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By FRED DAVIS, The Enterprise
12/16/2007
http://www.southeasttexaslive.com
Chad Butler might not make the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, and probably won't put out more records dead than he did alive as another late, famous rapper, Tupac Shakur.
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But Butler's rap persona, Pimp C, won't soon be forgotten by his Southeast Texas brethren inside and outside the rap game; a game he was on the verge of making a national Outkast-like dent in before his death.
"He was at the breaking point," said Donna Garza, who conducted a televised interview with the rapper last year around Thanksgiving.
"He had just been nominated for a Grammy; he was on the beginning stage of hitting big."
UGK recently had been approved for induction into the Music Hall of Fame at Port Arthur's Museum of the Gulf Coast.
Some will argue that Pimp C and Bun B already were household names.
The duo's recent release, "Underground Kingz," hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts this past summer, a first for the group. Add to that the Grammy nomination for the song, "International Players Anthem (I choose you)," which featured Outkast.
Unfortunately for Pimp C, he missed out on the resurgence of Southern Hip-Hop, most notably when Houston was the epicenter of the Hip-Hop universe during 2005 and guys like Slim Thug, Paul Wall and Bun B were gobbling the rap spotlight. Pimp was behind bars for an aggravated assault charge from January 2002 until December 2005.
Some call him the "Tupac of the South," and the notoriety the South has received probably wouldn't have been possible without Pimp C, who was determined to make it rapping way back in the late '80s when rapping wasn't the big business it is now.
"It was not accepted then at all," said Weslyn "Mama Wes" Monroe, Pimp C's mother.
She wanted her son to go to college, but he wanted to do music, and he was bound and determined to make it rapping.
His rapping partner and best friend, Bernard "Bun B" Freeman, even said Pimp C believed in Bun B's skills more than Bun B did when the group was in its infancy.
That's just how he was.
"I don't even think C realized the impact he had, or the group, UGK, or Bun had," Monroe said.
With a wild past behind him and a greater appreciation of freedom in front of him, Pimp C's view of the rap game had changed.
In an interview during the summer with an Atlanta radio station, Pimp C said that rap artists needed to stop rhyming about selling drugs and problems they have with other rappers and start taking on more of a social commentary, which is what he said UGK was trying to do with its last album.
He also encouraged rappers to start working closer together.
"These record labels don't want artists talking to each other," he said in the interview with Garza.
"We get to talking, we might just put a union together ... And if we unionize, (record labels) can't win no mo'.
"Don't you fools realize we can get a whole bunch of money together?"
So while the legacy of Pimp C's music, which will be remembered through UGK and Bun B, a legacy of change to the rap industry from a bonafide rap legend would be just as monumental.
"As much money as we making," the rapper said, "as much money as we givin' the Rolls Royce lot, the Cadillac lot, the BMW lot, what is you mad about?"
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