Write your rhymes, sing your hook and make you a beat

Trillest of the trill

So since anyone reading this is by definition on the internets, I'm assuming you've heard Pimp C died. He's been eulogized and paid tribute by people who have done a much better job of it than I could; I particularly recommend checking out Noz's fascinating three part interview, as well as the multitude of tracks he posted on his XXL blog. You should also, naturally, check out the tributes over at Houston So Real.

Still, while I can't be as comprehensive as those other sites, I'd still like to add a Screw Rock 'n' Roll tribute to the multitudes out there. I've been listening to Underground Kingz in my car for the past week, and in almost every way, listening to it the few days before Pimp C died isn't that different to what it's been like listening to it over the days since. His death seems unbelievable; he wasn't the kind of rapper like Pac or Big whose demise loomed over their entire career. Sure, Pimp C rapped about his own death, wondering about the spiritual consequences of his lifestyle and meditating on life's fleeting transience ("One Day," "Living this Life," "How Long Can it Last," etc.), but the most apparent aspect of his music was most often his energy and vitality. Pimp C was a rapper who sounded alive more than anything else, and he still sounds that way in death. "Pimp C doesn't die," I think riding round the city listening to UGK. Despite the evidence to the contrary, I can only think, "Pimp C lives." Living is what the man does. You can hear it all through his music. How could this guy be dead? I would have expected to see Pimp and Bun still making music into the their eighties. The last thing I would have imagined is half of UGK being found dead at 33.

I'm never disappointed to hear a Pimp C verse; as far as I'm concerned, damn near any track can benefit from his brash boasts, slick taunts and, especially, his sneered, stretched vowels. But just as welcome, and less celebrated was his production talent. Screw Rock 'n' Roll is all about collapsing the differences between genres, finding blurring the distinctions between hip hop and rock and everything else. Pimp C's production is one of the best musical instances of this sort of thing happening. As with a other Southern producers (many of whom he inspired), Pimp C's music seemed more about sound than genre; he worked in the world of hip hop, but his music was based on soulful vocals, bluesy guitar and steady, rolling rhythms, just as was the music made by generations of Southerners before him. Pimp C was everything Screw Rock 'n' Roll is about. A man like that doesn't die.

Take a listen to one of my favorite Pimp C productions, the Crooked Lettaz track Get Crunk. Then listen to Cocaine in the Back of the Ride, to hear him at his best, and, should you not have heard Underground Kingz, listen to Trill Niggaz Don't Die and Living this Life, before you go out and buy the thing. R.I.P. Pimp C.