SXSW is Coming-We Interview Hip Hop Director Matt Sonzala

Matt Sonzala is a long time fixture in the Texas Hip Hop scene. He started off doing a popular radio show in Houston on our sister station KPFT called Damage Control. Him and co-host Zin who now does SOS Radio were key in granting many of Houston’s now big time stars from Paul Wall to Bun B to Chamillionaire crucial exposure when many were overlooking music coming from Texas...

Over the years Matt expanded his range and began penning articles for various magazines including the Bay Area’s Murder Dog. He then decided it was time to start highlighting many of the artist he was exposing via his radio show, by becoming the Hip Hop director for the South By Southwest (SXSW) music convention.

We sat down and spoke with Matt about a variety of topics, most notably all the artists that he’s managed to swing through SXSW. When he first started several years ago, Matt did a couple of showcases in what was overwhelmingly an indie rock showcase. He brought artist like Dizzie Rascal from the UK and gave love to some of the local Texas acts. Years later he had more than a dozen Hip Hop showcases and several panels with an impressive line up of artists ranging from members of Wu-Tang to Kanye West to Public Enemy to numerous artists from overseas. In this interview, Matt lays out the dense line up for this years gathering thus reminding us just why SXSW is an important destination place if for any reason just to network…

Recently Matt laid out this line up for SXSW on his popular blog http://austinsurreal.blogspot.com.

Wednesday March 17, 2010
La Zona Rosa, Austin, TX
SXSW Night 1
SXSW & OGPR Presents The Best in Texas
Chamillionaire & Paul Wall Reunion Show (Houston)
Trae tha Truth (Houston)
Chalie Boy (Hearne/Calvert)
Dorrough (Dallas)
J. Kapone (Austin)
Fat Pimp (Dallas)
Big Sid (San Angelo)
Kyle Lee (San Antonio)
Question? (San Antonio)
League of Extraordinary G’z (Austin)

International Hip-Hop at SXSW

La Melodia (The Netherlands)
The Arab Summit (Palestine/Lebanon)
Invincible Voice (Palestine/Lebanon)
David Dallas (New Zealand)
Young Sidd (New Zealand)
Mr. Sicc (New Zealand)
Bliss N Eso (Australia)
Anita Tijoux (Chile)
ChocQuibTown (Colombia)
Sweatshop Union (Canada)
Binary Audio Misfits (France/Texas)

Coolooloosh (Israel)
Adam Tensta (Sweden)
Looptroop Rockers (Sweden)
Timbuktu (Sweden)
LidoLido (Norway)
4th Pyramid (Canada)
K-Os (Canada)
Young Fathers (Scotland)
Nach (Spain)
At Versaris (Spain)
Bubbz (UK)

Friday March 19th
Scoot Inn
Duck Down 15th Anniversary Show

Buckshot
Smif-N-Wessun
Sean Price
B-Real of Cypress Hill
Kids in the Hall
Blue Scholars
9th Wonder
Promise
Ruste Juxx

Bun B

We talk to Matt about the history of Houston ’s rap scene and how he’s seen it evolve over the years. He talks about the key roles that artists like K-Rino, The Geto Boys, South Park Coalition, Trae, Chingo Bling and many more have played. He touched upon the innovative tech savy nature of artists like Chamillionaire who recently headlined a Silicon valley tech gathering. He also talked about the nurturing role icons like Bun B have played toward younger artists. We also talked about the hustling independent aspect of Houston artists and compared the way the Bay Area has approached the game in similar fashion.

Below are the links to the podcast Interview w/ Matt Sonzala.

Interview w/ Matt Sonzala pt1

Interview w/ Matt Sonzala pt2