John Edward Hawkins (November 15, 1969 – May 1, 2006), better known by his stage names Big Hawk and H.A.W.K., was an American rapper from

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

and a founding member of the late

DJ Screw Robert Earl Davis Jr. (July 20, 1971 – November 16, 2000), better known by his stage name DJ Screw, was an American hip hop DJ based in Houston, Texas, and best known as the creator of the chopped and screwed DJ technique. He was a centra ...

's rap group the

Screwed Up Click The Screwed Up Click (or S.U.C.) is an American hip hop collective based in Houston, Texas, that was led by DJ Screw. Its most notable members include DJ Screw, Big Hawk, Big Mello, Big Moe, Big Pokey, the Botany Boyz, E.S.G., Fat Pat, L ...

Life and career

Born John Edward Hawkins in

on July 24, 1969, he grew up with a younger brother, Patrick "Fat Pat" Hawkins and two sisters. He started rapping in 1992 when Fat Pat took him to DJ Screw's house, an upcoming mixtape producer and DJ in the southern area of Houston. In April 2006 Hawk married his longtime girlfriend, Meshah Henderson. The couple had two sons.
In 1994 Hawk, Fat Pat,

Lil' Keke Marcus Lakee Edwards (born March 29, 1976), better known by his stage name Lil' Keke, is an American rapper and original member of the Southern hip hop collective Screwed Up Click. Biography Music career Lil' Keke gained national attention with ...

and Koldjack collaborated to form the group D.E.A. and Dead End Records (named for the dead end block of Martin Luther King Blvd where Hawk grew up in Houston). In late 1998 D.E.A. released an original independent album entitled, ''Screwed For Life'' featuring

Big Pokey Milton Jerome Powell Jr. (November 29, 1974 – June 18, 2023), better known by his stage name Big Pokey, was an American rapper from Houston, Texas. Big Pokey was associated with chopped and screwed music, and was one of the original members o ...

and the rest of the S.U.C. After the deaths of Hawk's brother (Fat Pat) and DJ Screw and the incarceration of many others SUC members, Hawk's ultimate mission and goal became keeping the "Ghetto Dream" alive. In 1999 Hawk participated in a Southside Playaz compilation album titled ''You Got Us Fuxxed Up'', with Mike D, Claydoe and other members of the S.U.C. Hawk released his solo album, '' Under Hawk's Wings'' on Dead End Records in 2000 and had recorded with

Lil' Flip Wesley Eric Weston Jr. (born 3 March 1981), better known by his stage name Lil' Flip, is an American rapper. Raised in Houston, Texas, he began his musical career as a freestyle and battle rapper before signing with the local record label Sucka ...

Big Moe Kenneth Doniell Moore (August 20, 1974 – October 14, 2007), better known by his stage name Big Moe, was an American rapper from Houston, Texas. Early life Kenneth Doniell Moore was born in Houston, Texas on August 20, 1974, and he grew up in ...

Z-Ro Joseph Wayne McVey (born January 19, 1977), better known by his stage names Z-Ro and the Mo City Don, is an American rapper from Houston, Texas. He was named one of America's most underrated rappers by ''The New York Times'' in 2007. Early life ...

and was featured on the Lil' Troy hit " Wanna Be A Baller". Big Hawk appeared on numerous mixtapes from artists in the Houston underground rap scene. After Screw's death in 2000, he was the main person responsible for keeping the S.U.C. together, so much so that his nickname was the Five Star General of the Screwed Up Click. He collaborated with Lil' O on the smash hit, "Back Back" Next, he partnered with Game Face Records in 2002 and released his first album under his label Ghetto Dreams Entertainment, self-titled, "HAWK". With the hit song, "U Already Know", the album charted the Billboard's list of top R&B and Rap Albums at no. 45. It was at Game Face Records where Hawk met and clicked with a young up and coming group called the GritBoyz and an artist named Starchy Archy. Hawk and Ghetto Dreams Ent. teamed up with Presidential Records in 2003 to release "A Bad Azz Mix Tape Vol. II." A year later he and

teamed up to release "Wreckin 2K4" with Presidential Records as well. It was around this time when the original S.U.C. members, along with M.J. (of Southside Studios) started collaborating on a group/compilation album titled "The Takeover". Trae tha Truth made an album dedicated to BIG HAWK called ''Life Goes On.'' Hawk was featured on the popular single "Swang" by

Trae Trae is a given name. Notable people with the name "Trae" include * Trae Bell-Haynes (born 1995), Canadian basketball player * Trae Coyle (born 2001), English footballer * Trae Crowder (born 1986), American comedian * Trae Elston (born 1994), Am ...

that included a tribute to Fat Pat in 2005. In 2006, Hawk, along with Clint Dempsey of the U.S. National Soccer team recorded a song for Nike's "Joga Bonito" World Cup soccer promotion called "Don't Tread". He was part of

Pepsi Pepsi is a Carbonated water, carbonated soft drink with a cola flavor, manufactured by PepsiCo which serves as its flagship product. In 2023, Pepsi was the second most valuable soft drink brand worldwide behind Coca-Cola; the two share a long ...

Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...

"Houston Mic Pass" with

Chamillionaire Hakeem Temidayo Seriki (born November 28, 1979), better known by his stage name Chamillionaire (), is an American rapper. He began his career in Houston's hip hop scene in the late 1990s. He was briefly signed with the local record label Swishah ...

, Chingo Bling, Bun B, Short Dawg, Magno and Mike D. Since his death, Hawk has been featured on several tracks including Lil O's "I Do" single, "Down In Texas" off of the 2008 A.B.N. album ''It Is What It Is'', and Big Unk's "I'ma Beast" to name a few. On November 11, 2011, two posthumous singles were released called "Somebody Who Loves You" and "Praise God."

Death

On May 1, 2006, eight years after his younger brother Fat Pat was murdered, Hawkins was shot dead in Houston. He had arrived early at a house on Redfern Drive to play

dominoes Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also called ''Pip (counting), pips ...

with a friend, and was alone at the time when an unknown assailant shot him multiple times. Hawkins was 36 years old. His murder remains unsolved. Fellow Houston rapper Bun B, in an interview with the ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...

'', said about Hawkins: "There were no chinks in this man's moral armor. Because he was a rapper, there will be people who will take his death the wrong way, but he was a peaceful guy and a family man who had no beefs with anybody".

Discography

Studio albums

Mixtapes

*2004: ''A Bad Azz Mix Tape Vol. II.'' *2005: ''The Incredible Hawk Undaground Volume 1'' *2005: ''The Incredible Hawk Undaground Volume 2'' *2006: ''Since the Gray Tapes, Vol. 4'' *2007: ''Terrible Texas Dub K Six''

Guest appearances

Awards and nominations

Grammy Awards

The

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

are annual awards presented by

The Recording Academy National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. (NARAS), doing business as The Recording Academy, is an American Learned society, learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is widely kno ...

to recognize outstanding achievement in the mainly English-language

music industry The music industry are individuals and organizations that earn money by Songwriter, writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music and sheet music, presenting live music, concerts, ...

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2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

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References

External links

H.A.W.K.
at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hawk, Big 1969 births 2006 deaths 2006 murders in the United States African-American male rappers 21st-century American male rappers Deaths by firearm in Texas Gangsta rappers Murdered African-American people People murdered in Texas Rappers from Houston Screwed Up Click members Underground rappers Unsolved murders in the United States 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century African-American musicians 21st-century African-American musicians