How do you think Pimp C’s passing affected the Texas music scene? I think he was the life of this scene. Everybody says, “What if he was still here?” I don’t know. I didn’t know him personally. I got a chance to meet him three or four weeks before he passed. I was a huge fan and I got to meet him in front of Onyx strip club in Houston. I gave him a CD and we chopped it up and he was real cool. So, you can never really say for sure. I don’t know who would be here or who wouldn’t be here or what he would speak on, but it seems like it would be a stronger scene. I think we’re trying to get up out of the trenches right now, but you know, Bun is doing a lot to help too. Houston really put sippin’ syrup on the map and then it became sort of a national epidemic. Do you feel like it’s still prevalent or has it fallen off with people like Lil Wayne and Paul Wall publicly talking about quitting? I really think right now it might be a bigger issue than ever. Just the other day a friend of mine showed me on YouTube how there are kids pouring up lean like ridiculously because cats like Drake and Lil Wayne were talking about it. You know, kids will follow whatever, and they don’t really know what they’re doing with the drug because they just take it and mix it up no matter how much they pour up. It’s kinda scary because they’re doing it not caring about what the repercussions might be. I have pa’tnas that have been addicted to it for years, since before it was “cool” to do it. It’s really not cool, man. I occasionally do it myself but I don’t go crazy with it because I’ve seen what can happen. I feel like if you know the repercussions and you have common sense, you should know not to do it. But people really follow music and they’ll do whatever they think is cool. What kind of repercussions have you seen - medical issues? Yeah, it really messes up your stomach, and of course it can kill you. Obviously we’ve seen it happen. People just have to be more careful. It’s not like weed. You can’t overdose on smoking weed, but drank, if you do enough of that, it’ll take you out of the game. Even trying to quit can be a struggle. I’ve seen that with people passing kidney stones and all that type of stuff. It’s not something you should really want to do. Will this be your first year at SXSW? Nah, I’ve been going for a minute. This might be my fourth or fifth time going. I was out here grinding before I got with [Slim Thug’s] Boss Hogg Outlawz. It’s crazy to see the progression. I remember when you would go out there and see [major artists] just walking down the street with no security. Last year is the first year it really got crazy; you had Jay-Z, Kanye, all these big artists down there. I’ll be performing at like four spots. I just dropped my new single last week with Dom Kennedy and Mac Miller, so we’re going to try to make the video happen [during SXSW]. // Website: settle4les.com Twitter: @Settle4Les
31 // OZONE MAG
OZONE MAG // 31