Don’t Mess Wit Texas is one of the early albums from the Screwed Up Click, the highly-influential collective of Houston-based rappers centered around DJ Screw. After years of releasing slowed-down remixes of other people’s songs, Screw and his Click crafted a sound all their own for Don’t Mess Wit Texas. These Houston boys were raised on their parents’ smooth soul records, and Keke’s debut is a reflection of those records, mixed with some West Coast G-funk and a laid-back gangster lean. “It’s Going Down,” “Southside,” and “Still Pimpin Pens” are to Houston what “Dre Day” and “Nuthin’ But a G Thang” are to Los Angeles. While Screw always made sure that his protégés’ music could blend in easily with the Isleys or Luther Vandross, Keke and his partners had rhyme skills as sharp as their songs were syrupy. Click members like Big Moe, 3-2, Double D, and Fat Pat all shine here, providing flows and vocabularies that would influence Texas rap for years to come. Don’t Mess Wit Texas proved that Screw’s style wasn’t a gimmick, but the basis for a whole new strain of Southern hip-hop.