Eric Woods, a Houston rap pioneer who recorded as O.G. Style, died Thursday night. According to friends, Woods, 37, felt ill Wednesday night and was taken to St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital. He suffered from a brain hemorrhage and slipped into a coma Thursday morning.

Woods is best known for Catch ‘Em Slippin’ (I Know How to Play ‘Em), a song that was popular in the region in 1991, though it didn’t chart nationally. Still, one of O.G. Style’s contemporaries, K-Rino (aka Eric Kaiser), calls the song “a true hood anthem, one that you still hear to this day. Every rapper in this town knows the lyrics to it.”

Said rapper Smurk, aka Dwight Allen, a friend and frequent collaborator: “A lot of people talk about the pioneers of Houston rap, the people who made an early impact. If they don’t mention O.G. Style, they don’t know what they’re talking about.”

Prior to adopting the name O.G. Style, Woods performed around the city as Prince Ezzy-E starting in the mid-’80s.

When rapper Eazy-E began to draw attention with N.W.A around the same time, Woods tweaked his moniker to Original E. With the late DJ Boss he started a group called O.G. Style, which signed to Rap-A-Lot records and released its only album in 1991. DJ Boss soon formed another group, and Woods adopted the name O.G. Style as his own.

Woods grew up in the Fourth Ward, a neighborhood west of downtown Houston and a frequent backdrop for his music over two decades. “Fourth Ward,” said Smurk, “he owned that. He represented that.”

In 2006, he shot his Gangsta video there. As with his music more than 15 years earlier, O.G. Style chose an alternative to glorified gangster rap. The song is a reaction to 50 Cent’s rise. “Watch how many gangsta rappers start coming out,” he raps. “Sticking out their chests like they’re hard. … Walking with a gangster limp, talking like you is a pimp.”

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