A Clark County country rap artist will be featured in a Discovery Channel show that delves into the illicit world of moonshining.
Big Chuk and his "double cousin" Joe Boy will be featured in a special episode of "Moonshiners" called "Ozark Outlaws to the Rescue" Tuesday at 7 p.m., and Betty's Big Country Dance Hall, a Caddo Valley venue that is featured in several of the scenes, will host a viewing party starting at 6 p.m.
While unable to give many details about the episode or the 13th season of the show, Big Chuk said filming for the show has been going on for nearly two years, and crews have traveled all over the state to film the show.
"We've got a one-hour special that'll drop Dec. 26 on Discovery Channel, and that's kind of like where they introduce us to the show," he said, noting he and his cousin will rejoin the show at some point in the season. "So it's one hour; it's me, it's my cousin, and then a couple of the other cast members that's been on there quite a while are on the episode with us. Then the new season drops the following week."
Big Chuk will also be releasing his newest album, "Moonshine Chuk," on Tuesday, his first album in several years. The rapper had decided to try and live "a normal life" after years of producing music and touring.
"That whole being an entertainer thing is kind of a tough -- it's a tough gig because everybody thinks that you desperately want their attention, but the reality of it is I don't really," he said of stepping away from public life.
"I'm not -- I told this to the network even -- I'm not the guy that just wants to be on TV to be on TV. I want to be on TV because I want it to be successful, and I want to be able to say that hailing out of Gurdon, Arkansas, was a gentleman that was able to do something with his life that nobody could have ever imagined someone doing that with their life," he said.
"But even when I did the music stuff, I had success, and I had a good run at it, but it was so hard to try to be a real person and entertainer all at the same time."
The new album grew out of his experiences on the show, Big Chuk said.
"Artistically speaking, I wanted to capture all that in a musical format, so that way, I could -- just me personally -- could go back and listen to it and be like, 'When I wrote this song, it was the day we done this scene,'" he said.
"So that was kind of the motivation. So I've titled it 'Moonshiner Chuk,' and it's literally a series of songs that's just written off of whatever kind of little mojo I got from filming."
Big Chuk first appeared on Discovery in the competition show "Master Distiller," a spinoff of "Moonshiners," and that appearance led to his joining the docudrama.
A fan of his had tried some of Big Chuk's moonshine and suggested he should go on the competition show, but the rapper assumed several emails from Magilla Entertainment were nothing more than spam.
"I ignored it, and then finally, that same gentleman reached out to me because he was friends with me on Facebook," he said. "And he was like, 'Hey, the production company is trying to get in touch with you.' I was like, 'Oh, I thought it was fake,' so I reached out to them. Long story short, went and did that show, filmed up there and left. Jason Fox, one of the owners of that production company, stopped me on my way out the door and was like, 'Hey, man, would you be interested in doing more stuff with us?'"
Big Chuk agreed, and about a month later, the show's creator contacted him, saying he would like for the rapper to join the docudrama.
"Our special that they're going to be showing at Betty's was literally -- it took us almost six weeks of filming altogether, collaboratively, six weeks consecutively to film that one episode," Big Chuk said.
"So it's a lot. It was a lot to do to get one episode done. Then from there, man, I can't really give much insight to what we do this season, but spotlight a whole lot of different areas of Arkansas, do some historical stuff about some towns in Arkansas, just some really cool stuff," he said.
The week after the initial filming of the special was completed, one of the stars of the show, Josh Owens, was injured in a motorcycle accident, and Big Chuk said the special will reference the crash.
"The motorcycle wreck happens in real time of the events of the special," he said. "So he's in that motorcycle accident, and then that's where Henry and Kenny Law, other cast members of the show and they're very prominent in that moonshine community, then come to Arkansas to aid and assist with -- we try to figure out a way to help Josh."
Big Chuk said the best thing about the show is showing that someone from a small town like Gurdon can get out and appear on television.
"I think it was really cool that little old me from Gurdon, Arkansas, that didn't have a whole lot of opportunities afforded for me or anything -- I was, statistically speaking, probably should have been on drugs or in prison or something like that -- and I was able to make it on a TV show and stuff," he said.
"And I think that gives a little hope to people from where I'm from, to be like, you can do stuff like that. That's a realistic thing.
"It's easy to say you can do stuff like that when you live in Nashville, Tennessee, and you want to be a musician because everywhere you look, there's musicians that are successful. But down here in Gurdon, Arkansas ... dreams like that are usually smushed out pretty quick for young people."
Gurdon rapper Big Chuk performs at Betty's Big Country Dance Hall earlier this year as a film crew from Discovery's "Moonshiners" captures video for the 13th season of the show. The dance hall will host a viewing party for a special episode that features the rapper and the venue Tuesday at 6 p.m. (Submitted photo)
A crew films a scene for the Discovery show "Moonshiners" at one of the pool tables at Betty's Big Country Dance Hall earlier this year. Big Chuk, third from left, is a local country rapper and moonshiner who will be joining the show in its 13th season. (Submitted photo)