{"id":1952896,"date":"2025-08-10T18:31:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T18:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=1952896"},"modified":"2025-08-10T18:31:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T18:31:19","slug":"pxmxwx-were-weed-rap-pioneers-in-new-orleans-music-gambit-weekly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/pxmxwx-were-weed-rap-pioneers-in-new-orleans-music-gambit-weekly\/","title":{"rendered":"PxMxWx were weed rap pioneers in New Orleans | Music | Gambit Weekly"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Darryl ‘Big Man’ Howard<\/p>\n

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\n Photo provided by Darryl Howard<\/span>
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Today, cannabis and hip-hop are intimately intertwined. Countless hits have been made about the joy of smoking and misadventures of getting high, and a number of rappers, from Snoop Dogg to Wiz Khalifa, have crossed over to starting their own brands. New Orleans itself doesn\u2019t have to look very far: Curren$y has a catalog full<\/a> of weed-related songs, started Andretti Cannabis, and his brand, Jet Life, has a THC soda and gummy collaboration with Crescent Canna<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But weed and hip-hop haven\u2019t always gone<\/a> hand-in-hand. References to bud were rare until the mid-\u201980s, and even then, it was through subtle lines and innuendo. But a shift began to happen<\/a> in the early-’90s, and Dr. Dre’s \u201cThe Chronic\u201d made an explicit connection.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, hip-hop made by New Orleans artists<\/a> had been picking up steam in the late-\u201980s, and in the early years of the \u201990s, bounce emerged. Cannabis and music, especially jazz, already had a long history<\/a> in the city, and people here were smoking weed, but there hadn\u2019t yet been many songs overtly made about pot \u2014 until PxMxWx released their debut tape<\/a> \u201cHome Grown\u201d in 1992.<\/p>\n

Darryl \u201cBig Man\u201d Howard and Eric Timmons, who at the time went by DJ Razor Cut, formed the New Orleans hip-hop group PxMxWx \u2014 or Projects\u2019 Most Wanted \u2014 in the early \u201990s<\/a> and quickly released the cannabis-focused bounce track \u201cSplift Out.\u201d The song was a New Orleans hit and led the group to sign a deal as one of the first artists with Cash Money Records. Rappers Big Heavy and Black Jack also performed with PxMxWx during the group\u2019s time with Cash Money.<\/p>\n

PxMxWx followed up their tape<\/a> with the Mannie Fresh-produced full-lengths \u201cLegalize \u2018Pass Tha Weed\u2019\u201d in 1993 and \u201cHigh Life\u201d the following year. And soon, other artists began making hip-hop more overtly focused on weed, like Lady Red\u2019s \u201cSmokin\u2019 Dat Weed.\u201d<\/p>\n

PxMxWx split from Cash Money following \u201cHigh Life,\u201d and Howard went on to record a third album, \u201cA New Beginning\u201d as PxMxWx. Over the years, he has continued to record and perform as Big Man.<\/p>\n

Gambit spoke with Howard about forming PxMxWx and recording songs about weed. An edited transcript of the conversation follows.<\/p>\n

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the cover for PxMxWx’s album “Legalize ‘Pass Tha Weed'”<\/p>\n

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Gambit: Could you tell me about how PxMxWx started? Y\u2019all came up in the Iberville Projects, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Darryl \u201cBig Man\u201d Howard<\/strong>: Yeah. Actually, I came up in Iberville. The guy I was doing music with, DJ Razor Cut, he came up in the 9th Ward. He was known as DJ Razor Cut back when PxMxWx was together, me and him. He\u2019s now known as Freak Nasty, and he made a song called \u201cDa\u2019 Dip\u201d \u2014 \u201cI put my hand on your hip \/ When I dip, you dip, we dip.\u201d That\u2019s my buddy.<\/p>\n

Gambit: How did y’all know each other?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Howard<\/strong>: When we were in high school, we were DJs, and we came up together doing all kind of DJ stuff, doing parties and stuff like that \u2014 school dances, talent shows, all that.<\/p>\n

He left to go to California, and when he came back, T. Tucker and DJ Irv were out with \u201cWhere Dey At.\u201d We were listening and he said \u201cMan, we could do something better than that.\u201d At the time, Dr. Dre came out with \u201cThe Chronic,\u201d so I said, \u201cLet\u2019s do a weed song.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was in my apartment in the Iberville Projects, and [Razor Cut] had his drum machine and his recorder and everything, so he started laying the beat down with the \u201cTrigger Man\u201d beat (The Showboys\u2019 \u201cDrag Rap\u201d) everybody used back in the day for bounce. He recorded that, and I started down in the lyrics early in the morning \u2014 that\u2019s what gave me a raspy sound, being early in the morning. People think I was smoking.<\/p>\n

That song became \u201cSplift Out.\u201d And on the backside, we did \u201cBoot Up N****\u201d and \u201cAlphabet Bitches.\u201d<\/p>\n