In this article:
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Bun B, a Houston rapper and a founding member of UGK, expressed his desire to merge gangster rap with roots reggae music, despite the thematic differences between the two genres.
- Bun B and his group partner Pimp C formed UGK by combining their respective groups, with the intention of creating gangster music over reggae beats.
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Bun B revealed that Rita Marley, Bob Marley’s widow, prevented him from incorporating reggae into his music due to objections related to drug references in their lyrics.
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In 1993, reggae and dancehall music had a significant presence in the United States.
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Houston’s Connection to Reggae
Houston Rapper Bun B in an interview with Boss Talk 101 Podcast said he always wanted to make gangster rap and incorporate roots reggae music. The founding member of UGK (Underground Kings) born Bernard James Freeman, says reggae music was what inspired him and his now deceased group partner Pimp C to pursue gangster rap although the two genres are thematically antithetical.
“I was in a group called ‘PS Militia’, and Pimp was in a group with Mitchell Green and they’re the original version of ‘UGK’. We combined those two groups and created a group called ‘4BM’ which means ‘4 Black Ministers’. The whole thing about it was making gangster music over roots reggae music,” said the two time Grammy nominee.
Rita Marley, was who got in the way of Bun B’s ambitions to incorporate Reggae into his raps according to the Big Pimpin rapper.
“The original version of ‘Cocaine in The Back Of The Ride’ is a Bob Marley song, he said. “But Rita wouldn’t clear it because we were talking about cocaine and she said ‘Bob no like cocaine’. She said ‘you want to do weed in the car do weed in the car but Bob nuh like cocaine so you can’t use Bob music to represent cocaine’,” he recalled.
“Cocaine In The Back Of The Ride” was the lead single from UGK’s debut EP The Southern Way released on cassette April 26, 1992, then later that year, a shorter version was featured on their debut album “Hard To Swallow” released November 10.
“That was the whole thing of us creating gangster street music but built around reggae because we were big reggae fans, I am a huge Steele Pulse fan.”
With the emergence of acts like Super Cat, Shabba, Patra, Mad Cobra, Chakka Demus & Pliers and others 1993 was reggae and dancehall most successful year in the US, making up 3.9% of the Billboard chart according to Data Face.
Bun B recalls how popular the genres were particularly in Houston at the time, “Dancehall had a very dominant in Houston, I would say from around 90 to 94, it was very very dominant in the city of Houston. The hottest club in the city of Houston at the time was called ‘Jamaica Jamaica.’ That was the best club in the city and they would play reggae all night, then they would do a rap set for like 45 minutes to an hour, then they would get right back to the reggae but we liked it.”
“Jamaican music and Jamaican culture has always been prevalent in Houston. There is a lot of Jamaican influence in the city and Houstonians know, especially from my generation, you saw real Jamaicans in the club, not just people who grew dreads” he concluded.
In addition to his work with UGK, Bun B has released five solo albums, including the critically acclaimed “Trill OG” in 2010, which received a 5-mic rating from The Source magazine.
Beyond his musical career, Bun B, has leveraged his cultural capital into financial capital with the launch of Thrill Burgers. The beefy buns which he said he took oin tour like an album have been called “the best in the country” and have become a cultural phenomenon in the US with a new location inside NRG Stadium where some of the biggest games and concerts are held in Houston Texas. The 50 year old has also taken on the role of a guest lecturer at Rice University, in Houston, Texas.
