Houston rapper Big Pokey, an integral a part of the native scene and an unique member of the collective Screwed Up Click, has died, his publicist instructed native information station Fox 26. He fainted whereas acting at Pour 09 Bar in Beaumont, Texas simply after midnight on Sunday (June 18). Huge Pokey was rushed to a hospital, the place he later died. His reason behind demise is pending awaiting post-mortem outcomes. The rapper was 45 years previous.
“It’s with deep unhappiness that we share the information of the passing of our beloved Milton ‘Huge Pokey’ Powell,” reads a press release from the rapper’s publicist on behalf of his household, who requested for privateness. “Huge Pokey handed away on June 18, 2023. He was well-loved by his household, his mates, and his loyal followers. Within the coming days, we’ll launch details about his celebration of life and the way the general public will pay their respects. We ask that you simply respect his household and their privateness throughout this tough time. Huge Pokey will without end be ‘The Hardest Pit within the Litter.’”
Born Milton Powell in 1977, Huge Pokey gravitated in direction of Houston’s chopped and screwed rap scene whereas he was a teen in class, and he was immediately recognizable along with his hypnotic baritone voice. DJ Screw invited him and different native rappers to freestyle over lots of his early Screw Tapes; Huge Pokey would go on to grow to be a founding member of that collective, hailed because the Screwed Up Click on. One among his most well-known freestyles, a six-minute lengthy look on the 1996 epic “June 27th,” has since gained legendary standing within the Houston scene and past, serving as a classic introduction point to Southern-style rapping. When requested in 2001 interview about how he began rapping as a baby and ended up recording with DJ Screw, Huge Pokey defined: “We had been simply enjoying round. As soon as I received in with Screw and we received to do it on the desk, we had been at all times doing it for the enjoyable of it. I used to be by no means doing it for issues to explode.”
After leaving to check at Blinn Faculty, Huge Pokey returned in 1999 along with his debut full-length album, Hardest Pit within the Litter, which additional earned him fame exterior of his hometown metropolis. He adopted it up with D-Sport 2000 the following 12 months. After collaborating with acts just like the Wreckshop Wolfpack and Huge Moe in 2001, he launched his third solo album, Da Sky’s Da Restrict, in 2002. Paul Wall invited him to hop on his single “Sittin’ Sidewayz” in 2005, which might mark his first time charting on the Billboard Sizzling 100. Through the years, Huge Pokey would go on to launch 5 different solo albums, the newest of which was 2021’s Sensei, and launch joint data with artists like Chris Ward, E.S.G., J-Dawg, and others. Final 12 months, joined Megan Thee Stallion on her Traumazine tune “Southside Royalty Freestyle” alongside a slate of fellow Houston rap legends.
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