Houston Music Blog

Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we'll examine a recent bit of music news and, albeit sometimes awkwardly, tie it to a bit of Houston rap. It's five videos and occasional cussing. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com.

​Today marks the two-year anniversary of Pimp C's death.

Quick aside: We first mentioned this in a recent Artist of the Week interview, but doesn't it feel like "anniversary" is the wrong word to use here? Isn't there something a little more appropriate? Anniversaries are for happy moments. Remembering that somebody died about 50 years too early doesn't seem like it should qualify. Unless we're talking about Jon Gosselin. But whatever.

Today, the first annual Pimp C Hip-Hop and Health and Wellness Fair, founded by his widow Chinara Butler, will be held out in Port Arthur in his remembrance. More details here.

Has it really been a year already? Indeed it has: On December 4, 2007, Port Arthur-born MC and producer Pimp C was found dead in his Hollywood hotel room; the Los Angeles County Coroner listed the cause as a combination of sleep apnea and accidental overdose of codeine-containing cough syrup. To say things haven't been the same without him would be a massive understatement.

Tonight on KPFT's "Damage Control" (90.1 FM, 12-3 a.m.), Pimp's former UGK partner Bun B and HoustonSoReal/AustinSurreal blogman Matt Sonzala will join host DJ Chill for a three-hour tribute to the late Southern rap icon. Stream the show at kpft.org. - Chris Gray

 

If the verdict from Pimp C’s autopsy leaves you with more questions than answers you are not alone. Matt Sonzala still has his doubts.

He writes:

“Two months later, on Feb. 4, the L.A. County Coroner's Office concluded that Pimp C's death was the result of sleep apnea combined with prescription-strength cough syrup found in his system. Why did it take two months to reach this conclusion? The bottle was in his room and he had already been diagnosed with sleep apnea years earlier.

According to the Los Angeles County Coroner, Chad Butler, a.k.a. Pimp C, died from a combination of cough syrup (not an overdose, mind you) and a prior history of sleep apnea, a disordered characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep.

LA Weekly has the full story. You can read our extended coverage of the rapper's death here. – Keith Plocek

As everyone knows by now, the Grim Reaper feasted on the local music scene last week, first claiming Grammy-nominated rapper Pimp C Tuesday, then beloved Local Charm owner Rory Miggins Friday.

Funeral arrangements for both have now been set. The Beaumont Enterprise reported today that Pimp C’s funeral will be 11 a.m. Thursday at the Bob Bowers Civic Center, 3401 Cultural Center Drive in Port Arthur. “It will be packed,” Pimp’s mom told the paper.

Visitation for Miggins is 5 to 8 p.m. tonight at St. Anne’s Catholic Church, 2140 Westheimer, and his funeral is there at 10 a.m. tomorrow. – Chris Gray

A quick note: This isn't by any means a definitive Pimp C playlist. Over on the XXL blogs, Noz is doing an amazing job unearthing all manner of Pimp-related rarities, and you owe it to yourself to dig a little deeper and check it out.

1. Solomon Burke: "Got to Get You Off of My Mind." Preview/Buy from iTunes

Pimp grew up steeped in music, particularly Southern soul music. His father was a trumpet player for Burke, among others. In this Noz interview, Pimp talked about being a kid and playing around with his father's jukebox and piano, singing in his choir, and playing trumpet in his school band. There's a great moment in the interview where Pimp talks about something his stepfather, who was also Pimp's music teacher, told him when he first started producing rap records: "Put some music in that shit, you know you know how to read music. Put some goddamn melody in that shit and maybe you can get some money." Pimp took that suggestion and ran with it. In the early 90s, a few other producers were playing around with live instruments and warmer, expansive tones: Dr. Dre, DJ Slip and the Unknown DJ, the Rap-A-Lot stable of house producers, a few others. But Pimp's tracks sounded even fuller and more layered than those guys' work. And rather than just looping up his tracks, Pimp kept new elements fading in and out for his tracks' entire running time. Consider, for example, the piano that noses around the corners of "It's Supposed to Bubble," never settling into one basic figure, or the murmuring blues-guitar curls buried in "Diamonds and Wood." Pimp's beats could be intense and vicious, but even then they always subtly mutated and evolved. He was a musician first.

Matt Sonzala came out of retirement on Wednesday night to help broadcast this Pimp C tribute. The file is huge, so we’d suggest you right-click (or whatever it is you Mac people do) and save the mp3 on your hard drive. (And don’t get distracted by the Tejano music and PSAs at the beginning. We promise the goods are on there.)

Fairly complete track list available on Sonzala's blog. – Keith Plocek

League City resident and Deer Park teacher Susana Valdes never knew Pimp C. She did, however, know Chad Butler. In fact, she taught the Dirty South hip-hop legend sixth grade social studies back at Woodrow Wilson Junior High in Port Arthur.

Here’s the Chad Butler she remembered:

Willie D was very close to Pimp C. The Geto Boy and former boxer and radio host spoke with Houstoned Rocks earlier this afternoon about Pimp’s musical soulfulness, self-confidence, anger and influence, and threw in a mean Pimp C impersonation while he was at it. – John Nova Lomax

HR: I saw a UGK show at South By this year in Austin, and before the show, I got kinda sucked into the UGK posse backstage and I was right behind Pimp. I saw you and Pimp talking, and it looked like he regarded you as something like an older brother from the way y’all were talking. Is that true? When did y’all meet?

Willie D: Man, man when did I meet Pimp C? Musta been about 1991 or 1992. Yeah, Pimp was like a little brother to me, you know? I always wanted to see him do well. We spoke a lot in confidence.

What were some of the things you liked about his skills as a producer and a rapper?

Just like he did with April’s Virginia Tech shootings, Houston’s Lil’ Flip has posted a current-event song on his MySpace page before the ink on the newspaper headlines is even dry. This time, of course, it’s the unexpected death of his friend and fellow Houston rapper Pimp C, whose body was found yesterday morning in a Hollywood hotel room.

And the hits keep fucking coming.

According to this TMZ report, Pimp C was found dead in his bed in a Sunset Strip hotel room this morning.

The rapper, born Chad Butler, had just performed with Too Short at the LA House of Blues last Saturday.

Watch this space for details as they come. The jocks at 97.9 the Boxx have been playing some of Pimp's finest and taking calls since the news broke; Lil' Wayne just called in. -- John Nova Lomax