PIMP C FOUND DEAD IN HOTEL ROOM IN LOS ANGELES |
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 5, 2007
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 5, 2007
Pimp C, who spun searing tales of Texas street life into a key role in the rise of Southern hip-hop, was found dead in an upscale hotel on Tuesday. He was 33.
The rapper formed Underground Kingz with partner-in-rhyme Bun B while the pair were in high school, and their often laconic delivery paired with wittily dangerous lyrics influenced a generation of current superstars like Lil' Wayne. T.I. had the group on as guests when he remade their 1994 song "Front, Back and Side to Side" for his "King" album.
To a mainstream audience, Pimp C was best known for UGK's cameo on the Jay-Z hit "Big Pimpin'," and for "Free Pimp C" T-shirts and shout-outs, ubiquitous in rap several years ago while he was jailed on gun charges. On Tuesday, his MySpace page had been changed to read: "C the Pimp is FREE at last."
Born Chad Butler, Pimp C was found dead in a room at the Mondrian hotel, a longtime music industry hangout not far from the House of Blues on Sunset Strip, where he had performed Saturday night alongside rap veteran Too $hort. Capt. Ed Winter of the Los Angeles County coroner's office said Butler had apparently died in bed.
"At this time there's no signs of foul play," Winter said. "It appears to be possibly natural, but pending autopsy and toxicology we can't say the cause."
Butler had been in Los Angeles to work on his next solo album for Rap-A-Lot Records, according to James Prince, the Houston-based label's CEO. Manager Rick Martin identified Butler's body, and said in a statement, "He was my best friend and I will always love him."
Though they never enjoyed massive pop chart success, UGK's early CDs are considered landmarks for the then-burgeoning Texas hip-hop scene, which also featured the Geto Boys. Signed to a deal with Jive Records, they released "Too Hard to Swallow" in 1992, "Super Tight" two years later, and "Ridin' Dirty" in 1996, considered a rap classic.
Over laid-back beats, they laid out incisive details that remain Southern rap mainstays: descriptions of sex and conspicuous consumption, wood-grain steering wheels and triple-beam scales used to weigh drugs.
Butler led off Three 6 Mafia's 2000 ode to drinking cough syrup to get high, "Sippin' on Syrup," with the lines: "I'm trill working the wheel. A pimp, not a simp. Keep the dope fiends higher than the Goodyear blimp. We eat so many shrimp I got iodine poisoning."
Butler was jailed for three years in 2002; he had plead no contest to aggravated assault for brandishing a gun during an argument with a woman at a mall, then fell behind on required community service. UGK's rise was derailed, but the "Free Pimp C" slogan caught on and an unauthorized album of Pimp C's freestyle rhymes was released while he was in prison.
When Pimp C and Bun B finally put out an album this year, they felt such a need to re-establish themselves they titled their album "Underground Kingz," as if to underscore a new start.
Critics praised the CD, which included the hit "International Player's Anthem (I Choose You)," featuring OutKast. Pimp C's verse riffs on high-class women and cars: "I'm pullin' Bentleys off the lot. Smashed up the gray one, bought me a red. Every time we hit the parking lot we turn heads," he raps.
Barry Weiss, CEO of Jive, said in a statement: "We mourn the unexpected loss of Chad. He was truly a thoughtful and kindhearted person. He will be remembered for his talent and profound influence as a pioneer in bringing southern rap to the forefront."
Butler, who grew up in Port Arthur, Texas, came from a musical lineage. His father was a professional trumpet player, and the rapper studied classical music in high school. He even received a Division I rating on a tenor solo at a University Interscholastic League choir competition.
"That's how I came up listening to everything," he told The Associated Press in a 2005 interview. "Music don't have no color or no face. It's a universallanguage. I think being exposed to all that kind of stuff influences the way I make records."
Butler is survived by a wife and three children.
WE SEND OUR LOVE
PIMP C
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RAPPER TI ARRESTED ON FIREARMS CHARGES |
October 15, 2007
October 15, 2007
Grammy-winning rapper TI was arrested - just hours before he was to take the stage at the BET Hip-Hop Awards - after federal officials said he had paid his bodyguard to buy machine guns and silencers for him.
The arrest resulted from an investigation that began this month when a federal firearms licensee contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives about a man inquiring about buying a machine gun without registering the weapon as required by law, according to a criminal complaint filed today in US District Court in Atlanta.
After trying to buy several machine guns from an undercover ATF agent, the unnamed person began cooperating with the government and said he was buying the machine guns and silencers for Clifford Harris, TI's given name, the complaint said. According to the bodyguard, he had bought about nine firearms for TI and the rapper had given him cash to buy guns four different times, it said.
Harris brokered the deals through the bodyguard because he is a convicted felon, the complaint alleged. It is against federal law for a convicted felon to have another person get firearms on their behalf.
The 27-year-old rapper had arranged to pick up the weapons just hours before he was to take the stage at the Hip-Hop Awards, being taped blocks away, according to the complaint.
Sydney Margetson, a spokesman for TI's label, Atlantic Records, declined to comment.
As the Hip-Hop Awards were being taped in Atlanta on tonight, federal authorities were searching TI's home in East Point, about 25 kilometres southwest of the city.
Half a dozen agents were still searching well into the night, removing boxes and envelopes from the large, red brick house with white columns and ornate glass windows.
TI had been expected to perform at the BET show, which is to be broadcast Wednesday, and was nominated in nine categories. Instead, the rapper was noticeably absent from red carpet festivities before the show began at 6pm, though he was at the centre where the show was to be taped.
Today was supposed to be a day of revelry for TI, the co-chief executive of Grand Hustle Records. The self-proclaimed King of the South won three awards at last year's inaugural BET Hip-Hop Awards and received nine nominations this year, including CD of the Year, Lyricist of the Year and MVP of the Year.
The rapper's sixth album, TI vs TIP, was released July 3 and debuted at No 1.
In May 2006, TI's best friend, Philant Johnson, was killed and three others were injured in a gun shootout after a post-performance party in Cincinnati. The killer remains at large and TI was briefly locked up a few days after the funeral on suspicion of failing to perform community service stemming from a 2003 arrest.
TI grew up in Atlanta and was selling crack by the time he was a teenager. After years of hustling to launch his rap career, recording demos and flying back and forth to New York shopping for a record deal, his first taste of success came with his 2003 album, Trap Muzik.
But the next year, warrants were issued for his arrest on probation violations for a drug conviction and he was sentenced to three years behind bars. It wasn't clear today how much of the sentence he actually served.
TI hit the big screen in his debut movie, ATL, in March 2006. He has a role opposite Academy Award winners Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe in American Gangster, set for release Nov 2.
KEEP YOUR HEAD UP T.I
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On September 7, 2007, FOXY BROWN was sentenced to one year in jail and is currently serving that sentence. Koch Records announced that Brown would release a new album while serving her one-year jail sentence. KEEP YOUR HEAD UP "FOXY". |
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RAPP STAR SNOOP DOGG PLEADS INNOCENT |
January 25, 2007
January 25, 2007 - 11:04AM
Rapper Snoop Dogg pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges of deadly weapons possession after he was stopped by airport security with what they said was a collapsible baton in his luggage.
Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, did not appear at a court hearing in Santa Ana, south of Los Angeles, entering the plea through his lawyer. He also asked for a speedy trial.
Prosecutors charged the California rapper after security screeners at John Wayne Airport in Orange County said they found a collapsible police baton in his carry-on bag in November.
The baton, which expands from 20 to 53 cm, is classified as a dangerous weapon and is illegal to carry onto a plane. The charge carries a maximum three-year prison sentence.
Snoop Dogg was arrested twice more last year by authorities in the Los Angeles area for weapons and drugs possession. Charges are pending in those cases.
Snoop Dogg, who has a previous conviction for cocaine possession, made his recording debut in the early 1990s as a gangsta-rap protege of Dr Dre.
KEEP YOUR HEAD UP SNOOP
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THE DEATH OF KAYNE WEST MOM |
November 10, 2007
November 10, 2007
LOS ANGELES
The plastic surgeon who operated on Kanye West's mother before she died said his practice has been hard hit by bad publicity following her death.
Dr. Jan Adams told CNN's "Larry King Live" on Tuesday that fallout from Donda West's death had affected his practice "horribly ... it's almost destroyed."
Adams told King that as a television personality he was a target for bad press and lawsuits, but said he planned to continue performing surgeries.
He hosted the series "Plastic Surgery: Before and After" for five years until June. He has also appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "Entertainment Tonight," sells a line of skin care products and has written two books on plastic surgery.
West, 58, died at a Los Angeles-area hospital Nov. 10, a day after she underwent breast reduction, tummy tuck and liposuction procedures.
A coroner's autopsy report found that West most likely died of heart disease coupled with complications after plastic surgery, but also said the exact cause of death couldn't be known.
"The autopsy said what I expected," said Adams, who declined to discuss specifics of West's case, citing patient-doctor privilege.
He had previously said he believed West likely died of a heart attack or other non-surgery related heart problems.
In November, Adams abruptly walked off King's show, saying West's family asked him not to appear.
He said Tuesday he had been in contact with the family's lawyers but not Kanye West. He did not elaborate.
KEEP YOUR HEAD UP KANYE / WE FEEL YOU!
KANYE WEST
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