Coroner: Pimp C Died of Accidental Cough Syrup Overdose, Sleep Apnea

Los Angeles coroners have determined that a combination of sleep apnea and cough syrup are responsible for the death of UGK's Pimp C, who was found dead in an L.A. hotel in December. The coroners also ruled that the death was accidental. Sleep apnea is a condition that blocks one's air passages, causing sufferers to briefly stop breathing while sleeping, while the prescription drug in question, Promethazine/Codeine, is a cough syrup combination that often appears in rap song lyrics (including Three 6 Mafia and UGK's own "Sippin' on Some Syrup"). Pimp C was thirty-three.

Related Stories:
• Pimp C Buried in Texas
• Bun B, Chamillionaire, Paul Wall, Three 6 Mafia Remember UGK's Pimp C (1974-2007)
• UGK's Pimp C Found Dead in Hollywood; Exclusive Statement From Bun B

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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