Now forced to be on his own, Bun B returns with the follow up to his critically acclaimed solo debut Trill, with II Trill. Though his sophomore effort is not as highly anticipated as Trill, Bun B delivers with a collection of Southern rap songs even the most casual UGK fan will appreciate.
In an interview with VIBE.com, Bun talks about making II Trill amidst personal tragedy, the difficulty of writing an RIP record, and why he wanted to make a chick record.
It was different when the person that I used to make my rest in peace records with, passed away
VIBE.com: On the record, “You’re Everything”, you have Rick Ross, David Banner, 8Ball & MJG. Those are big names, but you could’ve probably gotten anybody you wanted, so why them?
Bun B: Those are the people I wanted to hear from. When you hear [8] Ball and [MJ]G it’s synonymous with Tennessee, which you can’t separate from the South; same thing with a Rick Ross and Florida or a David Banner in Mississippi. We’re all distinctly Southern artists but we all made further contributions to hip hop than just making “Southern music.” For the record to get across to a lot of different people I thought that was a great line up to go with. We may come back with a different line up for a remix or something.
You’re also doing records with people like Lupe Fiasco, who’s featured on “Swang on ‘Em”, and you’re on the remix to the Kidz In The Hall’s “Drivin Down the Block”.
Lupe is a good friend of mine. He’s an incredible talent right now; one of the best people in the game. He was willing to work with me and I saw no reason not to. Kidz in the Hall is a great group. They remind me a lot of UGK – even though it may sound crazy – in the fact that Kidz in the Hall is a group where you put just those two guys in the room and they’ll come back with an album.
Of course the most poignant record on the album is the one you dedicated to Pimp C, “Angel In The Sky”. Can you describe what the process is like to put together such a deep record?
I wish I could describe it to you. But it’s really something you can’t put into words. It’s a very unique situation in and of itself. I’ve written songs about homies that have passed away before, that’s not anything new. “One Day you’re Here, Next Day You’re Gone” is one of my biggest records. “Hi Life” and “Diamonds and Wood” all of those are songs that are dedicated to fallen soldiers. That being said, it was different when the person that I used to make my rest in peace records with, passed away. It was just a genuinely, uniquely, weird feeling that I couldn’t really put into words.
It’s something that we still mourn. I still mourn Pimp C’s death to this day. It’s not something like he passed, I went through a funk and we got over it. I still live with that everyday. All day.
Did you definitely know you were going to make a record for him?
Yeah, without question. I think it would have been in poor taste to put out an album without making mention of him, speaking to him, speaking of him. That’s just my personal take that it would have been in extremely poor taste. I really didn’t have anything else to do but my record with Pimp, which was another record that Pimp was going to produce for me and set up for me. That was going to be the record for women, ‘cause Pimp you know he does that kind of stuff all day. I ended up hooking up with Mouse and Webbie to make that song. We turned a dance record into a dedication.
That’s right, “Pop It 4 Pimp” with Juvenile and Webbie.
I went and got with them and making the dedication record for Pimp was a way to still make him apart of the record.
Pimp is also featured on one record. Were there plans to do more and you just scrapped them because of the tragedy?
There weren’t more recorded for the album. Jive Records would only allow me to do one song with Pimp C per album. So even if I wanted to do more songs with him for my solo project I can’t.
Was there anything different that you were trying to do with this album that you’ve never done before?
I did a song with Mya on the record that was pretty different.
So we’ll call that the chick record?
I wanted to make a song a woman could appreciate. There’s nothing wrong with making a “chick” record. I don’t understand that. And I’m not saying it against you, but women buy records. It shouldn’t have to be all about…the least we could do to our rap records is make one record a woman can appreciate. There’s nothing wrong with that.
“Good II Me” is really a record about me and my wife more than anything. It’s really about the relationship we have and how she treats me, and how I treat her. What she expects from me, and what I expect from her.
Have you played the record for her yet?
Yeah, she was there when I recorded it.
What’d she think of it?
She loves it.
We discussed writing a record for someone who’s passed away. Is it hard to write a record for your wife?
That’s not difficult at all.
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Comments
1.
chitwnmami06 says:
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DA NEW NATIONAL ANTHEM "THAT'S GANGSTA" I LISTEN TO IT ERRDAY DATS DA SHIT FO REAL
May 29, 2008 at 3:08 pm