward hot spot: It's groovy. Besides hip-hop and R&B, the club also also plays jazz, which probably accounts for the mixed bag of ages found here. One word of caution, though: Get there early, and dress to impress. Grooves' popularity me ... More >>

Yelawolf

Meet the 2012 HPMA Showcase Nominees: Doughbeezy

Rocks Off reached out to the artists playing this year's Houston Press Music Awards showcase Sunday, August 5, and asked them to introduce themselves. Here's what they sent back. Catch up with the other showcase nominees and see our the rest of our HPMA coverage Rocks Off: When and where was your ... More >>

Upcoming: Bunny Gang, Daniel Johnston, the Features, Mission of Burma, etc.

Amplified Heat, Slow Motion Rider: Sat., July 14, 10 p.m., $7. Rudyard's, 2010 Waugh, Houston. Antibalas: Wed., Oct. 10, 8 p.m., $15. Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel, Houston. "Asylum" With Ceeplus Bad Knives, Mr. Castillo: Sat., July 28, 9 p.m., Free. The Fairview, 315 Fairview, Houston. B ... More >>

The Best of SXSW Music: Thursday 3/15/2012

If you're familiar with chaos theory, which in its basic form is the attempt to find patterns in the random acts of shit on Earth, then you may understand the difficulty that comes with describing a full day at SXSW. To break down the bright, scintillating chaos, Village Voice Media's roving music e ... More >>

Rumor: Eminem To Perform At Tonight's Shady Records SXSW Party

Most of the world's biggest rappers - Jay-Z, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, T.I., 50 Cent - have performed in Austin within the past week, are about to perform, or are at least in the city partaking in the SXSW festivities. Rocks Off was leaving Stubb's late Thursday night and heard Snoop Dogg performing ... More >>

Fool's Gold Makers Dirty And Nasty Discuss... Fool's Gold

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 sheaserrano@gmail.com. Thi ... More >>

Alert: SXSW Coverage Ahead -- 50 Cent And Much More

"What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area." -- Tommy Lee Jones, The Fugitive You don't have to spend much time at South By Southwest to know that all of the above building ... More >>

Last Night: Kid Rock At Reliant Stadium

Kid Rock RodeoHouston, Reliant Stadium February 29, 2012 Kid Rock is now ensconced as this generation's rap-soul-blues-rock-pimp for the next 40 years: Equal parts Rock N Roll Jesus, Bob Seger, Bocephus, and maybe all in that order. Whether he's attacking a pair of turntables with a glass of Jim Be ... More >>

Last Night: Yelawolf At Warehouse Live

Yelawolf Warehouse Live February 16, 2012 My ears salute the kid who told Yelawolf he wasn't hip-hop. Must have been a high-school bully, one of those corny jocks with well defined biceps. We'll call him D'Angelo. D'Angelo probably teased Yelawolf, smacked him around in the bathroom, lol'd when he ... More >>

Yelawolf

Distant Early Warning: Delta Spirit, Cursive, George Clinton, Hot Chelle Rae, Orgy, Youth Lagoon

American Sharks: Sat., Feb. 25. Fitzgerald's, 2706 White Oak, Houston. The Black Belles, Black Tabs: Sun., March 18. Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel, Houston. Bobby Bare Jr.: Wed., Feb. 1. Continental Club, 3700 Main, Houston. Buxton, Marmalakes, Featherface: Sat., Feb. 4, 8 p.m., $8.00. Fitzgera ... More >>

Last Night: Big Sean at Warehouse Live

​G.O.O.D. music artist Big Sean's I Am Finally Famous tour stopped in Houston at Warehouse Live last night. Of course a little rain couldn't stop the abundant number of teenagers who came out to see Big Sean. Most of the teens were out on dates and others were clustered together in groups like ... More >>

Rocks Off Lists Our Favorite Downloads of 2011

It's getting to be that time of year, when the temperature drops and the lists start rolling in. Read any blog, magazine or newspaper and you're bound to run across at least a handfull of year-end lists, particularly when it comes to music. We all like to talk about the stuff we like. It's just what ... More >>

7 Houston Rap Tributes by Non-Houston Rappers

Are you happy with your current city? Yeah? Then feel free to ignore this list of rappers from other cities drooling over all things Houston. It's likely to breed envy. Some of these come from gushing fans and some are random, but the vast majority illustrate just how much rappers love Houston. Dig ... More >>

Last Night: Mac Miller at Warehouse Live

Photographer were not allowed to shoot the Mac Miller show last night.​9:55 p.m.: Mac Miller concert. Let's just get them all out of the way now: Asher Roth, Eminem, Yelawolf, Machine Gun Kelly, Paul Wall, Rich Hill, Aesop Rock, Bubba Sparxxx, El-P, MC Serch, R.A. the Rugged Man... He's whit ... More >>

Rap's Most Anticipated Upcoming Albums

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 sheaserrano@gmail.com. ro ... More >>

The Houston Press Underground Rap Awards, Vol. 3

We are 75 percent of the way through with 2011, and somehow it is still unclear: a) Which underground rapper is having the best year; b) Which is the best underground rap song of the year; c) Which underground rapper has had the best verse of the year; d) Which underground rapper will land atop the ... More >>

10 Popular Rappers' Disney Alter Egos

Watch The Throne.​Were you ever mildly attracted to Jafar in the Disney movie Aladdin? We were, probably because he reminded us so much of Prince. So, needless to say, Rocks Off is pretty stoked that Disney is bringing back some of our beloved iconic villains-like Jafar and Scar-to 3-D. We' ... More >>

Last Night: Red Bull EmSee Battle At Warehouse Live

Photos by Larami SerranoPhranchyze (left) and Hoodstar Chantz square off in the finals.​Red Bull EmSee Freestyle Battle Warehouse Live September 8, 2011 10:52 p.m.: White people dancing to Beat King's "Hammer" is just about the greatest indirect advertisement for racial tolerance in all the w ... More >>

Trae Is Regal, Menacing On New Album Street King

​Unless you have some prior issue or grievance with Trae Tha Truth - like he punched you in the nose or headed a grassroots campaign attacking your company's character or whatevs - he's pretty much made it impossible to root against him. He works like a horse, is apparently loyal to a fault, ... More >>

No Diggity

Diggy Simmons, son of Run, gets closer to his dreams.

Undisputed: Trae Tha Truth At His Realest On New Mixtape

​Trae Tha Truth has released his second mixtape of the year. It is called Undisputed and is a precursor to his forthcoming proper album, Street King. The tape is 24 songs of Trae doing what it is that Trae does: Rapping and being intimidating and hinting at what's to come on future products a ... More >>

Who Is The Best Non-Black Rapper Ever?

Some rappers happen to be thoughtful, intelligent people. Every Monday that isn't a national holiday, Rocks Off will have some of them here discussing issues relevant to their culture. Photo illustration by John Seaborn Gray​This Week's Panel: Hollywood Floss, Delo, Preemo, Tha Centop, Niq, O ... More >>

More Local Music News Than Fighting Navy SEALs

It's not every week that Arcade Fire returns to the suburbs whose ennui inspired a Grammy-winning album, but it is every week that we bring a brimming local music roundup for all of our Rocks Off readers. Without further ado, we present the latest installment of Magnolia City Mixtape. ​Hot of ... More >>

Friday Night: Yelawolf & Many Guests At Warehouse Live

Photos by Marco TorresTrae Tha Truth and Yelawolf​Yelawolf, Bun B, Trae Tha Truth, Doughbeezy, Dante Higgins, Gerald Walker & Cardo Warehouse Live April 29, 2011 10:54 p.m.: Let's do this first this time. Here's the thing about Yelawolf, and you may have noticed this already, but: He's a rapp ... More >>

More Local Music News Than Half-Price Deals At Cactus

Another week, another teeming cup runneth over, full of local music news. Here's our latest installment of Magnolia City Mixtape. ​This week's soundtrack comes from Roosh Williams, whose Common Struggles of a Modern Man album just dropped. Roosh also has a video for the track "No Hard Feeling ... More >>

Yelawolf

The Southern Way: UGK 's Top 12 Disciples

​On April 26, 1988, 23 years ago today, UGK kicked off a long and influential career with the release of their cassette-only debut, The Southern Way. It's impossible to overstate the duo's Texas-sized influence on Southern rap. The slow-rolling, tough-talking grooves showcased on seminal albu ... More >>

Exclusive: Chamillionaire's New Major Pain Is Not Universal

​Earlier this week, Chamillionaire, still glowing from being free from the tyrannical grip of Universal Records, released Major Pain 1.5. Thursday afternoon, he was polite (or politic) enough to take a few minutes to talk about the tape. The notes from the conversation and the tape are kind ... More >>

Saturday Night: Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne & Friends At Toyota Center

Photos by Marco Torres​Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Drake, Rick Ross, Bun B, Trae, Yelawolf, Travis Barker & Mix Master Mike, Twist, Shanell, Birdman Toyota Center April 16, 2011 7:22 p.m.: We had not planned on getting here until way later tonight, but Bun B mentioned on his Twitter that the show ... More >>

Upcoming: 311, Britney Spears, Sade, Widespread Panic, Etc.

UPDATE (1 p.m.): Britney Spears will be back in July at Toyota Center; the GO-Go's the month after that. ​311, Sublime With Rome: Fri., Aug. 12. Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. "B L A C K I E In 3D": Thu., April 7. Warehouse Live. "The Bamboozle Roadshow" With Chiddy Bang, Dev, Ninjasonik ... More >>

SXSW 2011: Videos and Photos Galore

What the @#$% happened last night? A City Pages SXSW recap of 3/17 from MPLS.TV on Vimeo. Want to experience SXSW 2011 but have a short attention span? Then check out the above video compiled by our sister paper City Pages which features several big-name performers plus highlight footage from the V ... More >>

SXSW: Wiz Khalifa, Trae Turn Fader Fort "Black & Yellow"

Photos by Marco TorresWiz Khalifa (left) and Trae Tha Truth​Even his Afro was "Black & Yellow." Wiz Khalifa, the blunt-smoking leader of the Taylor Gang, kept it 100 at the Fader Fort late Thursday night with a performance that proved to be everything you might expect: fun, hazy, and energeti ... More >>

Wild Flag, Wu-Tang, Erykah Badu and Yelawolf: Liveblogging the Village Voice Media SXSW Showdown

Marc BrubakerTimes New Viking gets the party started.​The doors didn't open exactly at 5 p.m., but that didn't stop the Austin Music Hall from filling quickly just before Austin-by-way-of-Houston locals Ume took the stage, the first band in the all-night line-up for the 2011 Village Voice and ... More >>

Hashtag Wisdom

Twitter convert Slim Thug unites streetwise and pop sides.