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Comment by whatok | Hacker News Reader

Wow, never would have expected to see Z-Ro mentioned on HN. I really think he's one of the greatest ever and wish he was more successful but (and not to sound like a hipster or elitist) his music would absolutely not be the same if it was widely played. Never been there but love Houston if only for its rap.

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Or have someone post a Watts tape... Houston has had it's own self-sustaining rap system that never really crossed over into the mainstream. DJ Screw, Watts, Swishahouse, Chopped-and-Screwed tapes... All crazy influential on the rap scene, but most people have never heard of this shit.

Does anyone have this tape?

http://www.djayres.com/houstonfordummies.htm

Aryes (DJ from the RUB DJ's in NYC) put out this "cliff notes" of Houston Rap. Got me into the scene.

edit: http://www.datpiff.com/DJ-Ayers-Houston-for-dummies-mixtape....

Houston was mainstream when Still Tippin blew up and Flip was doing his thing but that didn't really last and wasn't outside of a few artists.

DJ Ayres and JD are my dudes. I don't know if I still have that CD but great mix. I see it linked here: http://www.djayres.com/2013/03/14/throwback-thursday-houston...

You're right. They did have some major radio releases, but never to the level that Miami or Atlanta did.

Eh, I don't think you can say Houston's influence didn't cross into the mainstream. Mike Jones and Paul Wall definitely broke through and hit the top of the charts for a while. Drake just had a sample of Pimp C on his latest Views. The incorporation of the Lean'd out style is really present in contemporary big hits, and I think - maybe I'm off on it - that a lot of that can be traced back to the Houston scene, or the influence of it in some ways. Just thinking H-Town does get its props pretty often.

i hate drake

edit: I can point to Houston influence in so much music but yeah definitely dont get its due props.

He's not my style in the least but in referencing mainstream he's about as big as you can get without mentioning another Canadian who frequently tops the charts, just gotta point that out. I do think Houston's rep though is kind of frozen in the past, in that I agree there's not a lot of newcomers (from what I can tell) going to the top via Houston. Latest big name from Texas I can see is Post Malone and he reps 214.

Oh, definitely agree, I just can't stand him at all and have to express it at all times. Drake thinking he could rap on June 27 is borderline blasphemous and if Pimp C didn't want to do Big Pimpin' with Jay-Z, there's zero chance he would be associated with Drake.

I haven't really kept up with rap in a few years so I'll take your word for it but yeah I haven't heard of anyone really either.

I'll have to check out the early Houston music, but I've heard a lot about DJ Paul, Juicy J and others from Memphis being a huge influence. Having listened to quite a bit of that early stuff I can definitely hear the sound in modern music. I wouldn't doubt that it came from Houston though, or a mix of a lot of Southern places including Houston, Memphis, Atlanta, New Orleans, and Miami. Here's an example of some Memphis music:

https://www.youtube.com/user/UndagroundThreat/videos?flow=gr...

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