Charizma is killed

Why it matters

Charles Hicks, who recorded as Charizma in the Bay Area duo Charizma & Peanut Butter Wolf, was shot to death during a botched carjacking in Milpitas, California, on December 16, 1993. He was 20. Charizma had been recording with his partner Peanut Butter Wolf (Chris Manak, a producer who at the time was nobody) for several years. They had a deal almost in place with Hollywood Basic Records before Charizma was killed. The deal fell apart afterward. The album they had recorded together, Big Shots, sat on a hard drive for ten years. In 2003, Peanut Butter Wolf, who had by then founded a small independent label called Stones Throw, finally released the album as Charizma's posthumous debut. Stones Throw went on to become one of the most important underground rap labels of the 2000s (Madlib, MF DOOM, J Dilla, Quasimoto, Aloe Blacc, the whole Madvillainy thing). None of that label exists without Charizma. Peanut Butter Wolf founded Stones Throw, in part, to make sure Charizma's record could come out. You should hear Big Shots. The duo was about to become something. Then they weren't.