11/13/2025
This Week in Texas Music History, a Houston artist and key DJ Screw affiliate takes flight.
On November 15, 1969, rapper John Edward Hawkins, known as Big Hawk or HAWK, was born in Houston. With his younger brother Patrick, aka Fat Pat, Hawk entered the Houston hip-hop scene in the early 1990s as a leading figure in DJ Screw’s Screwed Up Click. The brothers were close, and it was Fat Pat who found his way into Screw’s circle first after hearing rapper C-Note on one of the tapes that DJ Screw made in his home studio, slowing and manipulating recordings while encouraging local artists to freestyle, autobiographically, about Houston’s neighborhoods and culture.
In 1992, Fat Pat made his first tape, and he brought Big Hawk over to DJ Screw’s house practically the next day. Fat Pat and Big Hawk were SUC fixtures from there on out. In 2000, Hawk issued his first solo album Under H.A.W.K.’s Wings. “Solo” is a relative term, though, as the SUC always worked through collaboration, and Fat Pat, Lil’ Keke, Lil’ Flip, Big Moe, and more all contributed features to the record.
Two years later, Hawk created the label Ghetto Dreams Entertainment for his second solo release, the self-titled HAWK. That album’s single “You Already Know” was his most successful nationally, reaching 45 on Billboard’s rap chart. Big Hawk, SUC’s “Five Star General,” had a reputation as a leader and a peacemaker, negotiating conflicts in Houston’s hip-hop scene, and the 1998 death of his brother Fat Pat only strengthened Hawk’s commitment to nonviolence.
On May 1, 2006, Big Hawk was murdered outside a friend’s home, a crime still unsolved. The loss of the Hawkins brothers long before their time still echoes through Houston’s vibrant hip-hop scene.
Written by Jason Mellard from the Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University.
*This Week in Texas Music History is brought to you by Brane Audio.
Sources:
Gregory Sharpe in Laurie E. Jasinski, Gary Hartman, Casey Monahan, and Ann T. Smith, eds. The Handbook of Texas Music. Second Edition. Denton, TX: Texas State Historical Association, 2012. Lance Scott Walker. DJ Screw: A Life in Slow Revolution. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2022. Lance Scott Walker. Houston Rap Tapes: An Oral History of Bayou City Hip-Hop. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2018.
