It was how I learned about the Geto Boys, and thus how I learned that there was even such thing as rap music from Houston. I don’t know which one I heard blasting out of cars when I was in high school in the late ’80s, but during that era this song was everywhere. “Ghetto Boys! Ghetto Boys!” This was back before they were known as Geto Boys, and there are two versions of this song to reflect two completely different lineups of the group. I won’t say it’s timeless, but it’s bonafide. “MacGregor Park” is old school electro, with all manners of hot synths, wild guitars, vocoder vox, and electronic dog barks to give it resonance. and he only made one recording after this one, but his song celebrating the Southside gathering spot MacGregor Park is important because it was the first Houston hip-hop song talking specifically about Houston. This 1985 single wasn’t the first Houston hip-hop record, but it was the first one that made a splash locally, so a lot of the artists I interviewed for the book had memories of this song blowing up when they were in high school or middle school. Here are a few selections from that library. The life of a book is a long arc between idea and pages you can put your fingers through. So I created two libraries along the way: one of transcriptions of my interviews and one of the music that came up in those conversations. History was the foundation of the whole project, but music was the driving force, and though our conversations split off into all kinds of different directions, we always returned to that central theme. We published the books Houston Rap and Houston Rap Tapes in 20 respectively, with this newest tome being a more encyclopedic arrangement of the latter with lots of additional interviews, photos, album art, maps, and essays. The project was conceived by photographer Peter Beste, who began shooting photos in 2004 and brought me in shortly thereafter to handle the text. My recently published book is a collection of interviews I conducted between 20 with members of the hip-hop community in Houston, Texas.

In his own words, here is Lance Scott Walker's Book Notes music playlist for his book Houston Rap Tapes: An Oral History of Bayou City Hip-Hop:

Houston Rap Tapes is a fascinating portrayal of the Houston hip hop scene through interviews and photographs. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Heidi Julavits, Hari Kunzru, and many others.

Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.

Houston Rap Tapes by Lance Scott Walker