3. MacGregor Park 5225 Calhoun MacGregor Park is far and away the most central and important civic amenity in the history of Houston hip-hop. It's the park from which South Park, the cradle of Houston rap and home to many of its best MCs, derives its name. Seemingly forever, it's been the Southside's preferred outdoor weekend getaway, playing host every Sunday to boomboxes, dominos, barbecues and basketball in addition to the endless, creeping parade of tricked-out cars blasting hip-hop.
It's also the subject of Houston's very first rap record. In 1985, an MC by the name of the L.A. Rapper released the single "MacGregor Park," an electro ode to Sunday Funday. The song gave little hint at where the Houston sound was headed, but its lyrical sentiments are pretty timeless: "MacGregor Park is where I got to be/MacGregor Park, my car, my freak, and me."
2. UH Libraries' Houston Hip-Hop Collection 114 University Dr. The UH Libraries Special Collections department has archived all sorts of material documenting Houston history and culture, from creative writing to architecture to performing arts. And we're sure it's all pretty great. But there is nothing else in the library's collections or any library's collections cooler than the DJ Screw Sound Recordings. The crown jewel of the library's Houston Hip-Hop collection, this hefty stack of records once belonged to The Originator himself.
That's right: DJ Screw's personal vinyl collection -- the records he used to create his legendary gray tapes -- has been preserved for study at the UH Library. Contained within are an ungodly amount of Southern rap, funk, rock and disco albums chopped by Screw's very own hands. If you're planning a scholarly work on Southern hip-hop, you can contact Special Collections and set up some serious study time in the reading room.
1. Screwed Up Records and Tapes 3538 W. Fuqua No place better embodies the original sound and entrepreneurial spirit of Houston hip-hop better than Screwed Up Records and Tapes, the neighborhood record store better known as the Screw Shop. When the late maestro's mixtape business had outgrown his bedroom, his house and, finally, his block, DJ Screw opened up his own store to sell his world-famous "gray tapes," and he put his family and friends to work in it.
The place is still open today, in its second location, and still keeping the lights on selling almost nothing but the music of Robert Earl Davis. It doesn't matter if you're looking to complete your Screw Tape collection or just get it started. You'll find what you need at this working shrine to the Houstonian who left the stickiest, deepest stamp on hip-hop.
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