It's been nearly a year in waiting for Houston's Kirko Bangz, whose long-delayed debut album Bigger Than Me will be out this summer on Atlantic Records. But that doesn't mean he hasn't been working—in the past year, since appearing on XXL's 2013 Freshmen Cover, he's dropped his Progression 3 mixtape and hunkered down in the studio to make sure his proper debut would tell the story he wants it to.
Paul Wall was huge, both metaphorically and physically, at the peak of Swishahouse days back in the mid-2000s. The Houston native had already gained a huge buzz from his underground mixtapes with Chamillionaire, especially after releasing the independent album Get Ya Mind Correct...
In the mid-2000s, Houston rap was everywhere. The vessel that held the power players was Swishahouse, dominating hip-hop with its stable of H-town rappers. One of the biggest artists on the label was Mike Jones, whose debut album Who Is Mike Jones? ann...