By Donte Kirby
Any fan of Hip Hop has heard the name Pimp C, one half of the Underground Kings [UGK] and Julia Beverly has done every lover of Hip Hop a service by chronicling the life and times of a pioneer in Hip Hop. Beverly has long been a staple in the South’s Hip Hop scene as publisher and editor-in-chief of Ozone Magazine which covered acts such as T-Pain and Pitbull in the early 2000s long before the mainstream took notice. In 2015 with the resurgence of Hip Hop biopics like “Notorious” or the recently released “Straight out of Compton,” Beverly is again shining a spotlight on the too often unappreciated Southern side of Hip Hop by penning “Sweet Jones Pimp C’s Trill Life Story”.
What inspired you to write the book?
Julia Beverly: When he passed I kind of had the idea and I marinated over it for a while. I guess about three years after he passed I approached his mom with the idea. I talked to Bun [Bun B, the other half of UGK] about it just to see how they would feel about me taking on a project like this and everybody was pretty much on board. I felt like his story hadn’t really been told. A lot of people have heard all the crazy stories about Pimp C, he had these like wild interviews and a lot of mythology around him. As far as his real actual story, who he was as a person, I didn’t feel like the story had been told.
What was the process tackling the hard issues of his life?
JB: His mom was again a big part of that. She was a strong woman. She actually passed right before we put the book out. Right after are last interview, which is kind of crazy, kind of sudden. She was just very open about everything, even at his funeral. When I first saw her get up, I think a lot of people in the crowd were kind of just like wow. I don’t know too many mothers that could actually hold it together enough to get up and speak at their son’s funeral… She only got emotional one time when she was talking about having to throw out all his Dickies. As far as tackling those difficult issues I just tried to approach it like everything else in the book, being factual about it and resenting the facts without too much emotion involved. Although he did not die of a codeine over dose, that’s actually a complete misconception. But even when talking about that he did have problems with drug use, mental health and things like that. We just talked frankly about the culture of sipping syrup, the negative aspects, the health issues, and the impact it had. Even somebody like Lil Wayne, they started doing it because Pimp C did it. So looking at the impact that it has even today, of course he had a positive impact on the musical side, but he also had some negative influences as far as using syrup and things like that.
What’s next? Do you think Pimp C’s story will be the next biopic?
JB: There’s been a lot of people suggesting that. If it could be done right. If the right people got behind it. I’m not a film producer or director so I wouldn’t personally take on that project, but if the right people got behind it on the film side I’d love to see my story brought to life on the big screen. So it could happen. I didn’t really intend to become an author, I just wanted to put out a book.
