Long Live The Pimp: Preview Pimp C's Posthumous LP w/ Trill Ambassador Sama'an Ashrawi [Review + Full LP Stream]
UPDATE: Due to questions about their involvement in the new Pimp C posthumous LP Long Live The Pimp (see below) the children of Chad Butler AKA Pimp C have released a statement to clarify and condemn the project. We reprint the statement--which came to Okayplayer via our reviewer Sama'an Ashrawi and Pimp C biographer Julia Beverly in full below to give Pimp C fans full context for what they're hearing. -ed.
"PSA FOR ALL PIMP C FANS: I want Pimp C fans to know that his family - myself and my younger brother Corey Butler - had no part in the creation of this 'new' Pimp C album and don't receive any of the benefits from album sales. The only person who benefits is his wife Chinara, who doesn't return phone calls or communicate with us at all, and possibly our sister Christian, but even that is debatable. My father was always supportive of myself and my brother, and I know he wouldn't want us to be forgotten as a part of his legacy." - Chad Butler Jr.
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“A toast to Pimp C / now on to fake friends,” NaS proclaims on “Friends,” a tantalizing collabo with Chinara Butler (Pimp C’s widow) and Academy Award-winner, Juicy J from Pimp C’s posthumous album Long Live The Pimp. Hearing Nas offer a toast to Pimp has to make you smile. Who ever would have thought that a bespectacled, trumpet-playing kid from humble Port Arthur, Texas, would go on to out-rap Shawn Carter (in a mink coat, no less) and get a nod from God’s Son himself?
Since Uncle Chad's passing in 2007, we’ve been gifted: the final UGK album, UGK 4 Life, two solo projects, one of his greatest verses ever on the remix to Jay Z’s “Tom Ford,” and now, finally, Long Live The Pimp. And with that effort now available to the masses (Stream the full album now via iTunes. Long Live The Pimp officially drops Friday, Dec. 4th via Mass Appeal Records--pre-order here) we can state with more confidence a few things we already suspected: a) posthumous albums are always tough to listen to; b) very few rappers could ever cuss with as much ferocity as Pimp C; and c) Pimp will always sound best over his own production.
There’s nothing here that grabs you as urgently as the “Tom Ford” verse or some of the cuts from his first two posthumous albums, The Naked Soul of Sweet Jones and Still Pimping, like “What Up” (which features some of Drake’s most quotable lines ever) or “Hit The Parking Lot,” visited by a maniacal Lil’ Boosie, or “Grippin’ On The Wood,” where his UGK partner Bun B drops an incredible Helen Mirren reference and Big K.R.I.T. cusses the shit out of his verse, which surely would have made Pimp proud. Still on “3 Way Freak,” the album’s first single, Pimp C assures us that he’s, “a young Marvin Gaye in ’68 in his prime,” over an expansive Mr. Lee beat. It sounds like Pimp and Lil’ Wayne are rapping in a candy-coated spaceship.
>>>Stream Pimp C - Long Live The Pimp (via iTunes)
Pimp's catalogue of unreleased solo material has to be running thin at this point, which is why production here is handled mainly by Mr. Lee, a Houston veteran, with contributions from Juicy J and Mike Will Made It. To his credit, Lee makes use of the Meters’ style church organs that have become synonymous with Pimp C, but we know that from the beginning, Pimp, like Dr. Dre, always preferred to work with real live musicians and there are few, if any, to be found here. This is a project that surely would have benefitted from the touch of Pimp’s country rap tune co-conspirators like Mike Dean, Steve Below, and Cory Mo.
For those who like thinkin’ with their pimpin’ (to parapharase Bun: Read A Book!) Julia Beverly’s Sweet Jones: Pimp C’s Trill Life Story is an invaluable resource in understanding the music of Pimp C and Bun B from now until eternity. One of the most thorough biographies since Charles Cross took on Hendrix in Room Full of Mirrors, Beverly’s book was written with invaluable insight from Pimp’s mother, and long time road manager, Mama Wes (may she rest in peace). Whether learning about Pimp’s diagnosed bi-polar disorder, his own perceived schizophrenia, and the many characters he created to help himself cope with the cold realities of being both a) black in pro-death penalty, prison-happy, racist Texas, and b) an outsider in an industry run by a handful of offices in New York City, the context Beverly provides helps the listener understand which Chad Butler you’re hearing on a given record...
To be certain, Pimp C the introvert is nowhere to be found on this record, neither is Tony Snow, the ghetto diplomat who, upon his release from jail, used his influence to unite Houston’s beefing rappers. What we hear on this project is almost exclusively the aggressive braggadocio of James Jones—a character who would not be out of place as the protagonist of a Blaxploitation flick—and his pimpin exploits.
For this reason, the standout track is the vulnerable, “To Lose A Whore,” a pimpin blues ballad that bears the distinction of being the only Pimp C production on the project. It’s Pimp channeling the spirit of Junior Kimbrough.
On “To Lose,” we hear Pimp lament, “How does it feel to lose the one / the one that had yo’ kids / the one that had yo’ son / how does it feel to lose your main / the one you came up with, she helped get yo’ paper straight.”
These lines are heavy because Pimp’s sons came into this world well before Pimp’s marriage to Chinara Butler, but, while Chinara and Pimp’s daughter Christian gets an executive producer credit, neither of his sons are mentioned in the liner notes. It makes you wonder about the deeper familial ties in the Butler family. For those who remain professed and dedicated UGK fans, purchasing Long Live The Pimp comes with the hope of supporting Pimp C’s children while still keeping his legacy alive. If this isn’t the case, well, it makes this posthumous offering seem like a difficult pill to swallow.
Many close to Pimp say that he had his eyes set on doing a blues album, so we would say “To Lose” is the closest we’ll get to hearing what Chad Butler, the Bluesman, may have sounded like, but, thankfully, we have been blessed by Nashville-based producer Amerigo Gazaway who recently released the brilliant BB King x UGK mashup project, The Trill Is Gone. A must-listen in 2015.
On “True to the Game,” David Banner, one of UGK’s brightest disciples, turns a somber story into a celebration of Pimp C’s spirit. Banner was in the studio in Los Angeles when Pimp landed at LAX for the last time. Pimp called, but Banner was “in the zone” and didn’t answer. “I didn’t pick up the phone,” admits Banner, “Now I’m here all alone.” Rest assured, from here on out, he plans to keep Pimp’s memory alive by letting his nuts hang and screaming out “uuhhhh” on the phone. We hear you, Banner. These are moments we want more of on an album from one of hip-hop’s most revered statesman.
Elsewhere, Pimp dabbles in Patois, singing, “Rudeboy shuffle kinky reggae” on the KC On Tha Track-produced “Butta Cookie.” “Bawmbaclawt, b**ch!” Pimp ad-libs, much to our delight. It’s not the first time the UGK posse has experimented with reggae stylings; UGK’s “Candy,” from their eponymous, first post-incarceration album, borrows its bass riff from Bob Marley’s “Waiting In Vain.”
When Pimp C declares, “Sweet Jones, 2002 / really 2006 because I’m light years away from yo’ b**ch ass,” at the end of “To Lose A Whore,” it’s a reminder of how difficult it must be to craft a cohesive narrative out of verses scattered over a period of 10-15 years. It also reminds us that Pimp was ahead of his time—and he knew it. But, thanks in large part to a lengthy jail sentence—the product of a shady prosecution—he never had the chance to fully explore his ever-flowing ideas. Even when he was alive, we often missed Pimp C; any chance to hear something new from him felt rare. It’s for this reason that, eight years after his untimely passing, Long Live The Pimp is to be treasured by true fans, flaws and all—and why we’re still going to hit “play” on anything with his name.
Sama'an Ashrawi is a regular contributor to Okayplayer, the official-unofficial documentarian of all things related to UGK and Bun B and proud to call himself a Trill Ambassador.