Tony Silver, the director behind the seminal independent film Style Wars, passed away on February 1.

Originally shown at the 1984 Sundance Film Festival (where it won a Grand Prize for documentary films) and on PBS-TV, Style Wars was the first documentary to investigate the hidden world of graffiti in New York. Silver collaborated on the film with Henry Chalfant, the photographer whose books (Subway Art and its follow-up, Spraycan Art) comprise the definitive chronicle of early aerosol art. Style Wars features many now-legendary characters from that era, from Skeme 2 and Dondi to future mixtape king Kayslay (then known as Dez). Snippets from the film's soundtrack have popped up on numerous hip-hop recordings, including Ol' Dirty Bastard's Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version and Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star.

In 2003, after many years of falling out of circulation, Style Wars was reissued on DVD, winning a new generation of fans. An online version of it can be seen on Google Video.

On his MySpace blog, El-P posted an item titled "The Death of a Legend." As a member of Company Flow, El-P may have authored the best musical fusion of graffiti-minded lyrics and hip-hop beats with the classic Funcrusher Plus.

On January 17, J. Medeiros sent out a MySpace bulletin announcing that the Procussions have broken up.

The Procussions -- rapper/multi-instrumentalist/producer Stro and rapper/keyboardist/producer J. Medeiros -- may be best remembered as one of the groups that anchored Rawkus Records' comeback in 2006. It blended hot, percussive rhythms with deft MC'ing and a strong moral compass -- "American Fado," a track from their 2006 album 5 Sparrows for 2 Cents featured an appearance from Christian author Renee Altson.

Chad "Pimp C" Butler, who with Bun B formed the Southern rap pioneer Underground Kingz, passed away suddenly this morning at the age of 33. According to Allhiphop.com, one of the first outlets to report the story, he was found dead at the Mondrian Hotel at 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time when his family called the hotel to report him missing. In response, a 911 call was placed, and paramedics from the Los Angeles Fire Department responded, finding Pimp C dead in his hotel room. No cause of death has yet been determined.

UGK is one of the first Southern rap groups to win the respect of hip-hop fans around the world, including New York fans who, at the time, often refused to accept any form of hip-hop that didn't come from their region. UGK, Geto Boys, N.W.A. and the Posse (including the D.O.C.), Ice-T -- these are the artists that made hip-hop a truly universal art form where, in the words of Rakim, "It ain't where you from it's where you at."

As a onetime West Coast head, I'm not going to front like I'm a UGK expert. I first became aware of them back in 1993, when "Pocket Full of Stones," a single from their debut album Too Hard to Swallow, was included on the soundtrack to the Hughes Brothers' cult classic Menace II Society. Pimp C's inimitable twang -- "I've got a pocket full of stooones!" -- stuck in my head for years.

February 7 would have been James Yancey's birthday. Instead, one of hip-hop's great producers died three days after his 32nd year on Feb. 10, 2006 and then achieved a most bittersweet triumph.