Big Pokey, of Houston’s legendary Screwed Up Click, dies after collapsing at Juneteenth show

HOUSTON (AP):

Big Pokey, a popular Texas rapper and original member of Houston’s pioneering Screwed Up Click, died on Sunday after a Juneteenth performance. Born Milton Powell, Pokey was 48.

Known for Texas and Gulf Coast hits such as Ball N’ Parlay, Who Dat Talking Down, and a verse on DJ Screw’s nearly 36-minute iconic freestyle known as June 27th, he collapsed while performing at Pour09, a Beaumont bar and nightlife space about an hour east of Houston.

Videos quickly circulated on social media of the rapper, who was featured on Megan Thee Stallion’s 2022 Southside Royalty Freestyle, taking a deep breath into his microphone before appearing to pass out and fall on to his back. Pokey’s death was confirmed to AP by his publicist La’Torria Lemon, as well as Tom Gillam III, a justice of the peace in Jefferson County, where Powell was performing. Family and officials are awaiting autopsy results to learn the cause of death.

Big Pokey, known by a slew of nicknames including Big Poyo and Podina, began to garner local fame in the late ‘90s as an original member of the Screwed Up Click, a friend group-turned-rap collective led by DJ Screw. The trendsetting DJ developed the slowed, pitched-down music style known as “chopped and screwed” music that would eventually become synonymous with Houston, and whose mixtapes spread throughout the southeastern United States.

The sound reached a fever pitch in the mid-2000s as other fellow popular underground Houston artistes like Lil’ Flip, Slim Thug, Paul Wall, Chamillionaire and UGK signed national distribution deals and brought mainstream attention to the sound.

Pokey released his debut album, Hardest Pit in the Litter in 1999, and Da Game 2000 the following year. It was a pre-streaming era where music was regionalised, and the most popular Houston rappers could become wealthy without ever having to tour or get radio play outside of the state.

Pokey grew up in the southside of Houston where he became a football standout at Yates High School, becoming very close friends with George Floyd, the black man whose murder by Minneapolis police touched off global protests and a national reckoning with police brutality and racism.

In an op-ed for the Chronicle, published days after Floyd’s killing and calling for police accountability, Pokey reflected on his days playing high school football with ‘Big Floyd’ and their an enduring bond.

He leaves behind a wife and three college-aged children.