Pimp C, Nas, Juicy J Keep Enemies as Close as ‘Friends’
Late Houston hip-hop luminary Pimp C rebuffs the traitors who paid him no mind during a prison sentence on “Friends,” a new track with Juicy J and Nas off the UGK rapper’s upcoming posthumous LP, Long Live the Pimp.
Over steady, tapping hi-hats, somber strings and a weeping guitar loop, Pimp C spits with silky solemnity, “No pictures, no commissary money to eat / And now you think it’s all good ’cause I’m back on the streets / I’m back on these beats, you’re still blowing in the wind / But these are niggas that we call friends.”
Juicy J jumps on the Southern gothic beat that interpolates TLC’s 1992 hit “What About Your Friends” with characteristic punch and vigor, while Nas spins an intricate yarn of betrayal, infidelity and crime that captures the destructive cycles many in impoverished areas are forced into.
Long Live the Pimp marks the third posthumous Pimp C album, and follows 2011’s Still Pimping (the rapper died of an accidental cough syrup overdose, exacerbated by sleep apnea in 2007). Along with Juicy J and Nas, the album features Lil Wayne — who appeared on the first single “3 Way Freak” — A$AP Rocky, Slim Thug, Ty Dolla $ign, David Banner, Devin the Dude, Lil Keke, ESG, Pimpin Ken, 8Ball and MJG, and Pimp C’s UGK partner, Bun B.
The album boasts production from Mr. Lee, Ray Murray (of Organized Noize), Crazy Mike and Cory Mo; it was helmed and executive produced by Pimp C’s widow, Chinara Butler.
Long Live the Pimp is available to pre-order on iTunes and arrives December 4th.