Most Popular
-
Barack Obama and Me
It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator
-
Mescaline on the Mexican Border
Texas is the only state in the country where peyote is sold legally. Really.
-
A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita
For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.
-
Little Bitty Burger Barn
"It's okay to be little bitty in the big city" is an apt slogan for this new burger joint, where sliders rule
-
Ghost Town CFS: Carriage House Cafe
Step back in time — to a spooky old carriage barn with a monster chicken-fried steak
-
Barack Obama and Me (246)
It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator
-
Save Lobo: A Siberian Husky Mix is Sentenced to Die (28)
Why? Because he's big and intimidating and because one family complained about him over and over again
-
A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita (13)
For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.
-
Are You Hot Enough for Citizen Lounge? (6)
All This Useless Beauty
-
Rotten to the Corps: A Question of Justice at Texas A&M (140)
Thanks to A& M and a district attorney, two cadets escape punishment for beating in a student's face
-
Are You Hot Enough for Citizen Lounge?
All This Useless Beauty
-
Tired of the Hype, But That's All There Is
Next month, Houston gets to be a cool kid. But only for a week.
-
The improbable redemption of Ashlee Simpson
"La La" Love You
-
Rap's Rapidly Vanishing Female MC
The Why Chromosome
-
A New Official State Song for Texas?
A case for a new — or different, anyway — state song
-
Geraldo Rivera Is Stupid: A Review of His Panic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S.
06:06AM 03/09/08 -
Weekend Music: Help Save the Houston Music Scene
03:54PM 03/07/08 -
To Do: Hockey and Roller Derby
04:12PM 03/07/08 -
Sausage Fest: Bangers and Mash at Red Lion Pub
11:40AM 03/08/08
What we are writing about
- American Gangster
- Amy Sillman: Suitors...
- birth defects
- Bob Dylan
- Christmas Tree-O
- Continental Club
- Houston art
- Houston local music
- Houston music stores
- Houston Rockets
- Houston theater
- I'm Not There
- illegal immigrants
- Main Street Theater
- McGonigel's Mucky Duck
- Meridian
- Perspectives 158:...
- players' scoring averages
- Proletariat
- Rudyard's
- Rumors
- Sig's Lagoon
- Somerville
- Sound Exchange
- toxic industrial...
- Toyota Center
- Turkeys of the Year
- Verizon Wireless Theater
- Warehouse Live
- Wii
Recent Articles By Brett Koshkin
-
Melt Banana
Melt Banana performs Sunday, May 27, with XBXRX and The Jonx, at Numbers, 300 Westheimer, 713-526-6551.
-
The Rapture
The Rapture performs on Wednesday, May 16, at Warehouse Live, 813 Emanuel, 713-225-5483. Shiney Toy Guns also perform.
-
The Jonx
No Turn Jonx Red
National Features
-
SF Weekly
The Candidate
Our columnist knows Ralph Nader's running mate all too well.
By Matt Smith -
The Pitch
How Not To Be a Rap Star
First of all, lay off the Ecstasy.
By Nadia Pflaum -
Village Voice
Project Runaway
What becomes a gossip columnist most?
By Michael Musto
For years now, it seems that if someone uses the words "Texas" and "hip-hop" together, they're referencing some sort of Dirty South sound. Listening to Dallas jazz-rap group PPT (an acronym of the three members' names -- Pikahsso, Picnic and Tahiti), it's good to know there is more versatility to be found in Texas hip-hop than most people might think. The production on Tres Monos in Love goes beyond rudimentary drum machines. Instead, listeners find sleekly sequenced horns like those on the song "Dumps," a brilliant rhyme about woes of relationships and breaking up.
-
Fans get a double dose of Dallas-based PPT with a CD/DVD combo.
Subject(s): PPT
On the CD, PPT performs little comedy skits between songs. And listeners get even more of the group's sense of humor on the accompanying Tres Monos in Love DVD, with some videos taking the tunes to a whole other level. The song "Down South Girl" includes lyrics like "I'm so glad you're a country girl / I just want to be the king of your country world" and refers to a girl who is so fine PPT would "drink her bathwater." Add to that the DVD's visual of beautiful full-figured women, women who are appropriately described as "thick," and "Down South Girl" becomes an ode to the big-boned girl next door. With endless silly mugging, homemade special effects and more than a few pokes at cultural stereotypes, the videos are funny and, surprisingly, often poignant.
PPT swims upstream in the raging Dirty South river, doing their own thing, their own way, with disco beats filled with cowbells, funky synth lines utilizing jazzy drums, and intelligent lyrics flowing in well-crafted rhymes.
