Twitting with Chamillionaire

Hanging on the latest web obsession, twitter, reading some of the questions posted by Houston rapper Chamillionaire and the subject came up of being a successful artist. Chamillionaire asked if an artist could be successful if he or she only focuses on their core or original audience. There are a lot of things to think about the first of which is, from whose perspective is this success being

What happened to Houston?

It wasn't that long ago that the Southwest was coming up due to it's independent grind and the long work put in by artists like Scarface and UGK. Fueled by the explosion in Lousiana rap, the progression to the area just South of Cali seemed to complete the full hip-hop coverage of the map. All at once, Paul Wall, Mike Jones, Lil' Flip, Chamillionaire and Slim Thug threatened to take over the game