Bun B thinks Houston’s ability to show up for its older hip-hop artists sets the city apart from others.
In a new episode of Noah Callahan-Bever’s Idea Generation, the UGK rapper discussed why Houston is built differently than other big cities like New York and Los Angeles.
“Name me a city that celebrates their old school artists like Houston. Nobody. Nobody. No one,” Bun B said around the 1:21:49 hour mark of the video above. “You go to LA, they don’t celebrate—maybe Snoop [Dogg] and [Ice] Cube—but [DJ] Battle Cat and those dudes, they don’t get the respect they’re supposed to get. Big Daddy Kane and them, they’re getting all thier love now because it’s the 50th anniversary [of Hip-Hop], but they don’t be showing up for them and Rakim like that all the time.”
Bun then discussed how his restaurant, Trill Burgers, was “packed” recvcently in honor of Houston rapper Big Pokey, who passed away in June.
“Literally hundreds of people, almost 2,000 people, show up at Trill Burgers yesterday to support Big Pokey’s family to buy the meal and the soda,” Bun explained. “Houston is different. I’m not saying that we’re better than people but we understand our city and our culture better than I think other people do, and we represent it way better than anybody."
He also explained how despite not releasing new music, rappers such as himself still have strong fanbases in their native city.
“You could never fill up … Giants Stadium with people who haven’t had a hit record in 15 years," he said. "When we did the first Rodeo, our newest record was ‘[Int’l] Players Anthem.’ That’s from 2007, that was the newest record. When we did it this year, the newest record was ‘All Gold Everything,’ Trinidad James—that’s an 11-year-old record. This city different, bro.”
Watch Bun B’s entire interview with Idea Generation up top.
