Exclusive: Bun B Q&A, Part One

By Toshitaka Kondo

It’s hard to think of another artist who experienced higher highs or lower lows in 2007 than Bun B, one-half of the legendary Houston rap group UGK.  After 15 years in the game, UGK enjoyed its first number one album with UGK (Underground Kingz), and its first Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group for the smash single, “Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You).” But for all the triumph, there was also tragedy: his best friend and UGK rhyme partner Pimp C died suddenly in December. Bun initiated the healing process by talking about how he was coping with the loss and sharing his plans for the future in numerous candid interviews. Thankfully for fans, another UGK album is in the works, as is his second solo album, II Trill. Bun seemed to be in better spirits when Rhapsody caught up to him at his publicist’s office in New York to discuss Lil Wayne’s syrup addiction, his personal drug use and out-rapping Jay-Z.

Click here to read Bun's thoughts on Barack Obama.

Rhapsody: Lil Wayne recently made a lot of headlines by admitting to being addicted to syrup [prescription-strength cough syrup]. What were your thoughts?
Bun B: I wish they would just leave the kid alone. When you have 100 people telling you to not do something, that sh*t doesn’t work like that. Now me, I hadn’t sipped syrup for a while before Pimp died. Does that mean I let all my vices go? F*ck no. I’m still drinking and smoking weed. Ike Turner died of cocaine use. People haven’t stopped snorting cocaine. Thousands of people die drunk driving every year and somebody is going to drive home drunk tonight. People stop doing things whenever they sort of feel their way up to it. The kid said he would love to stop, but the withdrawal symptoms are too intense for him. Anybody going through something like that knows that’s what it is. I say this to all media, you can’t force Lil Wayne to stop sipping drank. That’s gonna be a personal choice. For all these people that love to put his sh*t on blast, I would love for them to put their vices on front street. Walk around with your proverbial white cup with you all day and see if you could handle the pressure.

When did you actually stop sipping syrup?
I stopped last summer. The sh*t f*cked with my stomach. It wasn’t like I couldn’t sh*t or [I was] throwing up or nothing like that. I don’t get hangovers from liquors, so I can drink as much as I want. When I would sip the syrup the next day, I would feel that sh*t. But that weed, I can’t let it go.

How much syrup were you sipping?
Maybe four ounces a month. I wasn’t like a serious sipper. I know people that sip four ounces per day. When I was younger, I probably sipped a little harder. And I had a lot of problems going on with management and sh*t like that, so I ran to drugs to escape from reality. Lately, I’ve been learning to deal with reality so there’s no need for me to do all the drugs that I used to do.

What would you say is the best drug you’ve ever done?
Jesus Christ, I didn’t know there were levels of good. Aren’t drugs bad? [Laughs.] Weed for me is cool. I couldn’t f*ck with the cocaine and heroin. I used to pop [Xanax and Ambien]. That sh*t can get out of hand real quick. I did some ecstasy before. We’ve been doing X [ecstasy] since ’93, ’94. You used to be able to buy ex with liquor in the clubs in Dallas. Like, give [me] two tabs and two Heinekeins. I tried shrooms. 

Did you like shrooms?
Shrooms was ‘cause of the kids I was hanging out with at the time.

White boys?
Yeah, absolutely. They were like, “Try this shit, Bun.” I was like, “Aright.” You young, you wanna fit in. People do a lot of dumb sh*t trying to fit in. I ain’t used to pictures coming up off the paintings and walking around the room. I don’t like the hallucinogenic drugs. When I was smoking water [formaldehyde], that first hit feels good and it’s a nice little rush. But then you take that second hit and you get that wash-over, and you know that you’re in that world and not coming out no time soon. You’re like, “Damn, I done f*ck*d around and did this sh*t. I’m fittin to be high till six in the morning.” I don’t like drugs that you can’t stop being high when you want to. I like a rollercoaster ride, not a road trip. [Laughs].

Some people feel that you out-rapped Jay-Z on “Big Pimpin’.” Is that really the consensus down there?
That would probably be the public opinion. But anybody that knows anything knows that that’s not nothing to walk around and claim as a bragging right. “Big Pimpin’” was from a Jay-Z perspective, a dance record. So there was no need to go in and go all lyrically crazy and be in-depth. All I know is, Jay-Z calls me and wants me to do a song. So I don’t care what the content of the record it, I’m fittin’ to rap as hard and as good as I can because of the talent that I’m rapping on the record with. Now, had that been a “Renegade” or something like that we were going in to do, he would’ve came a little different I think. Had he known how hard I was gonna go, he probably would’ve came a little different. It’s not like he phoned it in. I’m just saying, had he known the intensity with which I planned to rap on the record, he probably would’ve came a little more intense.

Do you think he added the second verse to the version of “Big Pimpin’” that was commercially released because your verse was so strong?
Nah, that was to even up the publishing because, had he not done that, we would’ve owned more of the record then he would have. They would’ve split it three ways and UGK would’ve owned 66 percent of the record. So you add another verse and it’s 25 percent, 25 percent, 25 percent and 25 percent. But from a fan perspective, I could see how people would want to believe that. I remember getting the paperwork and the publishing splits had changed. I was like, “That’s what he did that other verse for.” It had nothing to do with how Bun B rapped on that song.

A lot of people talk about how much “Big Pimpin’” did for you guys, but they overlook how big your work  on Three 6 Mafia's “Sippin on Some Sizzurp” was too. Can you talk about the big impact of that song?
The way that “Big Pimpin’” aligned all the mainstream fanbase and crossover stations and all that, “Sippin on Some Sizzurp” was the antithesis to that. It basically lined us up with all the street outlets and all the underground movements.

You guys already had the underground.
But it solidified it even more because Three 6 Mafia is some other underground sh*t, too. And they represent more of the Midwest type of street flavor, which is a little bit different mentality than where we at. So it really helped to strengthen us in the Midwest. I beat up the Midwest like Chicago, Detroit and St.   Louis [doing shows] just off of that. In places where we may not have been the sh*t, and they were the sh*t, it just brought all that together. Same way it did with the Jay-Z sh*t. Between two records, we were able to touch anybody [who] listened to rap music that year [1999].  

Comments

[jonesy]

"It’s hard to think of another artist who experienced higher highs or lower lows in 2007 than Bun B."

Kanye?

[ant7456]

Bun B should be in the top 5 greatest rappers!

[alvinstone]

ugk is the legacy of tru southern rap