March 29, 2022 • 21 mins
Legendary rapper Bun B talks about his fun and creative book that pays homage to the rap industry, Bun B's Rapper Coloring and Activity Book. His new venture, Thrill Grill Burgers, and how he became a lecturer at RICE University teaching a class on hip hop & religion.
Host IG:@itstanyatime
Guest IG: @bunb
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the key to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Hey, money Movers, Welcome
to the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood. Our next
(00:22):
guest is a household name in the music industry. He
is one half of the Southern rap duo U G K.
He has released five solo albums, including two thousands ten Trilogy,
which received the Sources Rare five MIC rating. He is
also a distinguished lecturer at Rice University, treating on hip
hop and religion. Most recently, he has entered the food
(00:42):
industry with trill Burgers. Money Movers, that's welcome a real
O g Bundy to the podcast. Hey, Hey, how are you?
Thanks for having me? Tell me about your coloring book?
Like this is I love this, Like there's so much
fun stuff that that you've been putting out. But tell
me about the coloring book. So. I have a good
friend here in Houston. His name is Shay Sharronto, and
(01:04):
she is an amazing writer, um amazing journalist. And he
and I both have the same kind of dry sense
of humor. I always thought he was the funniest man
on Twitter actually was voted the funniest man on Twitter
or And so we we talked a lot about hip hop,
and I was like, I want to partner with you.
I want to create a book of some sort with you,
(01:26):
but I don't want it to be all stuffy and
you know, too much braggadocio and all of that. Like,
hip hop is a very fun environment to be a
part of. We have so much fun creating music performing music.
If you go backstage to any concert, these artists are
laughing and drinking. Everybody enjoys each other's company. And there
are a lot of people in hip hop who have
(01:46):
great senses of humor, but we never get to present that.
Hip hop is always presented in a in a certain way.
And so I was like, say, let's create something funny.
And initially we went into it thinking of writing a novel.
We was like, that's gonna to take up a lot
of time. So he came over the idea of let's
do a coloring book, and so, okay, I was like,
that's different, but let's try it. So we pitched it
(02:08):
to a couple of publications and nobody did like they
didn't get it. Nobody understood it. Shake came up with
a brilliant idea. She says, I'm gonna start a page
and I'm just gonna put something up every day and
just see what kind attraction it gets. Pretty soon the
pagings up with fifty thou followers. So and it's it's
(02:31):
it's always these creative terms of genius. Shake comes back
and says, we're not just gonna do a coloring book.
We're gonna do coloring and activity book. And that was
the game change. So it wasn't just about coloring, but
there was paid by numbers, there were amazes, there was
filling the blank, there was all these different things that
allow for creative energy. Right. But we wanted this to
be a share able experience, right. We wanted parents who
(02:53):
were more who were let's say from the eighties seventies, right,
who were from back in the day. We wanted them
to have people that they could introduce their children too.
We also wanted current parts that the children could introduce
the parents too. Right, So this book was always designed
to be a learning experience for people, right, a sharing
a sharable hip hop experience for families, which we don't
(03:16):
get a lot of those opportunities and it hit like
game busters. We went back out. Um, we pitched it,
but literally the first company we pitched you was like,
we get it, we see it, now, let's go. We
ended up on everybody's top ten Christmas gift list. Had
we had space and Norristrooms had pop up Christmas space
(03:36):
in their stores. We were in every store. We made
Pitchford's list, we made g q's list. Wendy Williams had
us on our on her show. Um, you know, we
had a we had our instore. The mayor came at
the time. Just so much momentum behind this book, and
I think it was because anytime you create something that
allows everyone in the family to take part, you ethically
(03:59):
increase this this that's why we were so eager to
move into food, because everybody eats. Everybody loves a burger, everybody.
This is community, this is fellowship. What's even deeper than that,
everybody's got to eat. It's true, right, that's it's the
least common denominator across humanity. That's food. You've all got
to eat. We've all got to drink. So if you
could sell water to people, and you can sell food
(04:21):
to people, you will almost never be out of business.
Oh my gosh, I love this. This is the coloring
book should be like a marketing case study because you know,
from its very inception where you're testing the markets on
Instagram to you know it's success in getting into Nordstrom
and all this, how did you like? Because people always
want to ask they have their product, what was it
that you know? Really ricochet the launching point to get
(04:41):
it into these stores and get all this eyeballs on
this product. It's about belief, right, Every company that starts
has to start with the fact that they believe this
company will connect to people and that it will eventually
become successful. Right. Very few companies are successful out the door.
Most small businesses die within two or three years. A
lot of that's got to do with leasing commitments and
(05:02):
all of that. But I don't want to get into that. Well,
we'll save that for another because I don't want to
discourage people from getting into business. But they're all commitments
that you have to make in order to create a
business and start a business. Um, I have the luxury
of already having a brand that has had success, Right,
What I didn't realize was how that brand worked across
(05:24):
many different facets of life. I had only used my
brand to so music, maybe a little merch, and maybe
some concert tis. What I didn't understand was that my
brand was solid with people across all walks of life,
and that I had built a trust factor with people.
So as long as I could create a product that
I really believed in and I knew it was not
set up to just beat people out of money, I
(05:47):
was with it. Let's go for this. Food is the
perfect example of me knowing that my community trust me
to deliver them quality product on any level. So in
the same way that I bring a level of service
to the music got produced, that's the kind of level
of service we want to bring to the burger. The
beautiful thing is for me, I don't I don't have
to cook, right, That's not for me to do. I
(06:09):
have an amazing chef at he runs the kitchen, and
Patty and b J run everything in the kitchen. Your
amazing chefs. I'm the host. I'm all day yep, yeah,
I can stand there. I try to be there. Up
until this point, let's say we've sold hundred burgers and
pop ups. Up until this point, I've been available for
(06:31):
d and sixty of those burgers. Wow. But I mean,
I hope people understand that. It's like people often think, oh,
you're a celebrity, you're the face. You just show up
to cut a ribbon and then you're gone. Like that's
not how true success is formed. Like you're you know,
you might not be in the kitchen mixing ground beef bodies,
but you're they're selling your burgers. That's your face, your baby,
(06:51):
your dream is attached to it. It's work. It's service,
the service industry, right, and I'm an entertainer. The entertainment
industry is the service industry. It's all designed to deliver
a product to people. I've had a great career at that.
I can do that with, you know, with my eyes closed.
So I just bring the same conscious effort and determination
that I bring to my music career to this. That's all.
(07:14):
I don't have to figure anything out to do anything different.
All I have to do is care just as much.
And that's easy for me to do because I know
these people trust me and believe in me, particularly here
in this city. So the last thing I want to
do is betray that trust for a couple of for
ten dollars back it ain't work exactly, exactly exactly. You
spent years building up that trust and brand, absolutely, thirty
(07:37):
years in this city. It will be next year will
be our thirty year anniversary of servicing the people, not
just accusing, but all around the world. But it's important.
Just in the same way that the music started here,
the food's gonna start here as well. And the word
of mouth and dedication and commitment to the brand work
for the music, There's no way it won't work for
the food. Wow. Well, I can't wait to have a
Trill burger. But I do have another question. How did
(07:59):
you your role as a teacher at Rice University. That's
like a lot of different hots are wearing my friends. Yeah, so, UM,
A lot of opportunities that happened for me, and I
say this all the time, happened because Chamillionaire is busy.
And the reason I say, um, I do a lot
of news interviews, UM, and a lot of those opportunities
(08:22):
came because, UM, there was a lot of talk about
police brutality. Commillion and I had a big record about
police brutality and UM, but he wasn't available to do press.
He told him. He says, well, I'm not free this week,
but I know you should talk to talk to bun By, right,
So that's opened up a plethora of opportunities. So the
same thing happens with this, with this teaching opportunity. There
(08:42):
was already a class being taught on hip hop and
religion at Rice University UM. The professor, Dr Anthony Pinn
reached out to cha Millionaire about coming in and being
a guest in the class. He couldn't make it, but
again he suggested you called Bunby. I got the call.
I was happy to go and do the interview. I
sat with with Dr Pinn before the interview looking around
(09:03):
his bookshelf. I realized that we had some different literature
that we shared. I was like, hey, I've read that
at that what's your view on at when we had
a great conversation before a really good conversation, and the
class talked again after the class and we just had
a really good report. About a week or so later,
he approached me with the notion of co teaching the classroom,
and for me, I was hesitant on two levels. One,
(09:25):
I'm not a college graduate. I didn't attend college, so
I don't really understand exactly what my place would be
in terms of the academic world and how I would
fit into it. And then and then secondly, he's the
most tenured professor of color on campus on a private university.
It's the number one university in Texas, is the number
seventeen university in the country. I don't want to mess
(09:47):
up this mass preputation continue on campus. But then the
other side of it was, well, this is a great
opportunity for hip hop culture to live and breathe on
this campus for people who are further remove from it
than anyone else. Right, this is the private university. Primarily,
these students are not Houston residents. They come from different places,
(10:08):
and it's it's basically built around the business School and
the School of Architecture. So there's not a lot of
people coming there for music. And even if they did,
my class is not a music class. It's it exists
in the Humanities department. It's really that is class um.
And so I was very head to tent. The Dr
Penn was absolutely confident. Not for one second did you
think I couldn't do the job. He threw me out
(10:29):
there like he he was like, not only are you
gonna co teach this with I want you to do
the lectures every day. I want you to get up
there and so that they can see you in this space.
I don't just fun that comes in and gives ten
minutes of comments or whatever. And so I would do
my and my wife used to make jokes about it
that I was wearing a wearing wearing out the tile
(10:51):
and the kids and back and forth trying to figure
my lecture out. And once I did the first lecture,
which I probably had never been more nervous than an
else in my life, and that once I got past
it and found out the students were receptive, I started
giving myself over and over to the process. I mean
for almost five years. I haven't taught that in the
(11:12):
last two and a half years, but we we taught
it over five and a half years, um in alter
stating seasons, alternating semester. Sorry, so we would do spring
one year, then we would do fall the next year,
and then spring the next year, and so um. It
probably is one of the most fulfilling things I've ever
done in my life. Because I'm not a tenured professor,
(11:33):
didn't really pay a lot of money, and I had
to turn down money to do it because I wanted
to make sure the children had my utmost attention. I
had hours, I taught twice a week. I had lectures
I had to prepare, and it wasn't gonna be something
that I could try to do in a hotel room. No,
I wanted these children to have my full attention. I
(11:56):
didn't want them to have to share that because they
wouldn't have to do that with any other professor than
any other class, right, And so we took We took
a financial hit during those years because we refused to
do both at the same time. I turned down the university.
The university begged me to do Spring Fest, and I
mean they brought the price up several times, and I
was like, look, I think it would compromise me on campus.
(12:18):
I feel like on campused I should be seen as
an educator. Now if they said the off campus anywhere,
I'm bumby all day, right, But on campus, everybody called
me prov I kept that. I kept that integrity, and
I still see my students to this day. They thank
me all the time they come to concerts. You know,
it's it was a beautiful thing to be a part
of the beautiful reciprocation of of of culture, right, because
(12:43):
there are things that that I was able to present
to them that they had never knew or really didn't
have a frame of reference. I mean the lens that
you were probably able to teach like in the viewpoint
through these kids, like, let's unheard of across the country.
I'm sure, but I will be honest though, I learned
a lot from my female students um over the years
in terms of how they felt hip hop was represented.
(13:04):
And again, because this is a religious course, rights and um,
we're speaking about hip hop and religion in parallel terms, right,
They're noticing that the church and hip hop culture both
um are predominantly supported by women, yet women are not
allowed in leadership positions. This became something that we had
to talk something that was extremely eye opening to me
(13:27):
that one of my students brought to me. And so
it's not it's an interactive class. It's not just it's
not just regurgitation and memorization, right, it's interactive. You get
to have an opinion and sometimes wow, man, I'm sure
you missed that too, like because I really do. And
it's one of those also things where you know, it's
(13:48):
such a new experience that I'm sure you felt like trepidacious,
can I do this? But this is the one time
where I think, like, not bake it till you make
it applies. But you know, oftentimes people think they have
imposter syndrome. But like you went in and you gave
it like your dedicated best and you, I mean, what,
of course, what an amazing thing to have on your resume. Look,
it's not that I didn't feel like I was right.
(14:09):
I was concerned about doing it right. Ye Did I
have the information necessary to these two? Absolutely? Could I
disseminate that information properly in the world of academia? That
was the big concern. And I didn't want to do
it if I couldn't do it right. You know, that's
that's not necessarily impossible. About making sure that I don't
(14:31):
move into a space and misdirected youth. These are young,
impressionable students, some of the brightest, sharpest minds that this
world has at the time. I do not want to
be responsible for leading them the wrong way or misinforming
them in any form of fashion. Wow, I love that.
That's great. Do you ever think you'll return to teaching
again if you have hours in the day. Absolutely, I
would love to again because now again, back then I
(14:55):
was still more contractually obligated. I'm trying to a record company.
I had a lot of more responsibilities, and I was
really trying to figure out how to how to delegate
the time. But now it's all in my hands, so
I can create as much time as necessary, and I
have other revenue streams coming in, so I'm not behold
necessarily being on the road and releasing music. The burgers
will sell themselves these other things, and I can go
(15:17):
in and make sure that this culture is being presented
to the youth of the world and the proper context.
Do you think you'll keep the same course or expand
into some others? Know, I love the dynamics and he is.
He is a genius. He's a literal genius. And people
tend to throw that term around loosely. I've heard it
thrown in me. When you stand in the company of
men like him, you make sure and and reject that
(15:40):
statement when it's thrown at you. He is a brilliant,
brilliant man. He had the foresight to know that I
can work in that space, and I would not go
back into the academic world if I were not on
this side. Oh wow, okay, so you have an incredible
resume that I mean, it just kind of blows my mind.
I'm sure our viewers as well. Tell us what's next
for you? You've got burger joints, coloring books. Um, where
(16:02):
is the unseen future for bunn b Um. I've actually
got my hands in a couple of different television projects,
working on some executive production stuff, trying to develop a
couple of different things. We have one built around real estate,
um and underserved communities at work. Um, I'm working on
a dating show with an unnamed recording artist is not me.
(16:24):
He's got very full lifestyle. UM. And you know he's
a he's the consummate bachelor in hip hop. And so
we're developing something around give us, give us, give us
a hint. I don't give give us a be look. Look,
it's I don't want to say anything because if I
(16:44):
feel if I say something, I should give it. But
I'm working with If you're gonna do something a dating
show in the reality space, I'm working with the perfect
people for this. Pop were the only people I considered
during it bringing it to I was so lucky that
they were receptive. UM. They've got a great track record,
they got very projects in various places, and I'm so
happy that they were open to developing something with me.
(17:05):
But I don't want to count my ticket. We're also
UM looking at chronicling in the life of an NBA player,
which I don't want to name that yet either, UM.
But they are an NBA champion, they have one in
the NBA Championship. But they're very deep in culture, whether
the lifestyle, clothing, fashion, UM, music, all of these different
things at our facetts of their life. And so we've
(17:26):
got our hands in a lot of things right. And
we're also UM doing another food concept. This is probably
the first UM interview I've announced it with by my wife.
Queeny is opening up a soul food restaurant in November,
so we're about to start branding Queeny so Food. UM.
I have very very high expectations for what we're doing.
I believe that my burger concept would work extremely well
(17:48):
in sporting venues from activiting to the Rockets, the Texans
and the Astros for that, but I feel like her
soul food concept would work well in the airport. We
have two airports here. We have Bushing and Continental and
Hobby International Airport. I'm working at actively so we have look.
I have an idea of where I want this to
land locally and the kind of impact that I want
to make locally, um with my brand, and yeah, if
(18:11):
it takes off into a broader scale, we're absolutely open
to that. The businesses are designed for that, but I
gotta take care of home first. Wow, I love it well.
Houston is obviously so grateful to have you. You've done
so much for the community there and you know throught
Throat really the world. Can you make sure you tell
our viewers where we can find you on social media
(18:32):
as well as trill burgers your coloring book everywhere, because
I know they'll want to connect the coloring book. We're
looking to reissue it again over this holiday season. I
talked to say about it. We're looking at to reissue
it an updated version because there's now new entertainers that
would work well for this book. UM, so be on
the lookout for that. Any information from what I'm doing,
you can always go to my social media. I am
(18:54):
at Bundy on Instagram, I am at Bunby Trilogy on Twitter.
I am at Bundy a insue with you g k
on Facebook. Trull Burgers has their own dedicated space, so
you can follow them at trull Burgers on Instagram or
go to the website truill Burgers dot com. If even
if you're not in Houston, you can still get merch
and be a part of the family. So you can
go on the website and get that. And I'm just look,
(19:16):
I'm still releasing music. I got the new music. Um
it's gonna be coming before the holidays. That we're gonna
release some more music over the next couple of years
I've worked on. I was literally in the process of
creating three different projects with three different sets of producers
when COVID happened, and so and and for me, this
idea of sending music back and forth can become very impersonal,
(19:38):
very easily. So I love the energy that creators can
create in the space together occupying the same space. So
I'm trying to avoid that as much as possible. But
obviously it's not easy to do in person recording right now.
So but We've got a lot of great music on hold,
and I'm gonna try to get it out to people
as soon as possible. But I just want everybody to
stay encouraged. Things are getting better. Um, you know everything's
(20:00):
going to turn around. Stay encouraged, stay focused, stay prayed up.
It will get Ben oh Man, thank you so much.
Thank you for being on the show. Thank you for
those words of encouragement, because we can never have too
much of that fun. You truly are a gift to
our community. So next time in Houston, I'm definitely coming
for a burgers me and if you come November, if
you come around November, we have a nice big play
(20:22):
to Queenie so Queeny solo. I love it well. Thank
you so much for your time today, and continue to
be great and excel in all you do. Money Movers,
make sure you follow Bun on all his social media
handles and go and support all his business endeavors in
the h town. All right, money Movers, this is all
the time we have for today. Make sure you tune
in Monday through Friday and subscribe to the Money Moves
podcast powered by Greenwood, so that you two can have
(20:44):
the keys to the financial freedom you so rightly deserve.
Thank you so much for tuning in Money Moves audience.
If you want more or a recap of this episode,
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(21:06):
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you get your podcasts from.
Hey, money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the key to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Hey, money Movers, Welcome
to the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood. Our next
(00:22):
guest is a household name in the music industry. He
is one half of the Southern rap duo U G K.
He has released five solo albums, including two thousands ten Trilogy,
which received the Sources Rare five MIC rating. He is
also a distinguished lecturer at Rice University, treating on hip
hop and religion. Most recently, he has entered the food
(00:42):
industry with trill Burgers. Money Movers, that's welcome a real
O g Bundy to the podcast. Hey, Hey, how are you?
Thanks for having me? Tell me about your coloring book?
Like this is I love this, Like there's so much
fun stuff that that you've been putting out. But tell
me about the coloring book. So. I have a good
friend here in Houston. His name is Shay Sharronto, and
(01:04):
she is an amazing writer, um amazing journalist. And he
and I both have the same kind of dry sense
of humor. I always thought he was the funniest man
on Twitter actually was voted the funniest man on Twitter
or And so we we talked a lot about hip hop,
and I was like, I want to partner with you.
I want to create a book of some sort with you,
(01:26):
but I don't want it to be all stuffy and
you know, too much braggadocio and all of that. Like,
hip hop is a very fun environment to be a
part of. We have so much fun creating music performing music.
If you go backstage to any concert, these artists are
laughing and drinking. Everybody enjoys each other's company. And there
are a lot of people in hip hop who have
(01:46):
great senses of humor, but we never get to present that.
Hip hop is always presented in a in a certain way.
And so I was like, say, let's create something funny.
And initially we went into it thinking of writing a novel.
We was like, that's gonna to take up a lot
of time. So he came over the idea of let's
do a coloring book, and so, okay, I was like,
that's different, but let's try it. So we pitched it
(02:08):
to a couple of publications and nobody did like they
didn't get it. Nobody understood it. Shake came up with
a brilliant idea. She says, I'm gonna start a page
and I'm just gonna put something up every day and
just see what kind attraction it gets. Pretty soon the
pagings up with fifty thou followers. So and it's it's
(02:31):
it's always these creative terms of genius. Shake comes back
and says, we're not just gonna do a coloring book.
We're gonna do coloring and activity book. And that was
the game change. So it wasn't just about coloring, but
there was paid by numbers, there were amazes, there was
filling the blank, there was all these different things that
allow for creative energy. Right. But we wanted this to
be a share able experience, right. We wanted parents who
(02:53):
were more who were let's say from the eighties seventies, right,
who were from back in the day. We wanted them
to have people that they could introduce their children too.
We also wanted current parts that the children could introduce
the parents too. Right, So this book was always designed
to be a learning experience for people, right, a sharing
a sharable hip hop experience for families, which we don't
(03:16):
get a lot of those opportunities and it hit like
game busters. We went back out. Um, we pitched it,
but literally the first company we pitched you was like,
we get it, we see it, now, let's go. We
ended up on everybody's top ten Christmas gift list. Had
we had space and Norristrooms had pop up Christmas space
(03:36):
in their stores. We were in every store. We made
Pitchford's list, we made g q's list. Wendy Williams had
us on our on her show. Um, you know, we
had a we had our instore. The mayor came at
the time. Just so much momentum behind this book, and
I think it was because anytime you create something that
allows everyone in the family to take part, you ethically
(03:59):
increase this this that's why we were so eager to
move into food, because everybody eats. Everybody loves a burger, everybody.
This is community, this is fellowship. What's even deeper than that,
everybody's got to eat. It's true, right, that's it's the
least common denominator across humanity. That's food. You've all got
to eat. We've all got to drink. So if you
could sell water to people, and you can sell food
(04:21):
to people, you will almost never be out of business.
Oh my gosh, I love this. This is the coloring
book should be like a marketing case study because you know,
from its very inception where you're testing the markets on
Instagram to you know it's success in getting into Nordstrom
and all this, how did you like? Because people always
want to ask they have their product, what was it
that you know? Really ricochet the launching point to get
(04:41):
it into these stores and get all this eyeballs on
this product. It's about belief, right, Every company that starts
has to start with the fact that they believe this
company will connect to people and that it will eventually
become successful. Right. Very few companies are successful out the door.
Most small businesses die within two or three years. A
lot of that's got to do with leasing commitments and
(05:02):
all of that. But I don't want to get into that. Well,
we'll save that for another because I don't want to
discourage people from getting into business. But they're all commitments
that you have to make in order to create a
business and start a business. Um, I have the luxury
of already having a brand that has had success, Right,
What I didn't realize was how that brand worked across
(05:24):
many different facets of life. I had only used my
brand to so music, maybe a little merch, and maybe
some concert tis. What I didn't understand was that my
brand was solid with people across all walks of life,
and that I had built a trust factor with people.
So as long as I could create a product that
I really believed in and I knew it was not
set up to just beat people out of money, I
(05:47):
was with it. Let's go for this. Food is the
perfect example of me knowing that my community trust me
to deliver them quality product on any level. So in
the same way that I bring a level of service
to the music got produced, that's the kind of level
of service we want to bring to the burger. The
beautiful thing is for me, I don't I don't have
to cook, right, That's not for me to do. I
(06:09):
have an amazing chef at he runs the kitchen, and
Patty and b J run everything in the kitchen. Your
amazing chefs. I'm the host. I'm all day yep, yeah,
I can stand there. I try to be there. Up
until this point, let's say we've sold hundred burgers and
pop ups. Up until this point, I've been available for
(06:31):
d and sixty of those burgers. Wow. But I mean,
I hope people understand that. It's like people often think, oh,
you're a celebrity, you're the face. You just show up
to cut a ribbon and then you're gone. Like that's
not how true success is formed. Like you're you know,
you might not be in the kitchen mixing ground beef bodies,
but you're they're selling your burgers. That's your face, your baby,
(06:51):
your dream is attached to it. It's work. It's service,
the service industry, right, and I'm an entertainer. The entertainment
industry is the service industry. It's all designed to deliver
a product to people. I've had a great career at that.
I can do that with, you know, with my eyes closed.
So I just bring the same conscious effort and determination
that I bring to my music career to this. That's all.
(07:14):
I don't have to figure anything out to do anything different.
All I have to do is care just as much.
And that's easy for me to do because I know
these people trust me and believe in me, particularly here
in this city. So the last thing I want to
do is betray that trust for a couple of for
ten dollars back it ain't work exactly, exactly exactly. You
spent years building up that trust and brand, absolutely, thirty
(07:37):
years in this city. It will be next year will
be our thirty year anniversary of servicing the people, not
just accusing, but all around the world. But it's important.
Just in the same way that the music started here,
the food's gonna start here as well. And the word
of mouth and dedication and commitment to the brand work
for the music, There's no way it won't work for
the food. Wow. Well, I can't wait to have a
Trill burger. But I do have another question. How did
(07:59):
you your role as a teacher at Rice University. That's
like a lot of different hots are wearing my friends. Yeah, so, UM,
A lot of opportunities that happened for me, and I
say this all the time, happened because Chamillionaire is busy.
And the reason I say, um, I do a lot
of news interviews, UM, and a lot of those opportunities
(08:22):
came because, UM, there was a lot of talk about
police brutality. Commillion and I had a big record about
police brutality and UM, but he wasn't available to do press.
He told him. He says, well, I'm not free this week,
but I know you should talk to talk to bun By, right,
So that's opened up a plethora of opportunities. So the
same thing happens with this, with this teaching opportunity. There
(08:42):
was already a class being taught on hip hop and
religion at Rice University UM. The professor, Dr Anthony Pinn
reached out to cha Millionaire about coming in and being
a guest in the class. He couldn't make it, but
again he suggested you called Bunby. I got the call.
I was happy to go and do the interview. I
sat with with Dr Pinn before the interview looking around
(09:03):
his bookshelf. I realized that we had some different literature
that we shared. I was like, hey, I've read that
at that what's your view on at when we had
a great conversation before a really good conversation, and the
class talked again after the class and we just had
a really good report. About a week or so later,
he approached me with the notion of co teaching the classroom,
and for me, I was hesitant on two levels. One,
(09:25):
I'm not a college graduate. I didn't attend college, so
I don't really understand exactly what my place would be
in terms of the academic world and how I would
fit into it. And then and then secondly, he's the
most tenured professor of color on campus on a private university.
It's the number one university in Texas, is the number
seventeen university in the country. I don't want to mess
(09:47):
up this mass preputation continue on campus. But then the
other side of it was, well, this is a great
opportunity for hip hop culture to live and breathe on
this campus for people who are further remove from it
than anyone else. Right, this is the private university. Primarily,
these students are not Houston residents. They come from different places,
(10:08):
and it's it's basically built around the business School and
the School of Architecture. So there's not a lot of
people coming there for music. And even if they did,
my class is not a music class. It's it exists
in the Humanities department. It's really that is class um.
And so I was very head to tent. The Dr
Penn was absolutely confident. Not for one second did you
think I couldn't do the job. He threw me out
(10:29):
there like he he was like, not only are you
gonna co teach this with I want you to do
the lectures every day. I want you to get up
there and so that they can see you in this space.
I don't just fun that comes in and gives ten
minutes of comments or whatever. And so I would do
my and my wife used to make jokes about it
that I was wearing a wearing wearing out the tile
(10:51):
and the kids and back and forth trying to figure
my lecture out. And once I did the first lecture,
which I probably had never been more nervous than an
else in my life, and that once I got past
it and found out the students were receptive, I started
giving myself over and over to the process. I mean
for almost five years. I haven't taught that in the
(11:12):
last two and a half years, but we we taught
it over five and a half years, um in alter
stating seasons, alternating semester. Sorry, so we would do spring
one year, then we would do fall the next year,
and then spring the next year, and so um. It
probably is one of the most fulfilling things I've ever
done in my life. Because I'm not a tenured professor,
(11:33):
didn't really pay a lot of money, and I had
to turn down money to do it because I wanted
to make sure the children had my utmost attention. I
had hours, I taught twice a week. I had lectures
I had to prepare, and it wasn't gonna be something
that I could try to do in a hotel room. No,
I wanted these children to have my full attention. I
(11:56):
didn't want them to have to share that because they
wouldn't have to do that with any other professor than
any other class, right, And so we took We took
a financial hit during those years because we refused to
do both at the same time. I turned down the university.
The university begged me to do Spring Fest, and I
mean they brought the price up several times, and I
was like, look, I think it would compromise me on campus.
(12:18):
I feel like on campused I should be seen as
an educator. Now if they said the off campus anywhere,
I'm bumby all day, right, But on campus, everybody called
me prov I kept that. I kept that integrity, and
I still see my students to this day. They thank
me all the time they come to concerts. You know,
it's it was a beautiful thing to be a part
of the beautiful reciprocation of of of culture, right, because
(12:43):
there are things that that I was able to present
to them that they had never knew or really didn't
have a frame of reference. I mean the lens that
you were probably able to teach like in the viewpoint
through these kids, like, let's unheard of across the country.
I'm sure, but I will be honest though, I learned
a lot from my female students um over the years
in terms of how they felt hip hop was represented.
(13:04):
And again, because this is a religious course, rights and um,
we're speaking about hip hop and religion in parallel terms, right,
They're noticing that the church and hip hop culture both
um are predominantly supported by women, yet women are not
allowed in leadership positions. This became something that we had
to talk something that was extremely eye opening to me
(13:27):
that one of my students brought to me. And so
it's not it's an interactive class. It's not just it's
not just regurgitation and memorization, right, it's interactive. You get
to have an opinion and sometimes wow, man, I'm sure
you missed that too, like because I really do. And
it's one of those also things where you know, it's
(13:48):
such a new experience that I'm sure you felt like trepidacious,
can I do this? But this is the one time
where I think, like, not bake it till you make
it applies. But you know, oftentimes people think they have
imposter syndrome. But like you went in and you gave
it like your dedicated best and you, I mean, what,
of course, what an amazing thing to have on your resume. Look,
it's not that I didn't feel like I was right.
(14:09):
I was concerned about doing it right. Ye Did I
have the information necessary to these two? Absolutely? Could I
disseminate that information properly in the world of academia? That
was the big concern. And I didn't want to do
it if I couldn't do it right. You know, that's
that's not necessarily impossible. About making sure that I don't
(14:31):
move into a space and misdirected youth. These are young,
impressionable students, some of the brightest, sharpest minds that this
world has at the time. I do not want to
be responsible for leading them the wrong way or misinforming
them in any form of fashion. Wow, I love that.
That's great. Do you ever think you'll return to teaching
again if you have hours in the day. Absolutely, I
would love to again because now again, back then I
(14:55):
was still more contractually obligated. I'm trying to a record company.
I had a lot of more responsibilities, and I was
really trying to figure out how to how to delegate
the time. But now it's all in my hands, so
I can create as much time as necessary, and I
have other revenue streams coming in, so I'm not behold
necessarily being on the road and releasing music. The burgers
will sell themselves these other things, and I can go
(15:17):
in and make sure that this culture is being presented
to the youth of the world and the proper context.
Do you think you'll keep the same course or expand
into some others? Know, I love the dynamics and he is.
He is a genius. He's a literal genius. And people
tend to throw that term around loosely. I've heard it
thrown in me. When you stand in the company of
men like him, you make sure and and reject that
(15:40):
statement when it's thrown at you. He is a brilliant,
brilliant man. He had the foresight to know that I
can work in that space, and I would not go
back into the academic world if I were not on
this side. Oh wow, okay, so you have an incredible
resume that I mean, it just kind of blows my mind.
I'm sure our viewers as well. Tell us what's next
for you? You've got burger joints, coloring books. Um, where
(16:02):
is the unseen future for bunn b Um. I've actually
got my hands in a couple of different television projects,
working on some executive production stuff, trying to develop a
couple of different things. We have one built around real estate,
um and underserved communities at work. Um, I'm working on
a dating show with an unnamed recording artist is not me.
(16:24):
He's got very full lifestyle. UM. And you know he's
a he's the consummate bachelor in hip hop. And so
we're developing something around give us, give us, give us
a hint. I don't give give us a be look. Look,
it's I don't want to say anything because if I
(16:44):
feel if I say something, I should give it. But
I'm working with If you're gonna do something a dating
show in the reality space, I'm working with the perfect
people for this. Pop were the only people I considered
during it bringing it to I was so lucky that
they were receptive. UM. They've got a great track record,
they got very projects in various places, and I'm so
happy that they were open to developing something with me.
(17:05):
But I don't want to count my ticket. We're also
UM looking at chronicling in the life of an NBA player,
which I don't want to name that yet either, UM.
But they are an NBA champion, they have one in
the NBA Championship. But they're very deep in culture, whether
the lifestyle, clothing, fashion, UM, music, all of these different
things at our facetts of their life. And so we've
(17:26):
got our hands in a lot of things right. And
we're also UM doing another food concept. This is probably
the first UM interview I've announced it with by my wife.
Queeny is opening up a soul food restaurant in November,
so we're about to start branding Queeny so Food. UM.
I have very very high expectations for what we're doing.
I believe that my burger concept would work extremely well
(17:48):
in sporting venues from activiting to the Rockets, the Texans
and the Astros for that, but I feel like her
soul food concept would work well in the airport. We
have two airports here. We have Bushing and Continental and
Hobby International Airport. I'm working at actively so we have look.
I have an idea of where I want this to
land locally and the kind of impact that I want
to make locally, um with my brand, and yeah, if
(18:11):
it takes off into a broader scale, we're absolutely open
to that. The businesses are designed for that, but I
gotta take care of home first. Wow, I love it well.
Houston is obviously so grateful to have you. You've done
so much for the community there and you know throught
Throat really the world. Can you make sure you tell
our viewers where we can find you on social media
(18:32):
as well as trill burgers your coloring book everywhere, because
I know they'll want to connect the coloring book. We're
looking to reissue it again over this holiday season. I
talked to say about it. We're looking at to reissue
it an updated version because there's now new entertainers that
would work well for this book. UM, so be on
the lookout for that. Any information from what I'm doing,
you can always go to my social media. I am
(18:54):
at Bundy on Instagram, I am at Bunby Trilogy on Twitter.
I am at Bundy a insue with you g k
on Facebook. Trull Burgers has their own dedicated space, so
you can follow them at trull Burgers on Instagram or
go to the website truill Burgers dot com. If even
if you're not in Houston, you can still get merch
and be a part of the family. So you can
go on the website and get that. And I'm just look,
(19:16):
I'm still releasing music. I got the new music. Um
it's gonna be coming before the holidays. That we're gonna
release some more music over the next couple of years
I've worked on. I was literally in the process of
creating three different projects with three different sets of producers
when COVID happened, and so and and for me, this
idea of sending music back and forth can become very impersonal,
(19:38):
very easily. So I love the energy that creators can
create in the space together occupying the same space. So
I'm trying to avoid that as much as possible. But
obviously it's not easy to do in person recording right now.
So but We've got a lot of great music on hold,
and I'm gonna try to get it out to people
as soon as possible. But I just want everybody to
stay encouraged. Things are getting better. Um, you know everything's
(20:00):
going to turn around. Stay encouraged, stay focused, stay prayed up.
It will get Ben oh Man, thank you so much.
Thank you for being on the show. Thank you for
those words of encouragement, because we can never have too
much of that fun. You truly are a gift to
our community. So next time in Houston, I'm definitely coming
for a burgers me and if you come November, if
you come around November, we have a nice big play
(20:22):
to Queenie so Queeny solo. I love it well. Thank
you so much for your time today, and continue to
be great and excel in all you do. Money Movers,
make sure you follow Bun on all his social media
handles and go and support all his business endeavors in
the h town. All right, money Movers, this is all
the time we have for today. Make sure you tune
in Monday through Friday and subscribe to the Money Moves
podcast powered by Greenwood, so that you two can have
(20:44):
the keys to the financial freedom you so rightly deserve.
Thank you so much for tuning in Money Moves audience.
If you want more or a recap of this episode,
please go to the bank Greenwood dot com and check
out the Money Moves podcast blogs. Money Moves is an
I heart radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by
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