Houston’s rap scene is rich and deep, so we decided to give a quick crash course on four albums essential for anyone looking to bask in the evolution of one of the great American music sounds. His first full-length album finally appeared in late 1999, Hardest Pit in the Litter, which ended up being one of the better underground. SCREW,” which was featured on his 2018 album Astroworld, a triple-platinum record that was nominated for an Album of the Year award at the 2019 Grammy Awards and turned Scott into a superstar. One of the more accomplished members of the Screwed Up Click, Big Pokey hooked up with DJ Screw in the early 90s and started dropping rhymes on the DJs many mix tapes. Fast-forward to recent memory, Travis Scott mixed his brand of avant-garde hip-hop styling with traditional Houston rap sonic proclivities for his song “R.I.P.
Not only did he inject the classic Late Registration track with authenticity, but he also ended the song with a slowed-down version of the chorus as an apparent homage to the sound originated in Houston. When Kanye West was assembling the artists to help him convey the pitfalls of moving through life too fast on his 2005 track “Drive Slow,” burgeoning Houston star Paul Wall was included to provide the sort of metaphors you expect from an MC hailing from Houston’s car culture. When Jay-Z needed a bit more machismo maximalism on his hit single “Big Pimpin’”, he enlisted the Southern hospitality of Houston rap legends Bun B and Pimp C of UGK. These regional elements of Houston rap are what have made the sound desirable across the nation for more than 30 years. You’d be hard-pressed to find a single project from Houston rap legends like UGK, Big Moe, and DJ Screw’s Screwed Up Click posse without their collection of cars being promoted reverentially.
Houston has a rich car culture with certain custom car types, such as slabs, originating in the city in the 1980s as a way for African American men to flaunt their newfound elevation out of poverty via the crack epidemic. This sound would go on to be co-opted by generations of artists from The Geto Boys in the 1990s to Drake in the 21st century. The sound, also known as chopped and screwed or just screw, was popularized by the legendary DJ Screw and is connected with Houston’s long history with the prescription drug concoction known by many names, but often referred to as lean, that would leave people in a drowsy spell, much like DJ Screw’s slowed-down soundtracks. One of, if not the most identifiable, sounds of Houston hip-hop is “slowed music,” a style of music production where the tempo and pitch of the music are dragged down to syrupy levels with parts of the song repeated intermittingly.
It is now a word to generally describe full-length albums released for free, which is the modern form of mixtape that was made a popular following by 50 Cent and his group G-Unit in the early 2000s, sometimes containing all original music, other times composed of freestyles and remixes of popular tracks.The Houston sound is a hodgepodge of styles bred from regional influences that makes it sound authentically Southern. In the hip hop scene, mix tape is often displayed as a single term mixtape. Also since the 1990s, it describes releases used to promote one or more new artists, or as a pre-release by more established artists to promote upcoming "official" albums. Blend tapes became increasingly popular by the mid-1990s, and fans increasingly looked for exclusive tracks and freestyles on the tapes.
Ron G moved the mixtape forward in the early 1990s by blending R&B a cappellas with hip hop beats (known as "blends").
J-Price & Shake Bake), Lucky Luciano - Rich Nigga (Screwed), Ace. In the mid-1980s, DJs, such as Brucie B, began recording their live music and selling their own mixtapes, which was soon followed by other DJs such as Kid Capri and Doo Wop. J-Price, Shake Bake - A Nigga Wit A New Guitar (Drive the Baddest Cars) (Screwed & Chopped) (feat. (who later became known as Whiz Kid) and DJ Super V would create personalized House Tapes which would eventually circulate throughout New York City. In the late 70's into the early 80's DJs began recording mixtapes out of their homes, referring to them as House Tapes.
As more tapes became available, they began to be collected and traded by fans. Hip hop mixtapes first appeared in the mid-1970s in New York City, featuring artists such as Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa. In hip hop's earliest days, the music only existed in live form, and the music was spread via tapes of parties and shows.