I am not a big rap or hip hop fan and I don't profess to know a lot about it, but this is great for Houston music. For many years, I have complained to other local musicians that we have ignored, at our own peril, the success of artists outside of rock music. Local scenes have the tendency to be defined by rock music, particularly indie rock music because they are largely driven by younger white audiences who populate clubs. The result is a music snob mentality that favors that one style of music over all others. It doesn't matter that Beyonce is one of the single biggest artists in music today or that there have been numerous country artists and Tejano bands out of Houston. If they aren't playing rock music, they get no press and they get no respect. How often did you see an article about Destiny's Child in the Houston Press before they broke? How often do we hear about guys like Sebastian Whittaker, arguably one of the finest jazz drummers playing today? These artists and many others like them get virtually no love in their home town because they don't fall into a musical subgroup that the average college-aged white, music snob appreciates and they are often the one's running the blogs, websites and writing the stories for local newspapers. It is the same set that has dominated South by Southwest for many years causing that fest to often be about as cutting edge when it comes to rap, r&b, hip hop, country and jazz as Lawrence Welk. Even the Chron who has done an outstanding job recently of featuring local music has struggled to cover rap, hip hop, country, jazz and others because their two primary local writers aren't up on all of it. That certainly isn't the writers' fault. They have to learn and write about what they know. But, the fact that USA Today seems to have a better gauge of the impact of Houston rap and hip hop on the national stage than our local papers do is something that is hard to ignore.
I agree with this part, the mid 90's was undoubtedly the 'golden age' of hip-hop. I used to buy CDs back then all the time, but in the past few years, bought no more than 3-4 CDs total. I guess it's tough to top Tupac, Biggie, BTNH, Snoop, etc. in their prime
Houston is just doing what Atlanta did a few years ago. Everyone will burst out, some will stay national and some will fizzle out. Lil Flip, Mike Jones, andWall will probably be back to the local scene only soon. Slim Thug, Chamilitary, and Bun-B will stay national though. They are probably the best Screwston has to offer rap-wise (besides Face).
I thought his statement was pretty straightforward. Houston IS getting rap attention right now and nobody can deny that. Maybe he worded it wrong?
Yeah, I kinda wonder that myself. He stated that he liked rap music and then said that. Not sure how to misinterpret that one. It would have been one thing if he had posted something like: I could see that, but this seems pretty obvious.
www.djpaulwall.com thats pauls website ill see if i can find the chronicle articles that were done on the houston scene
Thanks for the response. I needed clarification on a short opinion. Maybe I should give mine: I don't like gangster rap, never enjoyed anyone making music talkin' about "b*tches blah blah" or "my ride this" or "my n*gg*s that". I guess I'm an ol' fashioned guy like that . I would like for Houston to be on the map for already-established classical music, rock, even just POP or Tejano... ah, whatever... I shouldn't even be on this thread
Kid Shazzam: You're a nice young man. Now, tell us Aaron Carters, what kind of stuff do you rap about? Aaron Carter: Fun stuff like washing dishes, getting straight A's, cleaning up your room and helping wash your grandma's hair! Grandmaster Raps: What a nice young boy. http://snltranscripts.jt.org/00/00jrap.phtml
Great article.. I'm glad Houston rap is getting so much media attention cause I hope to see some of my favorite Houston rappers like Z-Ro, Bun-B, and Chamillionaire rise to national attention. Chamillionaire's single "Turn It Up" is doing VERY well and his Astros remix being played by 104 KRBE all day long is helping him out big time by exposing him to people who don't usually listen to rap. I'm expecting big things out of Chamillionaire and "Sound of Revenge" (mark your calendars: Nov. 22) Bun-B's Trill is an awesome album as well. Any fan of some old school UGK needs to get this album... ranks up there with Kanye's "Late Registration" as one of the best albums of the year. I thought Paul Wall's album "People's Champ" was pure garbage but I still support him because he's from Houston. If you wanna here some of his better rhymes, check out Paul Wall and Chamillionaire's "Get Ya Mind Correct"... I only wish those two stayed together cause that album is one of my all-time favorites. 2005 has been a great year for Houston rap... I hope the next one that busts out big is Z-Ro.
Dude, where have you been the last few years? Gangsta rap is more or less dead, no one does that anymore (very few really). Hip-hop music has mallowed down considerably, and it's become more "Pop" music than anything else. Hip-Hop music is nothing more than party music nowadays (again, with few exceptions).
for some reason i am not a fan of wall at all even though mike jones' lyrics are weak his style is pretty good wall just kind of speaks fast and the same way over all his beats cham and flip will shine
It's more or less an H-Town theme song, it's been playing on the radio more times than I could count. Pretty much all the Houston hip-hop artists (Texas artists, as well as others) are in it, and Bun B makes a reference in the remix version of the All-star Game in February. Here is the video: http://www.blastro.com/prefs/bunbdrapedup.html?artist=Bun-B
The basic of the story of Paul and Cham is that they both signed to Paid in Full. They got screwed by the label and lost a lot of money on Get Ya Mind Correct. After they were able to get out of the deal, Paul wanted to go back to Swisha House while Cham wanted to start his own label, maybe get a major deal. There really isn't any animosity between the two of them, they just went seperate ways. With Mike Jones, Cham said that Jones was talking down about him to majors behind his back. So Cham put out an entire disc on Mixtape Messiah 3 with disses towards Mike Jones. Jones put out a few songs but really didn't let it bother him that much. Plus the fact that he has to recognize Cham would destroy him lyrically anytime. Everyone's still waiting for the showdown between Paul Wall, Mike Jones, and Slim Thug versus Chamillionaire, Lil Flip, and Z-Ro.
