Ain’t No Love Heart Of The City: The Houston All-Star Weeknd Hangover

Posted by on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 · 3 Comments 

galleria-overcrowded

In an open letter penned on his Tumblr page, Derrick McKinney posed a series of thoughts all centered around All-Star Weekend and how the locals within the city, particular the ones wielding any power in the entertainment section yielded far more carte blanche towards vistors as opposed to building and showcasing the new slice of Houston.

Derrick contended:

ATTENTION HOUSTON ARTIST & TALENT: The promoters, dj’s & venue owners who didn’t book you, allow you your usual entrance, didn’t play your music, acted like they didn’t know you; remember this weekend the rest of the year. Carry it is a torch that burns inside you to force the hand of the industry to rock with you. Make sure you remember the names of faces of the ones who shitted on you this weekend, when you had the opportunity to showcase your talent. Don’t forget when they invite you on facebook & twitter and want you to retweet, post & share their events. If you cant rock with me now, dont rock with me later.

It’s a sort of catch-22 in a sense. Here’s one half of it to digest:

Houston’s talent base is viable through and through with multiple rappers picking their spots during All-Star Weekend to network and prop themselves up on a bigger platform. Shade 45 featured a selection of rappers: UZOY, Delorean & Propain on Sway In The Morning and Killa Kyleon & Doughbeezy threw their own All-Star concert entitled “Watch The Chrome”. Those artists used All-Star Weekend as a precursor to SXSW, openly championing their own work by taking advantage of the mass amount of celebrities & “tastemakers” who arrived in town from all over.

Here’s the other 11 though. A small slice of the letter feels more like a common shot towards radio that trolled out the same old “Texas mix” to appeal to those who immediately identify Houston rap with Wreckshop singles, the Screwed Up Click, Swishahouse, Paul Wall & Chamillionaire and more. To this date, radio has only concerned themselves with local talent to benefit the radio station’s yearly major concert in November. After that it’s pure selection and mixshow appearances here and there. Radio hasn’t catered towards its own inhabitants until outsiders feel the need to – hence Kirko Bangz getting consistent airplay following his deal with Warner Bros.

As Cecilia Smith pointed out in her guide for All-Star Weekend, the event and all of it isn’t tailor made for the host city. Houston’s club promoters could have easily made a fortune off of our out-of-town friends but instead the opposite happened. Local promoters such as Jessica Vickery essentially cornered an entire venue for all of her All-Star festivities so you can’t make a blanket statement in regards to all promoters switching jerseys in the name of the almighty dollar.

It all boils down to this – how powerful is the indie scene in Houston that it can get dwarfed by Atlanta, Chicago and New York’s in its own hometown? Never mind the blatant disrespect shown on a national stage by Alicia Keys performing “Empire State Of Mind”, top 40 hit or not. Its the quizzical thought of just how powerful are you when you only perform for you? Atlanta’s current king of their indie rap scene – technically, is Trinidad Jame$ and he used All-Star like a virtual week in Austin performing whenever and at whatever venue would cater to him.

Houston doesn’t travel out of Houston for the most part, if only for select dates and moments. That has to change. But that’s strictly from an armchair A&R standpoint. Houston forgets those on the rise in favor of those who already made it, hence Bun B laying it out before the week even began that his “Unc” pass that many normally use? Out of order until Monday.

The city itself cared more about the celebrities coming in, evident by the massive overcrowding of the Galleria (pictured) that forced the mall to be shut down Saturday evening. Lack of commerce within one of the city’s crown jewels? Can’t happen, not even if it’s ground zero for potential gawking. If a city who feels disrespected entertainment wise by everyone merely lays down and opens wide for all to come in, the feeling of being whored out will wash over.

To make this even more byzantine, noted scribe Maurice Garland had the perfect thought surrounding All-Star Weekend. Or at least one of his fellow denizens from Atlanta did.

There’s no chronology to a perfect weekend or transcending a city from being overlooked. Houston opened its doors to the world to show what it was about, what it had to offer and outside of the strip clubs and food, people left with the same thoughts they had before – absolutely nothing. It’s a tourist destination with its true gems hidden and tucked away. Thanks to a lack of internal promotion, it may possibly and sadly stay that way.

Brando

EIC of Day & A Dream, Brando has written for such publications as About, DJ Booth, Refined Hype & the Houston Press. Wrestling enthusiast, sneaker addict, sports junkie and lover of chocolate cake. Follow him on Twitter: @_brandoc

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  • http://twitter.com/Bishop3rd000X Bishop3rd000

    I’m not from Houston(East Texas to be exact) but I been living in Houston for the past 4 years and some change not to mention I got alot of family from Houston so Houston is my home now. I’m a under UNDERGROUND rapper that the world will be hearing soon. I know that’s cliche but in due time. I’m mos def. feeling the article a 110% but i’m also wondering what is it that is causing a rift with the local Houston rap and even r&b scene and the club promoters, and major radio outlets? I have theories as to why it is a rift and it goes back to rap in certain cities in the early 90′s. Radio has been so watered down pretty much in every city so I would never expect them to break the mold and support Houston artist because so many Houston artist that are talented are not mainstream. I hear New York artist say the same thing about New York radio stations. The case with alot of club promoters is simply put, alot of club promoters are dickriders out for the money plain and simple. Very few care about supporting the home team and looking out for the local scene and more about whose hot and the biggest name will get me more money. So me personally I think this “new Houston” will have to just find away to brand ourselves(and even though i’m from Longview,East Tex and rep the 903 till I D-I-E Houston is my home too)better and say fuck the major wannabee’s in the city. Long gone are the days of Southwest wholesale who help put alot of rappers on and make Houston a prominent hip-hop music scene back in the 90′s early 00′s. We don’t have a laface records like Atlanta that really help spark the music scene in the 90′s. Ironically Houston is the fastest growing major city in the nation and mirrors alot of what was going on with Atlanta in the early 90′s. Alot of people are moving to Houston and along with them is their sound which i’m starting to see a crop of talent based out of the city and mixing a big pot of gumbo within the city. Alot of people from out of town not to hip to this yet and sadly the All-Star event major players in the city of Houston didn’t do a good job of introducing the world to what Houston has to offer. But it’s up to the bloggers,rappers,innovative ppl in the music industry that rep Houston to just say fuck these squares and let’s keep trucking and push our own shit. Cuz honestly I see out of towners branding Houston sound better then Houstonians. When I say branding, I don’t mean they sound better then the authentic Houston sound but their doing a better job of getting it out there to a national scene. Asap Rocky anyway???(which btw I don’t knock Asap Rocky at all for doing so since he does let it be known Houston is a big influence) It’s other rappers however that have adopted that Houston sound and give no credit to Houston what’s so ever. Just like the industry had done heavily w/ the Bay Area. I don’t know maybe at SXSW Houston can become a force since that’s more geared towards music and not dickriding celebs like All-Star Weekend. PEACE!

  • Jay Howard Gatsby

    It’s interesting that this comes up during All-Star Weekend, because I saw the weekend as an opportunity for us as a city to build towards the crown jewel – The Olympics.

    In an ideal world, the Houston Texans would have gone to the Super Bowl, a Houston rap anthem would have been played on airwaves on our coast, the East Coast, and the West Coast as build up to it all. Houston rap artists would have flooded Nawlins the same way displaced New Orleaners filled up our city post-Katrina and energized the city with our music and our sound. My ideal world is a reach, but it could have have happened, I feel.

    When things like this happen and Houston artists feel like outsiders looking in – ironically enough, in their own city this time around – I always tell myself that it’s okay because we’ve lost the battle but we’ll win the war. We do have artists putting on and ascending annually three hours away in Austin at SXSW. We do have artists making national impact (you mentioned Dough, Kyleon, and Propain, all of whom have been Shade 45 and made splashes around the country; Kirko, of course, is a given). But we no longer have that one person to mobilize a sound or movement around, like we did with Screw. Not saying that needs to be the mentality (“needing one person to be a savior”), but something or some catalyst needs to happen to remind us why we need to look out for home first. Slowly but certainly, Houston artists are finding they’re more loved and appreciated elsewhere and, while home will always be where their heart is, their brain and business sense will tell them to take their talents where they’re valued. How, then, or what must that one catalyst be that reminds us we are the ones we’re looking for?

    Before I craft a Civil Rights speech for no reason, I’ll just say I concur and I need my city to do better before we really have no chance at winning the war at home at all.

  • Pingback: Be Your Own Revolution: Why Houston Rap Scene Suffers (PT 1 - Promoters) - TrueSole

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