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ne of the most interesting things about UGK is that although you’re a group, you and Bun seem to live totally separate lives. Pimp C: Yeah, well, he’s a family guy and I’m a family dude, and we live in two different cities. I still stay in Port Arthur, our hometown where we growed up, and he lives in Houston. We got two separate sets of friends. He has his crew of people that he had been with for years that’s loyal to him, and I’ve got my crew of people that are loyal to me. But at the end of the day, he’s my brother and I love him to death and he loves me to death. We’re just different in a lot of ways. But in a lot of ways we’re alike. He likes to read, and you know, I’m a book dude. He’s more up on current events and things of that sort than I am. He’s a movie buff, I’m not. With that said, what do you think it is that makes the group work? Is it the musical chemistry, the history you have? Pimp C: I think that it’s because we’re so different. You get two different outlooks on the same subject. The way a UGK song [comes together] is not like the average rap song. We don’t listen to each other’s raps before we go into the booth and put ‘em down. Most of the time, he don’t hear my rhyme until after it’s wrote and I don’t hear his rhyme until after it’s wrote. So we don’t influence each other’s rhyme patterns, unless it’s a song where we intentionally want our rhymes to match, you understand what I’m sayin’? So I’ll throw a title at him and he may write on a totally separate subject than I’m writing on, but it’s still pertaining to that title. I think that’s the beauty of our group. He’s always gonna have a different 88
flow and pattern than I’m gon’ have. It’s always gonna be different and it gives you two variations. His voice is deeper, my voice is more high pitched. He’s more of a lyricist, I’m more of a character. Does it ever become a friendly competition between the two of you in the studio, tryin’ to kinda one-up each other? Pimp C: Not with me, cause I know when he does his best it makes me shine. And when I do good it’s good for him too. He’s my brother, I’m his brother, he wants to see me do well, and when he pulls a rabbit out of a hat I get to brag more. Bun is my favorite rapper. I go city to city, coast to coast, and I tell people that I’ve got $100,000 dollars if they can find someone who can out-rap Bun. He’s my favorite rapper and when he does well, I do well. When [Bun B’s solo album] Trill came out, it was like my album came out that day. I was in prison [at the time] and it was like I had a breath of fresh air blowed into my career. And he’s at 800,000 [copies sold], so nah, it ain’t never been a competitive thing with me and him. It may be a competitive thing with me and him against other people, but never with me and him. Of course, while you were in prison Bun rode hard for you with the “Free Pimp C” campaign, so once you were released I think people were expecting a big reunion show or to see y’all together again, but that didn’t really happen. Do you think the fact that you do lead separate lives and have separate crews and separate management affects the amount of publicity you get as a group?