Pimp C
by Matt Sonzala

I dont think anyone out here is really clear about what really got you into this predicament. What are you in here for?

Well you know, what they call aggravated assault. But now, there was no bodily injury and it actually was not an assault. In the state of Texas, if a person fears for they life and you have a weapon, thats classified as aggravated assault. So Im gonna give you the quick run down of the story. Im in a mall, Im by myself, Im in a store and I got a cell phone up to my ear. I tell the manager, I need this pair of shoes and I got my back turned. Theres a group of five people, three girls and two guys. I hear a conversation going on behind me. One of the girls ask the girl behind the counter Whos that? And the girl proceeds to tell her, oh thats Pimp C whoop de whoo, this and that, gets to naming some songs. So real loudly and real belligerently the broad goes Oh! I dont listen to them old pussy ass niggas. Like that right? So uh, Im on the phone with Bun at the time I tell him Hey man lemme call you back. So I hang up and I turn around and when I see them broads, I asked her I said Hey man uh, why you gotta talk my name with that shit in ya mouth? You know what Im sayin? So me and the broad, we get in a little argument but its really funny. People laughin you know what Im sayin? She crackin on me, Im crackin on her, and in the process I got the best of her. So the broad was like uh Yeah nigga, I got your bitch, this such and such street, and she reached off in her jacket and when she did that I lifted up my jacket and showed her the thang. So when I showed her the thang I said, look, I said, Freeze, dont move no mo. And I look over at the two dudes and I say mayne dont even try it and the dude put his hands up and said Man we dont want it. And I tell them, I dont want it either man. I look back at the broad and I say Yall need to back up out this store, this not funny no more. Thats the incident that led to me getting locked up here. I ended up getting charged with aggravated assault for that. They said that was an assault cuz I showed them my pistol. Alright, in the process, I ended up taking a probation, whats called Deferred Adjudication Probation on it. Which was capped off at 4 years. I ended up violating the probation a year later on a community service violation which is something they dont usually do. But in my case, hey it was politics. The rest is history man. I been gone ever since then. They sent special prosecutors after me. They started asking me, What is Rap-A-Lot Records, who is James Prince to you? And all that kind of talk and I told them, Thats a friend of my family. Im not signed to Rap-A-Lot Records, Im signed to Jive Records, so in the process, I felt like I was in the position where I had to take the probation because what they was talking was some way out shit. And mind you, at the time I took it, I knew I was gonna violate it because the system is set up down here to where 90-95% of the people who take this type of probation violate it. But I also knew and I had it in my heart and I knew in my head that most times if you dont catch another case and you violate in some kind of way they usually give you the time you have left on probation. So what I was trying to do was cap something off that could have been 2 20 at 4 years. But now, uh, mind you, the judge got the right when you violate to give you what the crime carry. But now I didnt catch no new case and really if I hadnt been who I am or who they perceive me to be, it probably wouldnt have got violated for a community service violation and I probably wouldnt have got the extra 4 years tacked on to the 4 I already had.

So you got 8 years?

Yeah I got 8 years aggravated. Classified as aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

I thought I saw something on the internet that said something about a possession charge.

Thats not what Im locked up on, naw. That was another case. That never came into play with this.

How do you feel right now about having a release come out when youre behind bars?

Obviously those songs were written at least three years ago.
Those werent written at all. Those were made from freestyle tapes that I had recorded before I came in here.

Really? Were you recording with Rap-A-Lot or were you just doing your own thing and they took it and compiled an album?

I wouldnt put it like that, but um, see this is our creative process. I go in, I try new ideas out. Usually I freestyle over them, I make CDs out of em and I ride around. And if I ride around 2 months or 3 months with the idea and they still sound good, then I bring Bun in and we go through the song for real.

Thats where those tapes come from, from some freestyle sessions that I had done between late 2000 and into 2001.

Youve been in just about 3 years now right?
Three years and 3-4 months.

What have you been doing to keep yourself busy? What have you been doing to keep your head together?

Reading.

Whats some of the things youve been reading?

Machiavelli the Prince, 48 Laws of Power, Robert Green, the Art of War, books like that. I also read entertainment type books, my favorite author is a man by the name of James Patterson. Those things keep me busy.

Were you a big reader before getting into this?

No.

How about writing, have you been writing a lot since youve been here?

I wrote a lot the first year, kind of slacked off the second year, wrote a whole lot the third year. Since I been at this unit I have not been writing as much, but I mean Im sitting on somewhere close to 2000 songs and ideas. Thats not to say all these songs are gonna come to be records, but these are ideas and rhymes that I had wrote. Then when I get an idea I jot it down, I write a couple 16 bars and then I put it away. When I get ten songs I mail em home. I just been doing it like that.

Have any of your perspectives changed at all as far as things youve been writing about? Will we see a change in Pimp C? Will we see any kind of difference or progress?

Well its been almost four years and I think change comes with time. Yeah, Ive changed in some ways. I got older, Im wiser, Ive learned a lot about the system and when I didnt know I didnt have a responsibility to expose that. But now that I do know, yeah, I gotta talk about it.

Whats a typical day like for you?

Really man Im blessed man. My days are real laid back. First of all let me tell you this, compared to other units this place is like Disneyland. This place is alright.

Compared to where you were over the past few years?

Yeah compared to where I was and compared to some of the other places that I could have been sent to. This place is cool. Not too many bad actors over here and mind you, they watch us. They keep us in transit for up to two years to see what kind of character you are. So if you a bad actor and you fighting and you sticking people and you acting bad everyday, you get sent to a farm with a bunch of people thats acting bad. They sticking and fighting. If you laid back and you play it cool then you get sent to places where people are playing it cool. I was blessed that I didnt get into any wrecks at any of the places before so I was able to come to a place like this.

So my days are laid back. I got a job, I work in the kitchen, I got to work around 2 oclock so Im able to sleep until 11:30, 12 oclock if I want to. I get up, drink some coffee and go to work. I stay at work till about 7:30, sometimes 8 oclock, work is real laid back, serving food to inmates. Got a good boss, laid back. Around 7:30 or 8 oclock I go shower, go back to my house. Where Im living is a 52 man open dorm, but we have private cubicles. So we got a little bit of privacy. I got a radio. I didnt have a radio at the transfer places I was at. I stayed at the county for a year and then I just did the two years transit. There arent any radios on transit units. So I was kind of cut off from music.

Now youre able to keep up with it again?

Yeah I got a radio and Im blessed to be close enough to Houston where I can catch Houston radio. You know it, its like the hip-hop capital man. We right in the middle so we catching everything from the west, everything from the east, we catching everything coming down and we got our own stars. And you know what the DJs around here been showing me love. Mike Jones screaming my name, Lil Flip screaming my name, T.I. screaming my name, Bun B scream my name more than he scream his own name. Im blessed. Im back close to the house. My momma dont have to drive 5-6 hours to come see me. So its gravy.

Listening to the record, it seems like maybe theres some controversies running through the record that have gotta be three years old. How do you feel about coming out with this record with lyrics that you may have felt three years ago, but

Well the single was recorded in 1996 or 97. Is A Playa was recorded originally for a friend of ours album. His name is N.O. Joe, hes a producer, and what happened was he ended up scrapping his album. He decided he wasnt gonna do it. So it had all three verses, myself, Bun and Twista, we were on it already. I think Twista mention something about a 97 Suburban or something on that record. Thats when that record was recorded. It had a different hook. And the only thing different about that record is that Zro came in and wrote that hook and you know what? Its worth a whole lot more with him on that hook than it was before. That song has been circulating on the internet since the mid-90s. Its old. A bunch of the other stuff, yeah its at least 3-4 years old. And to be honest with you, I havent heard the album. Ive only heard three songs on the radio.

Being who you are, are you kind of like a celebrity in here? Do a lot of people know you?

I mean uh, yeah a lot of people know of me. Naw they dont know me as a person till they get to meet me and talk to me. I dont get no special treatment.

No? Not even from other inmates who might have come up listening to you as an artist? Or as a producer they came up listening to their whole life? Im sure a lot of these people in here probably rap themselves.

Right. Its a lot of talented people in here man. I meet a lot of talented people and if I had my way Id sign them all up and give them all million dollar advances. But uh, thats not reality. Yeah I meet a lot of my fans in here, people that were exposed to my music, yeah thats true, but that kind of wears off after the first two or three weeks, then you stripped down to the man.

Whats your musical situation going to be when you get out of here? Have you still got an obligation to Jive?

Yeah, me and Bun owe Jive one more studio album. And then that contract is up. Actually Im not signed to a solo deal at this time.

No?

No Im not, but James Prince is like a family member to me so we have an understanding. He know whatever he need he can come get that from me. And I know if I have some problems, I can call him anytime, 24/7 and he gonna handle that for me.

Are you happy that the record is out?

I mean, what do you mean happy?

In one sense it can keep your name alive and its a hot record, people like it. You might not be able to reap the benefits now, but can you see the big picture and what this coming out can do for you in the future? How do you feel about that?

Im gonna be honest with you. I dont like the idea of other people producing songs with my lyrics. I dont like that idea, Im a producer first, remember that, and we have a certain standard I feel. Cant nobody do me like I can do me. So naw, that idea is not charming to me at all. Other people sitting around playing with my freestyle verses and trying to make songs out of them, naw thats not a very charming idea. But now, on the flip side, its good to hear another record out. Its good to know that somebody still cares and its good to know that some money is getting generated while Im just sitting here. Its just not stagnant. Its just not standing still. So I have mixed emotions.

Well from what you said about the production, cuz Ive listened to you since day 1, and my thing is like I think a lot of people are living off of UGK right now. Musically you set a lot of standards for production and lyrically, half the stuff thats being said today between Houston and Atlanta is practically recycled UGK stuff. Are you conscious of the serious influence youve had on this music?

Yeah but I dont look at it like that, I look at it like this. We all feed off of each other so if you go back and research who we got our style from, and the people that we were listening to in the 80s and the early 90s, we were feeding off of other folks also. We were feeding off of Rodney O and Joe Cooley, the Ruthless thing that was going on with Eazy E and Dre and them. We fed off of people, we fed off Run DMC and those folks and theres a little bit of a lot of those folks styles that made our style come together. So I dont see it like that, like its a negative thing, its positive. At least we had a mark on the music, at least we did something that mattered. Cuz a lot of groups after being around 13-14 years, they forget about you. They dont even speak on you anymore. So I feel blessed to be in a position where we could have brought something to the table that people would want to emulate or imitate. Thats how I see it. I dont see them as Aw they stealing up our style.

I dont see it as so much stealing, I just hear so many things that are being said over and over, I hear UGK whole concepts in peoples songs over and over and over again.

Yeah we got a formula and if its a good formula why not use it? Yeah I hear everybody got the hand-clap as they snare drum. I hear that. I hear everybody got 808s and try to make they hi-hats do a certain thing. Yeah I hear that, but you know when we brought it to the table, after its out there its not exclusively ours anymore. So you know, yeah Im happy we had a influence like that. We made it cool to be country mayne. Before we came out, I aint tooting my own horn or nothing but Im the first one to really talk like that. Yaaaall, and Baawwwll, you knowm sayin?

You defined that whole thing.

Yeah and Im proud of that legacy so when I see these young cats out here doing it I think Damn we did something good man. We brought something to the table. But naw, then you got some other boys, they steal the whole concept they even steal the word Trill, put it in the title of they group name and then get in magazines and people ask them who were they listening to and all of a sudden they get to talking about Eric B. and Rakim and Three 6 Mafia. You didnt get Trill from Three 6 Mafia. I know this man. Not to take anything from DJ Paul and them, those are friends of mine, very talented, they got their own style.

A lot of what they brought to the table is being recycled right now also, but now them two different thangs mayne. You cant steal everything from a man. I heard a boy straight steal Buns whole rap. Bun said From the Back to the Front and to the Side and this fool said From the side and to the front and to the back. Im like man you just gonna steal a whole style then you get in a magazine and get to talking about some boys from New York City?

Man you know where you got that from. And Im just gonna go on record, Trillville is Port Arthur, Texas, and if you aint from there I dont understand what they talking about man. And when they get ready to give it up the right way and tell the truth about where they got it from, then Ill respect them. Until then I got no respect for them. Thatd be like them coming to me and asking me what I was listening to and I get to listing a bunch of people

Man I was listening to Scarface and the Geto Boys. I came up off Run DMC, Schooly D., Kool G. Rap & Polo, I came up on Ice-T. I cant get up there and act like it was something else, it wasnt man. These kids need to understand that they need to give credit where credit is due. Give DJ Paul and Juicy J they credit. Give 8Ball & MJG they credit. Give Rodney O and Joe Cooley credit. Give 2 Live Crew they credit mayne. They brought a lot to the game and it seem like people just forget about them. When they get in the books they dont say these names. Im gonna be honest with you, my whole style is based on Run, from Run DMC. Its based on the way he was rapping in 83 and 84. And I took the countryness and the rawness that Willie D brought to the game and I mixed it with the way Run rapped and I got me a style out of that mayne. And over the years, it manifested into some different thangs but basically thats what it was. I know this so I gotta give credit where credit is due. Bun is a lyricist, Im not.

But that was always a great combination. Thats one of the things thats missing in rap now is what Run DMC had and what you guys brought to the table. You dont hear groups interacting like that anymore. Finishing each others lines or going line for line, you dont hear that anymore. Everybody has their little 16 bars and puts em together with a couple hooks and its a formula.

Its like how all the r&b songs are made from the Beatles way of making songs. 8 bars, hook, 8 bars, bridge, 16 bars, hook in a song, thats the Beatles formula. All the r&b records are made like that, so a lot of the rap records are made, 4 bar intro, 16 bars, hook, maybe 16 more bars, everybody is doing it like that. Like the 3 -16s, everybody is rapping the same formula. And you know there aint no rules to the game so we shouldnt have to play by rules. Thats just my opinion, but as far as production wise, I wasnt never the greatest producer in the world. What I tried to do was put some real music in with this stuff.

Well you forged a signature sound out here though. The country rap tune or whatever, but it was definitely something that wasnt being done before.

Well Im gonna tell you why we called it country rap tunes. Because for many years, and rappers need to know this man, rappers need to know that other rappers, these people be your fans man. I had bought Boogie Down Productions records from the first record with Scott LaRock, I was listening to KRS ONE all the way up to the point where the man said That shit yall doing down there is not real hip-hop. If you aint from New York its not real hip-hop. We living this and what yall doing is phony.

I dont know if it was said in them exact words, but thats the feeling I got after a certain point. When I saw the west coast blowing up and I saw certain folks from the south blowin up, Kris said some things that alienated us down here. And at that point when I heard that I said Im not listening to this dude no more. And you know what else I said? Since we aint real hip-hop, you right, we make country rap tunes down here. So you know what you do? You put all the real hip-hop over here in the hip-hop section and you give us our section over here and lets see who sell the most records now. We rappin and we country and they done already told us, they dont want us.

The attitude has changed a lot in the past 7 or 8 years but New York had an attitude for a long time. Its changing now. Jay Z did a lot to make the east coast accept it. When he grabbed his nuts man and said We need to put these boys out there, Im finna do a song with UGK mayne. And we finna shoot a million dollar, Hype Williams video at that. Cuz who was doing that before Jay Z did that song with us man. Give him his card.

I think at the same time though it introduced him to the south as well.

That may be true, Im not gonna disagree to that, maybe so, but he did a lot for the south when he made that move. I know for a fact there was people telling this man, Dont make this move. The man grabbed his nuts and did that.

Well even you said you didnt want to do the song at one point didnt you?

I didnt want to get on the song because uh, I wanted to do some hardcore Reasonable Doubt shit man. When Jay came to me and was like Hey man, family, I need you on this song. I said When you need it? And he said I needed it yesterday. And I was like Aw we finta do some gangsta shit. We fit to talk about this work and we fit to really get out there. And then I got this tape. Actually Bun flew out to New York and they put it down together. Jay already had the concept. Mind you I had just did Wood Wheel. Im in the studio mixing Wood Wheel for the Realest Niggas Down South album.

So our mindset is, we in a hardcore mind frame right now. So we go from this take and we put the reel on and we hear these flutes and this happy music. Mind you, I didnt know it was Timbaland. I knew nothing about the mans plan to shoot the video, I didnt know anything about any of this. I put the song on and Im like MAAAAN. Im not doing it. I called him and said Hey man, are you trying to sabotage me? He said Look fam, its gonna be the biggest record of your career. I said Im gonna call you back.

I was in Houston at that time, and I went back to Atlanta, I was about to move into a new house. And Im at the hotel, we hadnt moved in yet, you know I had been living in Atlanta from like 96 until this thing happened. But I was moving to a new home. So Im at the room, with my lady and I get a phone call. I had been driving, its like 12 hours from Port Arthur to Atlanta. I had been driving, Im tired, Im laying in the bed and the phone rings. It was a friend of mine, his name is Malik Zulu Shabazz. Hes an attorney from Washington, DC. Real cool brother. Hes like got this deep voice and hes like Brother C I think you need to come down to the studio. You need to do this song with Jay Z. And Im like Maaaan, Im not getting on that song. And hes like Brother, that song is a hit. Just do it for me. That man was very instrumental in that song coming about.

Part of the reason I didnt want to do it was cuz I couldnt figure out how to rap on the song man. I couldnt get into that rap contest Bun and Jay was having. Cuz I cant rap like that. Im not a lyricist. Im trying to figure out how Im gonna rap to this song. So to make a long story short, I go to the studio and Im in there and Im listening to it and theres a little chick bouncing to it and Im like You like this? And shes like Yeah, I LIKE it.

So I get a phone call from Big Gipp of the Goodie Mob, and something said, I was at Patchwerk and he said he was coming to see me. And I said Hey man, let me ask you something? Can I use your style on this song? And he laughed like you and said What is you talking about? I said man, Gimme permission to use your style right quick man. He was like Yeah go on ahead and do it. Thats Big Gipps style on there, listen to it. So I wrote it and I really wrote it being sarcastic. I said, Well, if this gonna be the biggest song of my career Im finna talk about sippin syrup, Im finna talk about everything we do. Grippin the grain, choppin on blades and all this here and thats how I wrote the song. Go back and listen to it, its Big Gipps style.

What are we looking at now? From what I understand you are up for parole later this year?

Thats what Ive been told. Yeah. At this point anything can happen. Im gonna stay positive and keep a positive outlook. If its my time to go then Im gonna go. If theres still something I need to see, then Im gonna stay here to see it. This is divine intervention right here. Im not in here just because. So when its supposed to be over, then itll be over and Ill go home.

So is this helping you? Personally? Mentally? Is there anything that makes this negative situation positive in some way?

Maybe its helping me more than I know it is. Maybe if I would have been out there I might not be alive right now. I might have crashed a Benz full of syrup and weed and killed myself, then yalld be wearing RIP Pimp C shirts instead of Free Pimp C shirts. So uh, you have to make your own assumptions about that.

Who do you have on the outside right now? Who do you feel is still behind you? Have you still got people looking out for you on the outside?

Well my family has been tremendous. My family is riding with me. I get a lot of fan mail. Positive. I get a lot of mail from Iraq. Soldiers, people. I aint really been in contact with too many artists since I been in but David Banner has been a blessing to me. Kid getting down for me, Im just gonna go ahead and let you know. He getting down for me in private and he getting down for me in public. And I got Bun out there keeping my name alive, its gonna be alright man. Im blessed.

Will you jump right back in the UGK situation when you get back out?

I never jumped out. I cant get out there and try to catch up. Im not no French fry so I cant catch up. I can only catch in with whats going on. If I try to catch up, Ima get caught back up so uh, as far as Im concerned it never stopped. I just got jerked away for a while. I got confined. For reasons. Everybody has they own opinion, I wont speculate. I wont make it like theres a big conspiracy against Pimp C and UGK.

Anything you want to say to your fans or anything you want me to make sure and get out there?

Yeah, first thing, C-Murder, Shyne, Beanie Siegel, Steady B, Cool C, keep yall heads up. Any differences me and any of those people may have had before, I consider that to be the past. To the people out there and to folks who listen to our music, if you have family members or folks that are locked up in prison, or people that you call your friends, say man, write them a letter man. If its a way you can go see them, go see them. I know in Texas we cant have but ten people on our visiting list and thats some bullshit. We cant change our visiting list but every six months. So its hard for people to be able to come see me. But if its possible for you to come see your people, go see them. Even if you feel like you aint been riding with them, send em a letter anyway cuz its never too late. Mail is very important to us in here. Write your people. If you got a couple of dollars, send em a couple of dollars. And remember, everyone who in the penitentiary is not necessarily guilty.

And RESPECT Bun B.

RIP Pimp C