Not since Lil’ Keke’s “Southside” has the Houston neighborhood gotten a love letter that went national.

Native son reggie (aka Reginald Helms Jr.) poured his heart into putting the Southside back on the musical map with his debut single.

And he doesn’t even live there anymore.

But for better or worse, reggie wouldn’t have been the L.A.-based artist he is today without having grown up on the streets of Houston. Literally.

When reggie’s teenage independence began to clash with his family’s deeply religious practices (read: desire to be at church anytime the doors were unlocked), his parents put him out and he was forced to make his own way.

“I had to quickly find a way to get money and that was very easy to do in Houston,” reggie said. (Though reggie is never explicit with the details, we can all guess his new line of “work.”)

Rather than letting himself fall into the trap life, reggie’s bounceback from rock bottom “taught [him that he] could literally do ANYTHING and acquire ANYTHING [he] wanted.” And when he made it to L.A. to finally produce the music he always wanted, he made “Southside Fade”—one of his songs written in hard times—his preeminent track.

“Southside Fade” is definitely an ode to Houston’s ups but also its downs,” he said. “It’s all ironic to me which is why I say ‘my city so big it feel like you on top of the world if you on it.’ To me, it also seemed like the more up you were in Houston the more prone you were to NEVER leave. I’ve seen plenty of people not go worldwide because they were in love with being citywide.” But now that he’s on his way worldwide, reggie’s free to totally indulge in his total infatuation with Houston.

“Southside Fade” is shot like a home movie, and even sounds like a walk down memory lane. I suppose you’d call reggie a rapper, but his vibe radiates old-school soul singer. As he takes us on this visual tour and lyrical shoutout to Houston, he almost croons through each scene, and drops if-you-know-you-know lines like “25 lighters right there same place” that pay tribute to Houston rap greats DJ DMD, Lil Keke, and Fat Pat. Along the way, you’ll see Southside landmarks like the Funplex Entertainment Center, some of reggie’s favorite local rappers, and of course, Houston’s famous car culture. But some of the scenes are seemingly ordinary people and places—like the projects and the local Whataburger—whose quiet beauty is preserved alongside this ode to their city.

Of all the things that come to mind when most of us think of Houston OR the Southside, “chill vibes” is usually not among them.

Catch a little “Southside Fade” and you might reconsider.

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