Crib Notes

Pimp C, one-half of Southern rap pioneer Underground Kingz, was found dead early this morning in an L.A. hotel room. The cause of his death has yet to be determined. He was 33.

Based in Houston, Texas, UGK — rapper/producer Pimp C and rapper Bun B — was one of the first Southern rap groups to have a major impact. Its 1993 single “Pocket Full of Stones” was included on the Menace II Society soundtrack, and subsequently became a national underground hit. A 1996 album, Ridin’ Dirty, is widely considered a hip-hop classic. In his 2007 book Third Coast: OutKast, Timbaland, & How Hip-Hop Became a Southern Thing, former CL editor Roni Sarig wrote:

Long after Ridin’ Dirty had pushed UGK into the upper reaches of the charts (pop number 15, and R&/hip-hop number 2), the record remained for many the ultimate statement of Texas hip-hop, as powerful a representation of the South’s “Westside” as OutKast’s early records would be for the Southeast. …

As much as the music, Ridin’ Dirty earned classic status through its highly influential language — Texas slang that the group didn’t necessarily invent or record first, but was key in disseminating through the South and beyond. Terms such as swisha and sweets (like the Northern term blunt, a hollowed-out cigar filled with marijuana); candy paint (bright colors used to paint Cadillacs and other pimpmobiles); leanin’ (being under the influence of codeine cough syrup); plex (having a beef with or hating someone); and third coast (a term once claimed by the Midwest’s Great Lakes region, but adopted more recently by the South’s Gulf Coast, and to Houston specifically.

Most people, however, are more familiar with UGK from Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin’,” a huge hit in 2000. On the Timbaland-produced classic, Pimp C adopted a crazy bounce style that vocally swang from side to side. Then, of course, there was “Int’l Players Anthem,” which UGK recorded with OutKast for its 2007 double-CD Underground Kingz.

There are less sundry aspects of Pimp C’s life, from his incarceration from 2002-2005 for violating probation on an aggravated assault conviction; to his admitted struggles with cocaine addiction; and his widely publicized dis of Atlanta in Ozone magazine, when he claimed “Atlanta is not the South.” (He later apologized.)

For now, however, let’s celebrate the life and music of Pimp C, one of the great hip-hop vocalists and producers. R.I.P.

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