Revered Houston rapper Big Pokey collapsed on stage while performing Saturday night and was pronounced dead Sunday.
Big Pokey, whose legal name was Milton Powell, was 45. His official cause of death was not immediately released.
“I wasn’t ready for this,” Big Pokey’s friend and fellow Houston rapper Bun B wrote on Instagram. “One of the most naturally talented artists in the city. Low key, humble mountain of a man who moved with honor and respect. He was easy to love and hard to hate.”
Big Pokey was performing at a nightclub in Beaumont, about 80 miles east of Houston, on Saturday night. Videos shared on social media showed him holding a microphone and then collapsing while on an elevated stage.
An off-duty Beaumont police officer was on the scene and first responders arrived almost immediately, the club owner told the Houston Chronicle. Big Pokey was rushed to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
“The City of Houston and I extend our prayers and condolences to our own Screwed Up Click legendary rapper (Big Pokey) family and friends,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner tweeted. “Though many called him ‘low key’, his presence was larger than life in helping to catapult our hip hop scene nationally.”
Big Pokey was a founding member of the Screwed Up Click, the southern rap group led by DJ Screw that pioneered Houston’s chopped-and-screwed sound in the 1990s.
Best known for his debut album, “Hardest Pit in the Litter,” and its follow-up, “D-Game 2000,” Big Pokey continued releasing music throughout the 2010s and put out his last project, “Sensei,” in 2021.
“I’ve been eating off this game for two and half decades,” he said in a promotional interview that year. “To last that long, you have to know how to move and groove. I guess it came at the right time because I’ve been in the game as long as I have.”
Big Pokey’s impact on Houston and southern rap was evident from those who paid tribute to him Sunday.
“It is with an extremely heavy heart that I make this post saying rest in peace to (Big Pokey) what a great mentor and friend,” Paul Wall wrote on Instagram. “A trendsetter and leader. I am so blessed to have known Big Pokey. My love, prayers, and condolences go out to your family. Rest in peace big bro. Sensei Forever.”
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