I am proud to say that I called the winners…well, sort of. My favorites reigned victorious! But I’ll be honest. I was a bit concerned for them initially, which is strange to say with regard to the likes of THE ARE (K-Otix/The Legendary K.O.) and Symbolic 1, a.k.a. S1 (Strange Fruit Project) – veritable giants of Texas underground hip-hop. How would these heroes of the underground fair before a crowd of 850 in the Swishahouse capital of the world? To put it bluntly, they whooped ass and took names! First place winner, Houston’s own THE ARE, will be joined by S1 of Dallas in the finals. Among the finalists thus far is DJ Babu of Dilated Peoples. Oh, ye (err, me) of little faith…
Other reasons to cheer about? Big Tune featured appearances by none other than Devin the Dude and Salih & Tomar Williams of Carnival Beats. Carnival Beats, who? -- Think “Purple Stuff” (Big Mo), “Sittin’ Sideways” (Paul Wall), “Tippin’” (Mike Jones) and many more smash Down South hits. Yeah, those guys. -- Valerie Alberto
Click the links above for YouTube action from the show. Click below for a snippet from THE ARE's final track.
