Yes, yes and yes. There is a Latino/Mexican influence, it is everywhere whether people realize it or not. There's a huge car culture here and there's like, I mean, shit man, if you are from here, you have been influenced by Mexicans. Shit we WERE Mexico. And as for hip-hop, most of the Mexicans listen to the same shit as everybody else, DJ Screw's type shit and your regular Houston rap. But there is a separate scene for Latino hip-hop that some of the Mexican cats out here listen to, it certainly exists. It's not as huge and pronounced as it is out in Cali, but it exists and plenty of it does quite well.

There's definitely Latino hip-hop clubs where these cats perform, but you'll hear the
commercial shit and regular Houston hits there as well. There's a reggaeton (sort of) station here now. I'm really not sure what the vibe is here on that. Doesn't seem to be exploding like some predicted. Juan Gotti is a rapper who needs to blow the fuck up cuz he's dope and original.

Who are four or five guys/girls/acts to watch?

MAN! The whole Swishahouse camp (present and former) are taking over right now. Paul Wall, Archie Lee, Cooda Bang, Mike Jones, Magno, Slim Thug, Killa Kyleon and Chamillion. All them are doing big things.

On the southside you got cats like K-Rino of course, still to this day, G.R.i.T. Boys are ones to watch. Icey Hott and the Street Military camp are picking up speed again (another classic group). In Austin you have Bavu Blakes. In Dallas you have Money Waters and DSR and Play N Skillz. Man there's so many it's hard to narrow it down.

What's the best Houston hip-hop album of the year, or the one you're looking forward to the most?

I'm looking forward to seeing what Chamillion is going to do on his debut solo CD. For real he could change the game. I think the new Geto Boys album is fantastic. I jam the fuck out of that.

Are there good places to go online to actually hear some of this stuff?

Hear it? You might need to go to the bootleg sites like Limewire and Soulseek. But shit you can learn a lot about it from www.thescrewshop.com, www.streetpharmacy.com. Man really, you just need to come down here and ride around a bit.

(Matt Sonzala is HoustonSoReal, at houstonsoreal.blogspot.com)

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