Meet Julia Beverly, the Southern Rap Mogul Behind Pimp C's Biography

Julia Beverly: I really can! I mean, just the fact that it’s done is like amazing to me because I felt like I would never finish. I actually got it down to 740 pages; the rough draft was, like 1200 and my friends said, “You know, nobody is going to actually read this.” Although some people told me they would read a 1200 page book on Pimp C. I didn’t have a specific page count [in mind]; I just wanted to tell the story and however long it took was how long the book was going to be.

He had a long life! He unfortunately died young, but he had a long life. He had a lot going on and his story branched out into a lot of side stories that I thought would be of interest to readers. Even just researching for the book gave me a new understanding. I knew he was influential and all that before I started writing but I didn’t realize how really connected he was to everybody.

Basically everyone in Southern rap makes a little cameo appearance in the book one way or another. A lot of people were not just influenced by him but their careers were directly related to something he did. I was going to call it The Six Degrees of Pimp C because everybody is really connected to him, like the Kevin Bacon of Southern rap.

When did you know you wanted to write it?

After sitting down with his mom [who passed away in 2013]. I had always wanted to write a book. I don’t want to be a full-time author—I’ve just got a lot of other things going on—but I always liked to read and I felt like it would be cool to write a book. I felt that if the right topic came along that it would be something that I would be interested in doing.

I had been brainstorming about him a lot because I felt like he didn’t get the recognition that he deserved. Southern artists viewed him on a level like a Biggie or a Tupac but they had big documentaries and movies on their lives and people kind of know their stories. Whereas Pimp, people only know little bits and pieces and I felt like it wasn’t something that had been documented very well because there were a lot of things I didn’t really know, like why did he go to jail? People don’t really know that story so I thought it might be something interesting to research. When I initially had the idea, I asked Bun [B] his opinion and initially his wife was on board [Pimp C’s widow has since spoken out against the book].

I never really knew that his mom was his manager and I didn’t know how involved she was and when I went and sat down with her she was just like immediately, “Let’s do it!” She was a librarian by trade originally so she obviously had a great understanding of what it would take to write a book. Not only that, she remembered everything! When you interview people, some turn out to be more helpful than others [laughs]. Some people just see life differently, like some people will remember every detail of what he said, what he was wearing, what the expression was on your face. So when you’re writing a book about something that happened 15, 20 years ago and you have someone who was literally the backbone of the whole operation and she remembers everything, that’s like gold when you’re trying to write a book! Just talking to her and the way she remembered so clearly things involving him, she was really the reason for a lot of their success, I feel like. Sitting down with her, it was a no-brainer after that.

Do you think at that point it became your responsibility in a way?

I don’t know how to explain it but when you’re doing the right thing, when you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing, it’s just going to kind of come to you and fall in place. At least for me, that’s how my career has always been. People always ask, “What’s your five year plan?” And I’ve never had one. I never intended to start a magazine, it was never a thought in my mind to become a booking agent, things just fall into place. When you follow where the universe is leading you, things are just going to work out.

Image via Ozone Magazine.