Show notes
In this week's show, we have a hip hop legend, Bun B. Best known as one-half of the Southern rap duo UGK, Bun along with Pimp C formed UGK in the late '80s when their former crew, Four Black Ministers, fell apart. Based in Port Arthur, Texas, UGK signed with Jive, and with 1992's Too Hard to Swallow began a series of Southern gangsta rap albums that were successful sellers.In 2005, Bun B carried on solo, and released both the mixtape Legends, and his debut album Trill extending his presence into the 2010s with Trill O.G.: The Epilogue and Return of the Trill, just as a generation of younger MCs looked up to the influential veteran for inspiration. Since then he has continued to experiment and always try what’s new, specially in the technology field, to take full advantage of it.We have an insightful talk on what he’s doing with NFT’s and Web 3.0, and discuss broadly about the metaverse. Tune in to discover how Bun has positioned artists and himself in this incredible space!Episode Highlights[02:50] Bun’s insights about NFT’s and EulerBeats[05:09] Technology advances in the music industry: Vinyl, cassettes, CD’s, mp3[06:36] Bun’s wallet and the genuine aspect of being someone that is producing art and trying to consume it in space vs the cash grab[13:26] How NFT’s shapes the way Bun chooses to release music in the future[17:01] Bun’s outlook about putting himself in the frontlines for all types of things[20:41] Pimp C and testing technology in 1995 with the Ridin’ Dirty album[24:00] Doing more metaverse concerts for more artistic interpretation[29:42] The real advancement of technology with the Nintendo Wii.[35:02] Hip hop artists in Houston[38:49] Hip hop entertainment media becoming more democratized[40:40] Bun’s perception of how to take full advantage of what the metaverse and web 3.0 have to offer[41:28] Bun’s Trill Burger Restaurant[48:20] What Bun wants the “Trapital” audience to know aboutListen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | SoundCloud | Stitcher | Overcast | Amazon | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | RSSHost: Dan Runcie, @RuncieDan, trapital.coGuest: Bun B Twitter: @BunBTrillOGInstagram: @bunbTrapital is home for the business of hip-hop. Gain the latest insights from hip-hop’s biggest players by reading Trapital’s free weekly memo. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands_______How Bun B Has Positioned Hip Hop Artists in the Metaverse SpaceBun B 00:00All of this different stuff. I do believe that you can do things in a metaverse concert that you maybe can't do in real life, right? Levels of production interaction, people communicating to you in real-time, right? In ways that you probably couldn't do in the middle of a fully organized and fully produced concert.Dan Runcie 00:27Hey, welcome to the Trapital Podcast. I'm your host and the founder of Trapital, Dan Runcie. This podcast is your place to gain insights from the executives in music, media, entertainment, and more who are taking hip-hop culture to the next level. This episode is with hip hop legend, Bun B. This man needs no introduction. But everyone on this podcast is going to get one, especially a legend in the game, like Bun. It's wild to think this is coming up on 30 years since Bun and Pimp C dropped their debut album as UGK. And each evolution of his journey Bun has continued to experiment, continue to try what's new. And what he's been doing recently with NFT's and with Web 3.0 is a great example of that. He recently linked up with Cryptopunk Rapper Spottie WiFi. And Bun and I talked all about the releases that they have planned what their strategy has been with NFT's and we talk more broadly about the metaverse. What does that look like for hip-hop artists? How Bun has positioned themselves in this space, and what UGK's approach to NFT's would have looked like. We also talked about what Bun's been doing in the restaurant business, Houston, hip hop artist, who his NFL comparison is, and a whole lot more. It's always great to host the legends on this podcast. And it was an honor for him to join me on this one. Here's my with the Trill OG. All right, we got the Trill OG with us himself, Bun B. Welcome, man. It's great to have you on the pod.Bun B 02:02Likewise, man, thanks for having me. I'm excited to have this conversation today.Dan Runcie 02:06Yeah, man, this is dope, because I feel like there has been so much movement lately going on with NFT's and how artists are making moves. And you've been making a bunch of moves in this space, you recently teamed up with another artist, Spottie WiFi. And it's been dope just to see how you all have thoughtfully planned out what you're doing. And all of these steps the past year where I feel like most people are just gonna wrap their heads around what an NFT actually is and how to do it. So yeah, it will be good to hear. What was your entry point to this? Like, when did you first hear about this stuff, and then something clicked when you're like: Okay, I'm gonna make a move in this space.Bun B 02:50So I got approached last summer. A good friend of mine used to be my video producer advice many years ago, reached out to me and he said: Bun, I know you're a forward thinker. I know you're, you know, relatively open minded guy. Have you heard of NFT's? And I was like, vaguely, but because of the fact that I was I was a little late to crypto, so I wasn't, you know, big on Discord and all of that kind of thing. So I was very unfamiliar, to be honest, seems like well, I have a guy, he's, you know, very fluent. And, you know, he's doing these different kinds of things called EulerBeats, and I was like, what, what is a EulerBeat? And the way it was explained to me, and I'm definitely paraphrasing here, it's like a computer algorithm is put in and it kicked out beats or whatever. So basically, these were beats that were kicked out by because some kind of computer program or algorithm by some scientist named Euler. And so different people were buying these EulerBeats, doing remixes to them and so forth.So one of the guys that owned one reached out to my friend and was like, you know, if you'd like to collaborate, I'd love to see if you would want to rap over one of these beats, you know, so I did something, it was very minimal. It was really only like a hook and a verse and it was called going crazy over crypto. And I just use a lot of different terminology from this, as I did my research, talking about Foundation, and open sea and stuff like that, you know, very, very surface level terminology. And it did fairly well it because the guy that I partnered with was already well known in the space. And so that went well, and I guess the word kind of got out. So then I had another friend reach out to me and he was like: Hey, I have a good friend. He is a crypto punk owner, and he's actually like, the first crypto punk rapper. I'm like: Well, I don't even know what that means. But, you know, let's let's get us all on a call. And that's when I was introduced to Spidey and Spidey explained to me the idea of the crypto punk NFT and him putting like an identity to his and turn it into like this character, which I thought was like really cool, real cutting edge and some next level shit. And being an older artist, you know, I'll be celebrating my 30 year anniversary this month. And so I've watched the music industry changed from vinyl to cassettes, cassettes to CDs, CDs to mp3. So you know and watch the record business go from the traditional model of record stores into these online stores, right? So for me, it's it's vital that I'm prepared to change with the time when this technology advances. And so when I started to find out more and more about not only NFT's but cryptocurrency and this whole idea of Web 3.0 in the metaverse and where everything is going, I was like: Man, I really hope I can find my way into this. And luckily, people who are already in the space reached out to me, so I didn't have to do that much initial heavy lifting, right? These guys kind of carried it for me. But then once they brought this stuff to me, I got very intrigued and I started to do my own research. And now like just watching these different brands and different people being associated with different stuff and seeing how you know, this board API club society is expanding, you know, through all facets of entertainment, man, it's really cool to watch. And it's really fun to be on a certain level a part of everything that's happening, right?Dan Runcie 06:22Yeah, definitely. And I mean, you mentioned it a few of the names there. Obviously, we're talking about crypto punks board, API club. I feel like even outside of music, you must have stepped up your own collection as well with this stuff. What's your, what's your wallet looking like right now?Bun B 06:36It's looking pretty good. You know, I had the full set, Medicard, somebody talked to me about that. I think my first really, really good purchase for me was an In-Betweener from Gianpiero. He's a digital artist and he's also the designer behind Drew, which is Justin Bieber's clothing line. So I was able that was like the first thing I was able to met Tristan Eaton, who was a good friend of mine. He's an amazing artist and muralist. He released some, some art called Gemma. So he gave me an NFT of his, and that allowed me to be able to meet stuff. So it's been really, really cool. Hundreds I bought an atom bomb from the Hundreds for Bobby Hundreds. And I caught it, like, at a really good price. And the ceiling is like two and a half times what it was when I got it. It's just been fun to get my hands on some of this stuff and just watch it grow, you know, but I'm trying to hold on to as much of it as possible, personally. Yeah, I did it for like, you know, quick buys and flips because I'll be honest, I wouldn't, I wouldn't fail to understand the industry enough to know what to buy and when to buy it. Whatever. I'm finding some cool stuff. I have friends that tell me about some cool stuff happening. I go on, I check it out, you know, works for me people that, you know, sometimes I've been lucky enough to get whitelisted other times, I got to get in that thing and met like everybody else, you know, but it's been fun and exciting. You know, especially like I see now B.o.B is now getting into the metaverse, that's going to be a drop coming soon. Really interesting man to watch out for; all these brands are finding their way into the metaverse right now. But yeah, my wallet is, it's okay, you know, it's not crazy, because I'm very reserved about, like, I have crypto that I already have. So I'm just kind of playing with house money, if that makes any sense. Like I don't want to look into you know, dumping a lot of my personal income into it, you know, if I make the right decisions in the right choices and make a couple of bucks cool. And if not, you know, they're not going to cut the lights off over here anytime. So, but, but it's fun, it's fun to have a lot of friends now like Everlast, a recording artist Everlast. I talked to him all the time. And he's been an art collector for almost 30 years now of all different mediums of art, whether it's sculptures or toys, or paintings or what have you. And like he's like, very, very engaged because he just loves art, and he loves to appreciate art. And he has many friends that are artists that are releasing NFT's, and then other things that he sees that are you know, maybe based off of hip hop characters or something culturally that he has an attachment to, and he was just copied something you know, it's relatively, you know, most of these things meant typically around .01 Ether, so it's only a couple of $100 that you really have to invest. Again, like I said, I'm not I'm not sitting around trying to spend crazy money on some of this stuff. But it's been fun man. It's really fun to have some of this stuff and you know, you could send your friend a link to your wallet and show him what you got.My good friend, Clyde Edwards from sneaker box. He was hitting me. He's like: Yo, I see you got to In-Betweener about one to check out my wallet, and I sent him my wallet. We just kind of compared different stuff that people got man. It's, it's a different thing that people can bond over too. You know, like, I have a lot of friends that are into sneakers. There's a lot of sneaker based NFT's Nikki Diamond sent me over some crypto downs that he's doing, you know. I'm saying and now other people that I didn't even know were hidden and she's like: Yeah, kind of crypto down to like worry. Yeah, it only cost me .01 Ether, so it was like nothing. It's fun, man. It's really fun and interesting to see how the space is connecting with people and how, how different people's entry points vary based on their cultural cues, you know.Dan Runcie 10:06Yeah! And I think your approach with it in terms of you're trying to buy these things and hold them, you're not trying to flip them. That's what separates the genuine aspect of being both someone that's producing art, but trying to consume it in the space versus the cash grabs. And I know that's something that both you and Spottie have been focused on making sure that the stuff you're putting out isn't just a cash grab. You're trying to put out something that people should want to buy and hold the same way you do with others. And I'm curious, are there certain things that you did to make sure that that was the image that was being presented, or the way that people would see it if they wanted to buy it? Because I know that with something like NFT's that can be a delicate thing to balance.Bun B 10:53I think I do a lot of this, you know, especially with particularly with this collaboration with Spidey. I kind of followed his lead, and I didn't want to put too much of myself on it. Because I was new in this space. I didn't want to overtalk myself. I didn't over one want to overstep my boundaries. And I didn't want to mess up Spidey's reputation. He's very well known, and very well respected in the space. So for the most times, I just kind of took his lead on a lot of this stuff. He would recommend certain things to me, I would approach things from a very typical traditional release standpoint and engagement standpoint. He was like: No, well. I was like, should we go on Instagram Live? And he was like: Well, no,these things tend to work better on Twitter spaces, you know. So little things like that helped me connect and figure out the space a lot quicker. But Spottie, I mean, he was already releasing music as NFT's prior to our collaboration. So the system was already set up, I just tried not to step on anybody's toes, get in anybody's way. But I was curious about a lot of things as far as intellectual property and ownership. And, you know, it's very interesting how some of these things work, depending on what you're releasing, whether it’s video or it’s music, you know, different rules apply. So it's been educational for me as well. And now that I have this information, I have a lot of other artists, typically from my generation who are curious about it, who don't have a Spottie that they can go to. So I can kind of give them a very base entry level instructions, I try to point them in the right direction. But it's not the easiest thing for people to navigate to discord if they've never really been on one before,…
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