Curtis Davis, who grew up in Houston, Texas, launched his recording career in 1992 under the name Big Mello, issuing the album Bone Hard Zaggin through the Rap-a-Lot imprint. Two years afterward, Wegonefunkwichamind surfaced without any of Rap-a-Lot’s customary guest appearances. Listeners who absorbed Big Mello’s deep Texas sound drew favorable comparisons to Scarface and the rising Z-Ro, yet Rap-a-Lot struggled to find a suitable presentation for Mello, prompting a move to additional labels. In 1996 the modest N-Terrogation imprint put out Southside Story, an effort that never carried his reputation beyond the most devoted segment of Texas hip-hop listeners. Mello remained absent from the scene until 2002, when word surfaced that he was preparing the album Done Deal. On June 15 of that year he lost control of his vehicle, struck a pillar, and died along with a passenger. Without advance notice, the KMJ label released The Gift that August; Z-Ro contributed a guest verse, and a modest but devoted audience hailed the project as Big Mello’s finest work, surpassing the much-anticipated Done Deal, which finally emerged a year later on the Woss Ness label. Over time Mello’s nearly unavailable catalog retained a loyal following, with copies routinely commanding fifty dollars on Internet auction sites. In 2006 Rap-a-Lot mined its archive to issue screwed-and-chopped remixes of the rapper’s first two albums.
