Want to know the weirdest thing about growing up? Trying to go back and finish something you started as a kid.

There probably isn't anything more annoying and weird than watching your friends who are now parents take pictures of their kids on their first days of school. Doesn't matter the grade level, you're just going to get plastered with images of smiling faces and outfits.

Meanwhile, stepping into a college class and sitting next to an 18-year-old in the same squirmy position you were in at 18 feels like the ultimate "look in the mirror" moment you may ever have in life. In other words, I'm just as old, and no amount of Blue Ivy dancing at the VMAs will change that.

Hell, even that and her messianic mother couldn't save the show from getting its lowest ratings in years. Sunday's telecast had a 19 percent drop in viewers from 2013, which means either people really loved watching Miley Cyrus grind on Robin Thicke or music as a whole has been pretty damn mediocre in 2014.

Well, at least some of Houston's bigger names have tried, through either organic growth or sheer will.

MIXTAPE OF THE WEEK: Slim Thug; Thug Thursday 2 As he states so frankly on the opening track of Thug Thursday 2, Slim Thug has been a figure in Houston in some form or another for 15 years. That's since 1999, back when Swishahouse freestyles were nearly the norm and he broke through by hopping on Lil O's "We Ain't Broke No Mo" and Mista Madd's "Down South."

You don't need a clearer definition than that to realize that Thug Thursdays is a collection of Slim Thug freestyles, utilizing some of the hottest beats in the industry at the time, that have been released damn near every Thursday. What may separate his release pattern from others is his reach. There's no shortage of prominent names here, with Propain, DeLorean, Doughbeezy, Paul Wall, G.T. Garza, Killa Kyleon, BeatKing and Sauce Walka all making appearances.

So what details do you have to deliver in regards to what amounts to an "all flows" tape from Thugga? How many times you've hit a Thugga ad-lib in regards to listening to Thug Thursday 2.

Best Track: "Xxplosive Flow". For some reason, you'd think a Slim Thug freestyle over Dr. Dre's "Xxplosive" would already exist. Sadly, it didn't. When you stack Thugga here on everything else from Thug Thursday 2, this literally feels like those nostalgic flows he used to drop for a soundtrack to the Kappa -- so much so that the weakest line on the track is "boys nowadays act like girls."

Of course, putting the #TBT Freestyle Medley would be outright cheating, because that's all DJ Mr. Rogers making sure you remember why those Swishahouse freestyles were so damned in demand. Download Here

Kirko Bangz, "I Ain't Gotta Lie" Abraham Lincoln didn't tell a lie, and when it comes to doing his own thing, Kirko Bangz doesn't either. I don't think Kirko has ever taken a ride by his lonesome downtown and not filmed it, especially when he has to consider the thoughts of his past and his impending future. Yes, "Rich" is damn near everywhere, and that's honest Kirko.

But cocky Kirko who swears he's not going to sleep with strippers? That guy wins out in most situations.

More new Houston rap on the next page.