HIP HOP: ‘Huston Rap’ Book +by Lance Scott Walker feat. Photography by Peter Beste

People ain’t been educated on fightin’ back unless it’s some street shit, like fighting your neighbors or beating up… fighting your family members, killing your best friend. And nobody like… fightin’ the government, the city. “What you mean, fight the city? You mean like… Houston against me?” – Willie D, Geto Boys

Houston Rap is an intimate look at the city’s local rap scene through images and interviews by photographer Peter Beste and writer Lance Scott Walker. The book is edited by Johan Kugelberg.

Possessing its own self-contained celebrities, entrepreneurs, a support network, and microeconomy within the city of Houston, the neighborhoods of Fifth Ward, Third Ward, and South Park have grown to be hallowed ground for modern rap culture. The Houston musical style and slang, while currently an imitative craze in Top 40 hip-hop radio, first grew organically here as an intense community art form. Houston Rap profiles many of the biggest names in the game, including Bun B of UGK, Willie D of the Geto Boys, Lil’ Troy, and Paul Wall of Swishahouse, alongside reflections on legends such as DJ Screw, Pimp C, and Big Hawk.

The book also features community leaders, lesser known rappers, successful producers, businessmen, and family members who provide never-before-heard perspectives. Beste and Walker spent 8 years documenting the culture, and the result is an unprecedented look at the contemporary rap world and the definitive photo book of the Houston scene.