BUN B  (Part 2) (January 2008) | Interview By: Nima

This is Part 2 of the interview, where we talk more about "II Trill", as well as the possibility of a new UGK album with unreleased material. Bun tells us who he's feeling right now, his predictions for Hip-Hop in 2008, ringtone music, the digital age, artists relying on their MySpace pages, the evolution of the word "gangsta", the reality of the hood, and much more.




As ever, you can read this exclusive interview below and we urge you to leave feedback on our forums or email them to nima@dubcnn.com.

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Interview was done in January 2008

Questions Asked By: Nima

Bun B Gave Dubcnn A Shoutout! Check That Here

Full Audio Interview Here
 

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Read or listen to Part 1 of this exclusive interview Here
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Dubcnn: So what are the similarities and differences between Trill and the new one?

Wow, that's a good question. I don't even be looking at myself like that, it's crazy that you ask this shit cause I never looked at Trill in retrospect! I didn't really have a chance to, cause we jumped right into this UGK shit. The main difference I think, was the anxiety going in. Getting started on "Trill" was one of the worst periods in my life, because I didn't really wanna accept that I was going to have to make music without Chad [Pimp C], which was a hard pill to swallow by itself. And because Pimp was the producer for most of the music, he held the responsibility for a lot of the music, with Pimp not being in the equation, I held the responsibility, which was a little bit of pressure and anxiety within its muthafuckin' self.

I tucked it up and we eventually made it happen. And I thank God even more that I had already started this [II Trill] album, cause I would be starting from an even more fucked up place. Trying to put a whole album together! Although that's what happens a lot of times with artists, Marvin Gaye made a whole album about divorcing his wife, but you have to be very careful when it comes to emotions close to you. At the end of the day we still have to entertain people, it's a lot of UGK fans, and even though on this new album we had a lot of serious issues we wanted to get off our chest, at the end of the day we still had to be jamming. You still gotta be jamming.


Dubcnn: When can we expect "II Trill" to drop in stores?

Right now we're looking at April Fools day.


Dubcnn: Can we expect a video for "That's Gangsta"?

I'm trying to get ready to shoot one, the label kind of wants to wait to see what this does. It's kind of fucked up, because with the way the industry is right now, labels are so nervous about any money they spend. I'm considering just getting camcorder, buying a couple of plane tickets and going to a couple gangsta cities across America and just shooting some shit, you know?


Dubcnn: Shit, why not?

I'm just keeping it 100, I ain't going to overthink this shit, I'ma put the music out, see what happens, and then we'll go from there, but I know all my trillionaires out there are going to stand up for me, they know who we're doing this for, we're keeping the movement alive for the legacy of UGK and the memory of Pimp C, so it's going to be a lot of more that we'll be doing. It's no way we can sit down now, no way we can sit down.


Dubcnn: How much unreleased UGK material is there, do you think we can expect an album of unreleased songs to come out?

The UGK album is definitely going to be happening! As far as beyond that, I can't really speak on that.


Dubcnn: So you got another record done?

Nah, not fully done, we're going to have to do some shit, but it's probably about 65-75% done. We still had a lot of songs from Underground Kingz, cause we could have made that album a triple CD if we wanted to. So we had planned to drop another one this year, I was going to do my solo, he was going to do his solo, and then we were going to hit them with another UGK around November of this year. So there is an album. I don't know exactly how much music Pimp had saved up, I know that pretty much all he did was work, but I don't have any of that music, I'm not sitting on a bunch of UGK music. He was married, so his wife has got a lot of that. I don't know the extent as to how much music there is.


Dubcnn: When I spoke to you last summer, you named some of the artists you were currently bumping, how has that list changed since then? Who are your favorites for '08?

It's still early in 2008. I definitely like how the Lupe Fiasco album turned out, I definitely like how Ghostface's album turned out. You know who's got a good album out right now my nigga? Crucial Conflict!


Dubcnn: I ain't even heard it yet!

Them niggas got a banging album. It's called "Planet CruCon"! Oh yeah, and Wale, I've been talking to the young boy too, he got the mixtape out "100 Miles & Runnin", and that whole DMV Movement, that could be huge! He's got this movement that he calls the DMV movement, which is DC, Maryland & Virginia. Really it's just so much going on in them areas and niggas haven't been getting their recognition, but that's a real strong movement right there with the DC, Maryland & Virginia movement, that shit could come together. I know they're talking to Pusha from Virginia from the Clipse, if they can make that happen that can easily become as big as the Atlanta or Houston movement, anything. So big shouts to that young boy, he's on the right page, just keep doing him, which sometimes can be hard to do.


Dubcnn: You still following the Hip-Hop Weekly's?

Oh yeah absolutely, I think Crooked just did Week 42!


Dubcnn: Exactly! I see you keeping up with everything.

*laughs* Oh without a question, I don't sleep!


Dubcnn: What are your predictions for the direction the game is going to take this year?

Honestly? I don't see the trends changing anytime soon. So anybody that's got a problem with radio and Hip-Hop right now, I don't see the trend of what's selling just changing right off the bat. I think people are going to start accepting the fact that they can make some money from rap, and not necessarily to moving scan units. Everybody got problems with digital sales, but there are people who are selling a lot of digital record, and that's the future of music, not just the future of rap music, that's the future of music! So you might as well get on the fuckin' train!

In a minute, we're all gonna be ringtone artists, because the physical aspect of buying an album from a store is getting almost tiresome for the consumers. Like I look at Apple just making this deal with Blockbuster to rent movies online. That's it! Between Netflix and that, it's a wrap! Why should you spend the gas and the time to go rent a movie from Blockbuster? You know what I'm saying? So that's it! Now, thank God that I come from a generation of people that's gotta have their records, gotta have their albums.


Dubcnn: I love having the artwork, the production credits and all that.

Yeah but if you buy the digital album, you get the digital booklet now! You buy an album from iTunes, you get the artwork, it's just digital!


Dubcnn: True...

You feel me? Like I said, this is Houston, we have a car culture, this is a car city, people listen to their music and damn near spend most of their life in cars. Niggas gotta have that shit to put in the CD player. A lot of niggas I know, they hood niggas, they ain't computer savvy like that, so they got no PC to plug their Mp3 player to, they not in that loop! That's why a lot of them niggas be forced to buy bootlegs, cause it's like "Damn I need this album!" But niggas is digitally getting their hands on shit before a nigga can get the shit physically. Niggas that buy bootlegs that are 30+, they eventually go buy the album, but 18 and under, they don't do that. But for the most part, this shit is switching over. So don't diss the fans, they're just doing what they can do get the music, don't diss the fans!


Dubcnn: I remember last time we talked, you said that through this evolution, the value of a song is going down, it doesn't have the same value as it had before. So what does that mean for the future of music? I mean if a song loses its value, the art loses its value, so where's that gonna end up?

Well, I mean that's kinda hard to say.


Dubcnn: It's a scary thought though..

It's a very real thought! Not that there aren't still going to be people that appreciate music, but is there going to be music for them to appreciate? You know? I think that's a problem. You can't get mad at the stores, cause they're stocking it. It's kind of hard for the consumer. It's like "Who's your argument with?"

The artists who are getting played have no say as to who doesn't get play! So why get mad at the kid that's number 1, because your guy isn't number 1? The guy who's number has nothing to do with whether your guy is number 1! You know what I'm saying? A lot of people are mad, they have this anger, they wanna be mad at somebody, but they don't really know who to be mad at! If you're a consumer, you gotta be mad at yourself!


Dubcnn: That's true, cause most of the people complaining, ain't the ones buying the records either... The whole problem is that we're too greedy to go spend $15 on something we can for free!

Yeah! And the people who are so about the morals and standards of music, they are the ones who are the most computer savvy! They are the ones that are the least likely to be paying for music. I'm just being real. That's it. It's just something that everybody is going to have to deal with. Everybody is going to have to reassert their connections with their fanbase, through whatever means possible. But I will say this, in 2008, don't rely on your MySpace page to connect you to your people! That's a very big problem that a lot of artists are having.

People think that because they have friends or whatever, like "I got 150,000 friends on MySpace!". Okay, so does Bobby down the street! What's the fuckin' difference?! Cause at the end of the day, we know how many artists are really controlling their MySpace pages and how many aren't. So are you really connecting to the people? Do you really have time to talk back and forth with 150,000 people online? Fuck no! But Bobby down the street does, though! *laughs* It's like, let's be real! I'm not saying fuck MySpace, but fuck thinking that MySpace is going to save your career! You getting your ass in a car on the road is going to save your career.

MySpace keeps you aware of where your career stands. MySpace helps you be aware of how many people still fuck with you. But you can't MySpace beat-em-over-the-head, cause you're not the only fuckin' friend they got! You're not the only artist, just because they're on your page. Muthafuckas probably got a thousand artists in their profile. You gotta get out there and physically touch these people, that's all it is to it. But if you think that 150,000 MySpace friends equals 150,000 sales, you're blind, buddy! *laughs*


Dubcnn: That's like saying everybody who hears a song on the radio is going to buy it.

Of course! That's being blind! That's like saying everybody that calls into the radio to request your record is going to buy it! Blind! *laughs*


Dubcnn: You gave the definition of "Gangsta" on your new single, do you think that over the years the meaning of that word has changed?

Of course, man, of course it has. The whole point of making that record, was looking at the state of the hood, and looking at the state of shit, I'm just tripping off where you Dickies from in 2007, 2008! That shit alone fucks me up! Like you buy Dickies in a mall in the same store that sells pink shit! That shit got it twisted, they got the gangster uniform in a store right next to Phat Farm & Sean John, like that shit is cool! I don't know man, it's just that the streets is fucked up, and the niggas that's dictating where the streets go, most of them ain't real!

Most of the real niggas that used to keep the streets in line, they're getting snitched on! These weak niggas is snitching on all the real niggas, and there's no real niggas left to deal with these snitch niggas, and then these snitch niggas go and tell these young niggas that it's cool to do whatever. It's fucked up, you know? It's fucked up! I know how this shit used to be, and it ain't like it used to be, man. That shit makes me so goddamn mad man, it's fucked up because you don't want to give up on the kids man. If you grow up here, you live here, you're probably not gonna do more than your parents did.

It's like they're programming that shit to the kids, you know? And if you look at how much money is being diverted, just money that should be going into the city in general is being diverted to finance the war, that shit got a lot to do with what's going on now too! Rich people have to try hard to get their kids proper education, so what the fuck chance does a poor man have? The country prides itself on free education, but the education that they giving for free is bullshit! You know what I'm saying?


Dubcnn: And nobody thinks about what's going on, cause we're getting distracted by entertainment, everywhere we go..

It would be different if it was just sitcoms, soaps and shit like that, but reality TV has really fucked up America's youth. For one, Its got everybody thinking that that's reality! That's bullshit! For two, look at the people who are successful with their reality TV shows, people think that those people are stars! That's not real! It's all fucked up, it's all twisted, and nobody is going to realize it until it's way too late, you know?


Dubcnn: We've pretty much come to the end of it, I really appreciate your time Bun. Once again Rest In Peace Pimp C, I wish you best of luck for the record, we'll be lookout out for it.

I appreciate it man.


Dubcnn: Is there anything else you'd like to let everybody know?

It's UGK for life, aight?