Geto Boys Lil Keke
Trae & Slim Thug J Prince & Scarface
Chamillionaire & OG Ron C Bun B reppin’ UGK 4 Life R.I.P. Pimp C
3rd and 5th Ward areas, artists like Lightnin’ Hopkins, Albert Collins and Texas Johnny Brown played for decades, and some of the younger bands began to embrace rapping as a means of getting the party started. “Rap was in its early stages, period, overall.” K-Rino continues, “So down here it might not have been as advanced as on the East Coast and on the West Coast. But shit, a lot of us are still around to this day, making music. There’s a lot of cats who established that longevity to where they can still be around today.” In fact the Geto Boys, the recently departed OG Style, The Terrorists, Gangsta NIP, K-Rino and even members of Street Military – a group who was once signed to Wild Pitch Records – all have fairly current releases. Soon after the rise of Rap-A-Lot, many young entrepreneurs followed suit and began releasing records from the streets on an independent level. Most notably Russell Washington’s Big Tyme Records – who originally introduced the world to the duo known as UGK, and Tony Draper – a man who bridged the gaps between all the cities in the south with his Suave House Records. If Rap-A-Lot laid the blueprint for the Southern rap business, it was Suave House that laid the blueprint for the Southern rap sound. “We knew this sound was going to make it to the mainstream,” Suave House Founder and CEO Tony Draper recalls of his earliest days. “And now the world is jumping on it and [starting to] understand it. There’s so many creative lyricists in the South. We still have to have that branch that can hear the talent and develop that talent.” Suave House most notably brought the world 8Ball & MJG from Memphis, but also seminal artists like South Circle and Crime Boss from Houston. Around the time when Suave House was at its peak, a new face hit the scene in Houston, one that would change the landscape and shape all things to come. DJ Screw started out making slowed down mixtapes in his south side apartment in the early 1990s. This radical new sound was hard to swallow for mainstream rap fans, but the folks in the Houston community that surrounded him loved it. The slow, dragging sounds emanated from every other car in the city, and at that point Houston Hip Hop had truly found its identity. His tapes were more than just mixes. They featured freestyles from who would
Mike Jones, Bun B, Myke Diesel, Pimp C, J Prince, Trae, & Lil Flip
become Houston’s most legendary rap crew, the Screwed Up Click. Led by artists like Fat Pat, ESG, Lil Keke, Hawk, Lil O, Grace, Los, Mr. 3-2, Big Moe and many, many more, the Screwed Up Click, at their crest, became the most in demand rappers in the south. Lil Troy released his first records around the time Rap-A-Lot was forming, and even dropped a single with Scarface before he joined the Geto Boys. A man about town, Troy was always in the mix, and brought a lot of voices out first via his Short Stop Records. In 1995 he dropped an independent CD entitled Sittin’ Fat Down South that featured the mega-hit single “Wanna Be A Baller.” That song featured a who’s who from the Screwed Up Click and became one of the biggest rap singles to ever come out of Houston. Things were looking good for the city, and labels were flocking to see who from the SUC they could sign. Sadly, the world really wasn’t ready for the slowed down sounds of DJ Screw, and the movement didn’t travel too far outside the region. In November of 2000, DJ Screw was found dead in his studio, and all seemed lost. But it wasn’t. There was still plenty of talent in Houston, ready to explode. A north side DJ who had been doing slowed down mixes similar to DJ Screw, Michael Watts, had formed the Swisha House some years earlier and was quickly establishing his own crew of heavyweights. After years of grinding, selling mixtapes throughout Texas, and later on the internet to lands as far away as Germany and Japan, the Swisha House began to seek out a major deal. After landing a contract with Asylum Records, they released the hit single “Still Tippin’” which was produced by Salih Williams and featured verses from Paul Wall, Slim Thug and Mike Jones. The song represented the sound of H-Town and became a huge single around the world, turning all eyes towards Houston. In the wake of “Still Tippin’” Houston saw its biggest surge yet, and more artists from the town than ever before received gold and platinum plaques. What once was a hobby, relegated to mixtapes that many thought would never leave the region, is now a worldwide phenomenon and a highly recognized sound within the genre of Southern Hip Hop. It didn’t happen overnight, and it won’t be going away anytime soon. // OZONE MAG // 15