Headphone Highlights – Lance Scott Walker: Houston Rap Tapes

A native of Galveston, Texas, who now lives in New York City, Lance Scott Walker is a writer whose work has appeared in just about every respectable music publication out there. Although he’s tackled a variety of topics – and genres – in his work, Walker’s crowning achievement is *Houston Rap*, a 2013 book resulting from the nine years he spent documenting the city’s uniquely independent hip-hop scene, an effort which received a major assist from Peter Beste and his stunning photography. In 2014, the pair offered up a companion piece, *Houston Rap Tapes*, which highlights more of Beste’s photos alongside a series of Walker’s interviews with many of the scene’s key personalities and impresarios. Often ignored by the coasts and the music industry at large, Texas rap has essentially always existed in a sphere all its own, which makes Walker’s encyclopedic knowledge of that world incredibly valuable.