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].

Show R.N.C. (Self-released, 2010) 

There are different branches of the New Houston Collective. Show, another burgeoning Houston MC, clocks in and out for work at the Gangsters and Hustlers office. The most immediately appealing quality of his rap persona is that he's somehow able to bend his own hellaciousness into a distinct likeability, the same thing that's helped Propain separate his name from the flotsam. Toughness is rarely a malleable trait, but when you can shape it how you please, it's almost always impressive.

Y'allmustaforgotability: 94 percent 

Read what Y'allmustaforgotability means.  

Best Simile That Makes Use of a Charismatic Megafauna:

"More stripes than a hundred tigers," which Show makes on album opener "Turned Out." There are a few other quotables from that same song, including the first Houston hat-tip (Yungstar), the first Miami Heat reference (which has increased by about 4,000 percent since July), the first laundry reference (socks) and the first gun reference (a 9mm).

Best Feature on the Album:

Mug, one-third of the Stomp Down Soldiers, flashes his lights on the tinkering "Rush." He's chased most closely for this spot by Yung Quis of the ABN and Kritikal. It's a gangster party all the way around, it appears.

Best, Most Ridiculous Argument You Have With Someone After Listening To The Album:

The second track on the album is "Return of the Real," a haunting, bleeding swell of a song championing the oft-used adjective "real." In it, Show spouts "It's the return of the real niggas" repeatedly as the second half of the chorus. n this case, he doesn't use "real" to exclusively mean "gangster," but it's not too far off from that.

It's particularly effective, and leads to a natural question: Which would you be more terrified of, a mass return of the living dead, or a mass return of the real niggas? We mean, zombies are scary and all, but could you imagine 30 J-Dawgs climbing over your fence in the middle of the night?

Obscure Fact(s) You Can Pawn Off As Your Own To Make Yourself Look Smart:

• The location Show has set on his Twitter page (@show713) reads, "N yo hood with a bag fulla CDs." This is exactly how we first met him. There's something to be said for that.
• This is the first all-original mixtape that Show has done.
• He nabs a DJ Screw sample for "Get My Hustle On." Mr. Davis would appreciate the thematicism.

Download R.N.C. on Show's Bandcamp page.

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