Pimp C got it forever
Growing up, my parents and their friends would reminisce about the moment when they first heard about JFK’s assassination, down to the most inane details. My equivalent occurred when I heard news of the heartbreaking passing of Underground Kingz’s Chad ‘Pimp C’ Butler. I was on my way out of Tesco’s, digging out a text that read, “RIP $ir $weet Jone$.” My jaw dropped to the floor, as did my bags. Picking up my scattered groceries, I lost myself in thoughts about Bun B, the first time I heard ‘Diamonds & Wood’, candy paint, fur, grills, “Free Pimp C”…
I wish I’d been learned enough aged 10 (in 1992) to have been bumpin’ ‘Too Hard To Swallow’. Nah, I’d barely caught on by ‘Riding Dirty’ in ’96 and was still catching my breath when UGK hit the mainstream with 2000’s epic Jay Z collab ‘Big Pimpin’’. But my appetite was whet whenever I heard UGK - as a Midwesterner, it was my first real taste of the South. I was enamoured with Pimp’s slang, his conviction, his bling, his drawl, his realness and his colossal singing voice (if you haven’t heard ‘Gravy’…). But, above all, it was his proud smalltown mentality that left me ravenous.
To really feel Pimp, you gotta pull out his roots and dig deeper; dig way down south to the backwoods of Texas and a small city 90 miles east of Houston called Port Arthur, where he was born and raised. In Houston and its surrounding areas, there are no zoning restrictions, meaning that Houstonians can basically do whatever the fuck they want with their land. It’s a brilliantly laid-back attitude that infused C’s distinct swagger. But, because it’s politically uptight and immutable down there, it ain’t all that lax: in the fifties, Port Arthur was segregated and equal housing rights didn’t even exist until the seventies. Pimp’s visceral tales of humid days pushin’ down Texan streets reflected the tribulations of a motivated boy with a “pocket full of stones” and a head full of music.
The classically trained Grammy-nominated artist took UGK way beyond PA, giving the rest of the world a window to the Third Coast, but Pimp never forgot where he came from. He endlessly repp’d his hometown till the day he was laid to rest, when thousands showed up to his funeral and the mayor herself gave a touching speech. The tragedy was best put to light with his mother’s eulogy: “He’s up there and he told them the Soooouth is here! He told ’Pac to take a break because C got it for now.” UGK for life.
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