Day 2 Houston Music History - Gustavo

 On Tuesday, March 22, the second day of our Houston Music Experience began. We began the day by learning about the darker side of Houston Hip-Hop and Hip-Hop in general with shady record labels and their executives. One big name we talked about was James L. Smith also known as James Prince or J Prince, he was a CEO of a famous and successful Houston-based record label from Houston called Rap-A-Lot which he is known for his success and influential control over the Hip Hop scene.  



After learning about J Prince we continued on with our day learning about artists in Houston and some of the big names that have come from here. The biggest name we talked about was the Ghetto Boys and DJ Screw. The Ghetto Boys, created and produced by James Prince, would go on to become Houston's first nationally famous hip-hop group, thanks to their iconic song, "Mind Playing Tricks on Me," released in 1991. The album's title, "We Can't Be Stopped," was appropriate because of some of the themes of the song which highlighted the City of Houston's response to years of critics and adversaries. Houston's scene was a force to be reckoned with. Rolling Stone magazine selected the paranoid hip-hop classic "Mind Playing Tricks on Me" as the fifth-greatest hip-hop song of all time in 2012.



Following in the footsteps of The Ghetto Boys, a teenage DJ called Robert Earl Davis Jr. began selling his own mixtapes, reinvigorating hip-hop and giving Houston its own sound. Davis dubbed himself DJ Screw and mastered the art of rapping over slowed-down copies of existing tracks — typically Houston and West Coast rap, R&B, funk, and reggae. His new recipe became known as "chopped and screwed" over the world. Screw's legacy flourished after his death in 2000, and his style can be heard in Houston rappers Bun B, Pimp C, Paul Wall, Chamillionaire, and Slim Thug. Even Beyoncé acknowledged the musical history of chopped and screwed when she released "Bow Down/I Been On," which secured her place in the music industry.





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