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ike I asked Pimp, it seems funny how you and him have totally separate lives and yet you’re in a group together. You even have separate management; what makes it work? Bun B: It doesn’t become a problem because Pimp and I are always on the same page. A lot of times when you have a group where the members have different management, it’s moreso a wall being put up. The reason Pimp and I have separate management is because Pimp has a lot of things going on and I have a lot of different things going on and they’re not necessarily UGK-oriented. We both need somebody that can concentrate on our individual needs but as you can see, the chemistry is there. We’ve been around each other for years so we don’t have to be around each other every day. We do lead absolutely totally different lives and we are two extremely different people, and I think it’s that dynamic that makes the group what it is. It doesn’t bother us at all that we’re different. We know this and understand this. So we know not to be up under each other every day, but shit, we had four years of penitentiary between us and that shit didn’t stop nothing. We’re still making great music. There’s been no change in the relationship or the friendship or anything. That’s just how it is. I’m into different things than Pimp is into. I think that’s pretty evident if you know Pimp and you know me that we’re two different people and we’re into different things on a day-to-day basis. I do different things than he does and then we do a lot of the same things. He goes out to eat with his wife and his kids and I do the same thing. So we do have some differences but we’re both working towards the same goal so it doesn’t matter what angle he’s coming from and I’m coming from, we’ll both kinda end up in the same place. Other rappers looks up to you and knows what you’ve accomplished, but do you think it’s harder for the younger fans to relate to you or respect what you’ve contributed to the game? Bun B: Well, of course Pimp and I both have done everything we could do to make this group as well known and make it go as far as it has, but a lot of credit for UGK’s continued success has to be given to the next generation of rappers who have given it up for us saying that we inspired them and a lot of stuff and they look up to us. We work very hard to stay in the kids’ faces too, but the kids have people that they look up to, and they ask those cats, “Who did you get your game from?” When Mike Jones and Chamillionaire and [Lil] Flip and Paul Wall and Slim Thug and those people acknowledge us and the Geto Boys and 8Ball & MJG, that keeps us on those kids’ minds. All we have to do is keep making jammin’ass music. Do you think you’ll still be rapping in ten, twenty years? Bun B: The kids are still running shit. But they still don’t have all the information. It’s just certain things that people need to know about that maybe some of these younger cats don’t have the information to give them. I never thought I’d be doing it this long, so I really don’t wanna make any predictions. I don’t plan on rapping ten years from now, but there’s cats older than me that are still rapping, so who knows. Look at Jay-Z, he’s four or five years older than me and still has an extremely viable career. So if I keep working as hard as him, when I’m 38, why couldn’t I still have a viable career? Hell, I didn’t think I would still have a viable career at this age. How old are you now? Bun B: I’m 33. When we put our first record out, I was 18. Everybody thinks I’m older. I’m starting to understand that that’s just how people see me. For some reason everybody thinks I’m older than I am. I do act old, though. I don’t do a lot of the crazy shit that a lot of rappers are doing. I kinda can see a lot of the bullshit before it happens because I’ve been in a lot of different situations before. But yeah, everybody does think I’m an old fuck. [laughs] People were expecting a big UGK reunion show when Pimp got out of prison – he said he didn’t want to place too much emphasis on the UGK thing right away because he wanted you to continue rolling with your solo career because you had a buzz. I was at the “UGK reunion show” AllStar weekend in Houston that really didn’t end up happening. Bun B: I know people wanted to see something big. We wanted it to happen. We wanted to get back to doing our thing again. I think we might’ve just jumped at the wrong opportunity too soon. It was definitely the right time but it might have been the wrong opportunity for that particular show that we tried to do. I’m not really trippin’ on a solo album right now, honestly. I know what people want right now. They want Bun and Pimp. So I think it’s just best to give them that. Of course Pimp had the Pimpalation album so he kinda had to go out on a solo thing too and promote that. Originally, you really didn’t want to perform at the OZONE Awards. 91