I pulled into the Valero on North Lamar this weekend and the other two cars filling up were both playing Tha Carter III. One driver – a guy in his forties wearing Dockers and a button-down – waited by the pump to “Mrs. Officer”, while the other - my age in a raised black truck - blasted “A Milli.” I was listening to “La La.” It’s one thing to know that an album sold a million copies in its first week – it’s something else to hear it. And that one instance was icing on a long week of “A Milli” in West Campus and “Mr. Carter” on 6th, not to mention the long spring of “Lollipop” everywhere. There are songs you hear with this sort of inescapability – “Hustlin’”, “We Takin’ Over”, “Ridin’ Dirty.” But for an album to do it is rare, unless you’re Jay-Z or Kanye West. Or, now, Lil’ Wayne. ...

“I Can’t Go To Sleep,” off Wu-Tang Clan’s The W, is one of RZA’s least-produced songs, technically speaking. He simply loops the intro to Issac Hayes’s “Walk On By” a few times, making no attempt to mask the sample with a snare or keyboard stab of his own. Yet it is one of his best, the sort of production that they’ll play at his Kennedy Center Honors someday. The song works because of the success of the whole formula – the yearning sample, Ghostface’s extended opening verse, Hayes’s own guest-spot on the bridge, and then RZA’s closing remarks. The bare sample plays perfectly against Ghost and RZA’s choked-up pleas – another layer would be too heavy, and RZA no doubt knew this. Always more of a collagist than a pure creator of sound (like Dr. Dre or Timbaland), RZA’s understanding that A + the snare from B + Inspectah Deck = classic is what carried the Wu to prominence in the 90’s. His grasp of tone and sequence and balance is also why he is slowly and successfully transitioning out of beats 24/7 and into movie scores and acting and directing....

I tried my best to avoid the leaks of II Trill, mostly because I knew I would buy it. If there's one rapper that deserves my 18 bucks at Cheap-O, it's Bun-B; and not just because he's been through hard times no man should have to know or because I feel like my cash in his pocket doesn't just = weed. No, I say that because I feel compelled to not steal his shit. I like and respect all sorts of rappers, but would I care if Jeezy came over to watch some Gossip Girl and a burned copy of The Inspiration was on my dresser? No. But if Bun came over for some C-Span and found "3_damn_im_cold_ft_lilweezy.mp3", I would be WAY embarrassed....

In January, Mohammed Al-Farra traveled from Gaza to Park City, Utah, to help promote Slingshot Hip-Hop, a film about him and a number of other artists in the young but strong Palestinian rap scene. The other members of his group, called the Palestinian Rapperz or PR for short, were unable to leave Gaza to join him, and after Sundance, Al-Farra was - and still is - unable to return to Gaza because of the closed borders. Instead, he currently resides in the Dallas area. If Al-Farra’s story is any indication, his show tonight with fellow Palestinian group DAM has the sort of context, history, and implications that you won’t see for quite some time, rap show or otherwise. But you shouldn’t go to Scoot Inn tonight just because of the world these artists live in or Israel’s fast-approaching 60-year anniversary or Al-Farra’s forced status as an ex-pat. You should go because DAM and PR choose to respond to all of this through rap. ...

Last summer, T-Pain made it very profitable/cool to sing like a robot. Ever since, everybody seems to be trying their hand at it, or rather, using some sort of vocal modulation/autotune to emulate a sound that is both infectious and patently insincere. Lil’ Wayne’s hit single “Lollipop” is the most recent and notable instance of T-Pain’s influence, and it’s also the most dramatic deconstruction of that sound to date. T-Pain makes Windex’d, pristine pop music, songs you can check your hair in or snort drugs off of or, most importantly, cut into little squares and stick on a Styrofoam sphere to be hung in the middle of a dance floor. The vocal fx, the pedestrian lyrics, the chintzy beats - it’s all low-to-no risk, simple, easy, breezy, beautiful, Christie Brinkley....

So my original guarantee - that every big rapper in the state would come to SXSW again - kind of didn’t pan out, though our city’s finest will be out in force (more on that later). Still, sans Lil’ Keke, Matt Sonzala’s rap line-up for the official events is particularly strong, bolstered by a handful of legends and all sorts of regional stars. Here are my picks from the official showcases in no particular order (except that Bun is first): Bun B (Houston) Mike Jones will be telling his great grandkids about Bun’s first Houston show after Pimp C’s death. Bun will pay tribute again tonight at Fuze (or, to be more exact, early morning on Thursday). You’re probably already planning on going....

Rap mixtapes are rarely arranged with tact or distinguished in their execution. Usually, you’ll find a buffet plate of tracks, assembled with all the wit of a languid block of late night commercials. A superb exception is found in the first four proper songs of Stop Stealin’ Our Style, a mixtape released in December by the Austin-based Screw Shop and Tosin, its curator. The project is dedicated to the memory of a number of fallen Texas rappers, and nods to both Pimp-C and DJ Screw, the former in a tribute track from Lil’ Flip and D-Red that functions as the set’s coda. The track-list, though, tends more towards three other Houston icons - Big Moe and the Hawkins brothers, Fat Pat and Big Hawk. Big Moe died last October of complications from a heart attack, at the age of 33. Fat Pat was shot and killed in 1998 and his older brother suffered the same fate in May 2006....

Fold up your cardboard squares, strap on your backpacks and pull out that old copy of 1996's Endtroducing..... to brush up on your samples. That is, if you were one of those people who already have a ticket to see DJ Shadow Friday night at La Zona Rosa, because it’s sold out. There’s sure to be plenty of knob-twiddling, 45 flipping and mixer, uh, mixing for this experimental hip-hop set as he teams up with Cut Chemist yet again to dominate a bunker fortified with eight or so turntables. ...

On Sunday night - before my sinuses joined the writer's strike - I fancied myself a Rockwell-ian protagonist. In my crappy efficiency apartment, I laid leisurely in an armchair, reading Yeats and watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I also made laborious use of the first-person singular and listened to a new Bavu Blakes song, which arrived in my inbox that night. ...

I’ve been tardy like 7th grade with these entries. I’m hoping to fix that this year, and if I have to, will make deadline by just free-associating while listening to chopped and screwed Gerald G verses…oh wait… hang around after the jump… Anyways, something big happened in Austin rap at the end of ’07, and I was negligent and didn’t cover it then. So now, with Nas’s father as my witness, I will. Matt Sonzala has been documenting Texas rap for as long as I can remember on his blog HoustonSoReal. ...

It’s been two weeks since Pimp C’s death. Last Thursday he was buried in Port Arthur. Reading through all of the eulogies and obituaries that have poured out of the local papers, the blogs, the national media, and the rap community since December 4th, you obviously will see trends. Everyone immediately identifies Pimp C by his drawl and how he rhymed through his vowels, and it seems as though this – his voice - will be a big part of his legacy, along with his production and his pioneer-status as an early and consistent member of the Texas rap scene....