Interviewing Bun B in person can be an intimidating experience. After all, the husky, deep-voiced MC born Bernard Freeman is a music legend. With his close friend and partner-in-rhyme, Chad “Pimp C” Butler, the Port Arthur, Texas, native achieved a worldwide following. Before Pimp C’s untimely death, he and Bun B were already at work on what would be their last studio album, UGK 4 Life, an ode to the UGK days of yesteryear. Recently ro caught up with Bun in Chicago at a listening party for the new album.
–gavin philip godfrey
How does UGK 4 Life fit in with UGK discography?
We knew that with [4 Life], we wanted to get back to the core of what UGK stood for — not just to us but to the people — musically, content-wise, the structure and everything. We wanted to take it back to the old-school sound, the old-school music, old-school features … and just bring it back to [the] beginning and show that UGK was able to complete the cycle.
When you become a grandfather, what songs will you play for your grandkids to introduce them to the UGK legacy?
I’m already a grandfather.
No way!
[My granddaughter, Taylor] she won’t be able to listen to none of her grandfather’s records for a long time. Me, I’ve been blessed to have an incredible musical legacy, but at the same time, I’m still here, I’m still growing and I’m learning a lot of things. I think I’m about to be in a position where music won’t be the only legacy that I’ll be able to leave behind. I’m really striving to be able to leave more to my community than just music.
You’ve said that Pimp C was your only inspiration and motivation to rap. As an artist and a man, what was the biggest lesson that Pimp C taught you?
I learned to care about things. I used to be real lackadaisical when I was younger — I really didn’t care about nothing, it was just whatever with me for a long time. Pimp [said], ‘Man, you’ve got to be passionate about something in life. You can’t just be walking through life, you’ve got to live for something.’ He was like; “We’re building something big. You’ve got to understand who you are — people look up to you, people want to be you. You need to respect what we’re building and respect who you are.’ Up till that point … I really hadn’t looked at myself as far as what I’d accomplished and it made me sit back and [put] a whole lot of things into perspective. I realized … what I do represents something and means something to a lot of people so I’ve got to stand up and respect who I am, respect what I represent and get out here and grind. That’s the main thing I remember from my brother.
