Author Topic: New Bun B Interview...sourc (Read 59 times)

Lunatic · « **on:** April 23, 2008, 07:49:18 PM »

source: http://www.wordofsouth.com/online/?p=1082

Two and a half years ago, I interviewed Bun B, one-half of the legendary group Pimp C. At the time, Pimp C was locked up for Probation violation and Bun B was preparing his debut solo album “Trill.” This go around he won’t have his partner Pimp C (passed away this past December) beside him for “II Trill,” but as Bun passionately expressed in this interview that he has to “let ‘em know that the trill is still here and it’s still UGK for life.”

WordofSouth.com: How is everything going for you these days?

Bun B: All things considered, I feel really blessed.

WordofSouth.com: Last time that I interviewed you, you were not really up on doing a solo album and now you are on solo album #2. Why such a big change of heart to do another?

Bun B: Well I mean the first one had to be done, not so much that I didn’t want to do it. I never wanted a solo career, I was in a great group, so the thought of doing a solo album was something that never even on my mind. Now that we did one (“Trill”) and it went Gold, it kind of kicked off a solo career. I picked up that fan base, I got UGK’s fan base too, and the people wanted another one or whatever. The plan was for UGK to drop a double album last year and to come back with another Pimp C solo album and another Bun B solo album and another UGK album. With tragic events, it won’t be setup like that. It’s up to me to keep this UGK movement alive and let ‘em know that the trill is still here and it’s still UGK for life. We will need to do it the same way while he was locked up, but instead he’s passed away.

WordofSouth.com: So will there be another UGK album this year?

Bun B: That’s the hope. The plan ain’t really set right now to be honest with you. That’s not something that I totally control.

WordofSouth.com: I know how labels work and I’m assuming Jive will release a greatest hit, a DVD, and try to do a few other things to milk the UGK name. Will you be behind it?

Bun B: If any of that happens, I don’t own that music, so if Jive or Rap-A-Lot wanted to do one then it’s solely based on the label. I wouldn’t get paid anyway. If another UGK album happened, I’d get paid off that.

WordofSouth.com: What’s the status with your group the MDDL FNGZ?

Bun B: Oh yeah, we just finished a new mixtape and we had to go back on the album, but its defiantly coming at you by the end of the year.

WordofSouth.com: So going into this solo album, what was your mind state?

Bun B: Going into it Pimp was alive when I started the job and recorded most of it. A lot of different stuff had happened that we talked on, on the UGK album and we had a lot of positive feedback on it. Songs like “Take Tha Hood Back,” “Heaven,” and “How Long Can It Last.” People were saying that those were the tracks that they was looking for from us. UGK kind of what we do is show partying, make a bunch of money, fuck with broads, barre, or whatever, but you still got consequences to every action. Nobody gets away from this game scot-free.

WordofSouth.com: What was the song writing process for this album?

Bun B: I don’t really have a song writing process like that. I go in and write it and it gonna be fire. Anybody that knows me knows when I come in I tell them to cut the beat on and I pretty much start writing. The only beat that I remotely listened to before I started recording was the dedication to Pimp.

WordofSouth.com: Was there anything this go around that you wanted to do different at all?

Bun B: I definitely wanted to key in on certain things. The last album we had a little fun with it and this one I wanna touch on some key points.

WordofSouth.com: One of the criticisms of fans that heard the first album was that you had only one solo song and that solo song ended up being the best song. Did you hear any of those criticisms?

Bun B: Uhhh you can never really do enough, that’s the thing. For one that isn’t the truth. I didn’t even have one solo song on the last “Trill” album. Did you think that? Is that what you thinking? Or is that something that people told you?

WordofSouth.com: Nah that was one of the questions someone had on my message board. If I can remember, you had a solo song also with Jazzy Pha (doing hook), and a lot of the songs had someone on the hooks.

Bun B: Right

WordofSouth.com: So you can basically say that then.

Bun B: Well this album got people on the hooks too. I’m saying though, what you want me to do when a song requires something I can’t do when having someone singing it will sound good. I can’t fuckin’ sing, ya know?

WordofSouth.com: Yeah that was going to be my next question as far as people saying that you don’t do enough solo songs or hooks, but..

Bun B: Just look at the UGK albums, how many hooks did I do on them? They act like I’ve done this before and I had a bunch of solo songs and now I’m doing it and don’t have a bunch of solo songs. Every song I used to rap on had a nigga on it.

WordofSouth.com: From looking at the track listing that I saw for the new album, two features that stand out for me is Sean Kingston, which I have heard and like a lot, and a song with Lupe Fiasco. How did the two of you come together?

Bun B: Well I ended up meeting him down here while he had a show and hung out with him for a while. He look like a guy that got his head on his shoulders. He has talent and we ended up doing some records together.

WordofSouth.com: How did the song with Sean Kingston come about?

Bun B: I’ve known him for a while and when they sent me the beat, he was already on the song. JR had him on the hook and he sounded good.

WordofSouth.com: I saw that you shot the video in your hometown. How was that whole experience for you?

Bun B: That was nice. We got a lot of love from the people.

WordofSouth.com: Sales are down in music and rap period right now and I think that rap is taking it harder because there are less avenues to expose the music than a Pop or R&B artist. When in meetings about this album is the tone different as far as the approach to promote the album?

Bun B: Nah, not at all because UGK ain’t never been promoted. We ain’t never had the big stupid videos or big ad campaigns anyway, so it not like nobody had to tear nothing down. We never got a bunch of videos anyway, so it ain’t like they can say, “well this time you can only do two videos and do this.” They ain’t done that type of shit no way. It don’t change my shit at all. With my solo situation, I’m more hands on anyway. It’s a situation where I try to keep my costs down intentionally, so my recoup facet is higher. And because of that, I put a little more elbow grease into my project then the average rapper probably would. So with me it’s not really a problem, I have no problem bringing it down because my whole career hasn’t been based on exposure and media. Those are the people that’s gonna have to worry.

WordofSouth.com: So what will they have to do then because labels are coming down on artists?

Bun B: Just really gotta stop thinking that the internet is what’s reaching the fans. The only way to reach the fans is to go out and fuck with them. People think that MySpace and Facebook and all that other shit is what’s really getting you closer to the fans, but it’s not. The shit ain’t nothing but a gage dog, shit ain’t nothing, but a gage.

WordofSouth.com: You teamed up with Zune to do promo for the album. How did that idea come about and how has it been for you?

Bun B: It’s not something that you can just think up like that. I just happen to be good friends with a couple of people that used to work with Fader Magazine and Cornerstone Promotions. They moved on to Microsoft’s Zune division and they definitely tried to promote the product and maybe do some marketing. They thought that this would be something that id understand and kind of get, so I been fucking with them since the inception of the Urban division. It’s something where we felt like we could help scratch each other’s back and it’s been an incredible situation.

WordofSouth.com: What else can you tell me about the album without giving away too much?
Bun B: Of course Pimp is definitely on the album and we taking it back to the streets with what’s going on in the streets. There’s a lot of people on this album too! May 20th.

WordofSouth.com: Switching it up now. I feel like the generation under me whose been exposed to so much more BET, internet, and MTV has missed out on a line of great music such as a UGK, Scarface, or Outkast and it has lowered the quality of the music and has led to less thought provoking music that we hear today. Would you agree at all?

Bun B: Nah not really ‘cause I don’t believe that BET, MTV, or the Internet can dictate nothing like that. I think at the end of the day, people make stars. TV tries to take things the certain way, but at the end of the day, they don’t care about people no more. People buy what they wanna buy. Soulja Boy blew up not because the record company put a bunch of money behind it or because MTV or somebody blew it up. He blew up because that’s what the kids wanted to hear. They know whether they wanna hear it a little bit or a lot.

WordofSouth.com: I also feel that the internet such as blogs and media outlets is another reason why so many artists are constantly being shunned upon and more people are hearing the bad music, but in reality, there was bad music in 1998 and 1988. What is your take on that?

Bun B: Well the problem is that they really don’t have no one else to blame. Soulja Boy is just doing what he did and when we was coming up we was dancing with Kid-N-Play and all of them and no one saw nothing wrong with that. We were doing the Ed Lover Dance and a bunch of things. The Pee Wee Herman and all that old dumb shit and nobody had a problem with it. Reality is that people act as if that is the only music being made and it’s not the only music being made, it’s the only music being covered. Ain’t nothing wrong with Hip-Hop. Good things happen, but muthafuckas ain’t giving it the coverage.