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 [email protected].
Kyle Hubbard, a 23-year-old MC with his feet firmly planted in the firmament of the New Houston rapper movement, has released two proper tapes in the past: Debut album Tea Time With Alice, and The Neon Summer EP. Both of them were fun and neat, but rated somewhere between average and a smidgen better than average.
Most people assumed his career would follow that trajectory without deviation. However, his recently released EP Tomorrow in Retrospect sparkles with wit, potential and sincerity.
Hubbard's voice, steered by that front-of-the-throat push sound, is a sound your ears need to get used to hearing, but other than that, the tape is immediately appealing. There are little to no weak points on here.
Sirs and ma'ams, it is officially time to start taking Kyle Hubbard seriously.
Y'allmustaforgotability: 97 percent
Guest features include K-Rino and Big Pooh of Little Brother acclaim, each of whom has as ravenous a fan base as anyone, so they'll gobble this up. But beyond that? Chances are not going to be very high that you'll stumble across someone who can name two songs off here without Googling it.
Read what Y'allmustaforgotability means.
Best Song Title on the Album: "New School Slang"
The appeal of "New School Slang" has been previously dissected. There are little to no weak points on there, either.
Best Song on the Album: This one should go to either "New School Slang" or the bleeding "I Don't Care," which features a guest verse from The Unexpected Juggernaut*, but Hubbard's ethos shoves "I Got Love" into this spot.
He's honest and uncompromising and tragic, and has never sounded better.
Most Earth-Shattering Line on the Album: "I been praying for the day that I'll be famous/ But honestly a part of me hopes I never make it." ("Waddup")
It's probably not that much of a stretch to assume that, regardless of overt posturing to the contrary, a lot of guys feel this exact same way.
Second Most Earth-Shattering Line on the Album: "I wanna make it just so I can hold my pops down/ But I feel the only thing he'd see's a college dropout." ("I Got Love")
Certainly there's a tie between this line and the one previously cited.
Obscure Fact You Can Pawn Off As Your Own To Make Yourself Sound Smart:
There's a bit of a White Rapper renaissance going on in Houston these days: Paul Wall, Hubbard, Thurogood Wordsmith, Brad Gilmore, the Guerilla Foco Clan guys and those two hooded white guys with that one song where they unironically refer to themselves as "niggas."
And that's not to mention all of the horrible ones who keep emailing us their shitty MP3s. Good stuff.
Download the EP at kylehubbard.bandcamp.com.