Legendary Houston rapper Big Pokey (real name, Milton Powell) died overnight Sunday after collapsing at a bar in Beaumont, Texas, his publicist has confirmed. The rap star, best known as part of the Screwed Up Click rap collective, was 48 years old. :\'(

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/18/houston-rapper-big-pokey-dies-at-age-48

Fellow Screwed Up associate Bun B posted on Instagram that Big Pokey was “one of the pillars” and “one of the most naturally talented artists in the city” of Houston.

One of the original members of the Screwed Up Click named for the late rap star DJ Screw, Big Pokey helped to pioneer Houston’s “chopped-and-screwed” approach to hip-hop that referred to slowing the pitch of the underlying track to create a heavy, laid-back sound.

The style was often associated with lean, also known as purple drank or sizzurp, which is a concoction of codeine and promethazine cough syrup mixed with fruit-flavored soft drinks and ingested alongside large quantities of cannabis. The mix is supposed to make the world seem like it’s moving in slow motion. DJ Screw died from an overdose of purple drank.

George Floyd – who was killed in Minneapolis back in 2020 – was once a part of Houston’s Screwed Up Click, and he rapped on multiple mixtapes as Big Floyd during the 1990s.  :-\\

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Very sad.........

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/255578327/milton-jerome-powell