In the latest portion of his interview with B High ATL, UGK’s Bun B said Diddy wanted the group to sign to Bad Boy Records at one point.
When discussing his collaborative relationship with 8Ball & MJG, Bun B said that Diddy was interested in having both them and UGK signed to Bad Boy South at the same time. “That was interesting times, because Bad Boy wanted UGK at the same time,” he explained past the seven minute-mark of the interview.
“Puff had this big party in Houston, and we went to the party. We went to Puff’s section… We sat down, Puff said, ‘With all due respect B, I need to talk to the wife because I know the wife is the boss,’” he continued. “He told her he wanted to sign UGK, he says, ‘I’m gonna give your husband this much money, I’m gonna give his brother this much money.’”
Shortly after that, Bun B and his wife Angela Walls talked about the offer and she indicated that she was game. “[She was] like, ‘So when we going to New York?’ And I’m like, ‘We’re not,’” he said. “That was a very contentious point, because she didn’t understand why I would turn down the amount of money they were offering. I said, ‘We didn’t come this far to sell this. We got to ride this out.’”
When it was suggested the UGK’s discography could make for an interesting Verzuz match-up against Tennessee duo 8Ball & MJG, Bun B said that while he thinks it would be a cool idea, it might not work out. “I think it would be a good one, but I think you gotta understand… A lot of people tuned to Jeezy and Gucci Mane for the wrong reasons,” he said at the 3:30-mark of the clip above. “It was a lot of suspect shit being said, because people were expecting a fight. They really thought something was gonna happen that day. … Both of them walked in as they man they was, and they both walked out the man they was.”
He suggested that Verzuz has changed since its inception now that people are comfortable back outside again. “The reason Verzuz took off in the way it did, was because it was specifically targeting our demographic,” he explained. “It wasn’t about charting artists, or who had the hot record, it was about creating a vibe. … I think UGK and 8Ball & MJG would’ve worked under those circumstances, the fans obviously still wanna see it [and] we’re ready to do it if called on, but it’s a little different now.”
While he seemed to suggest that he was more of a fan of COVID-19 lockdown era Verzuz, and the proposed match-up would “do numbers,” he added, “It’s still on the table.” In fact, at one point they were on a schedule for a Verzuz event, but a series of big-name performances ended up pushing back the performance and for whatever reason it just hasn’t happened yet.
Check out the interview above.
