UGK 4 Life
New UGK Album coming out at the end of the month. Here the tracklisting and a new Bun B interview by WordofSouth.com.
1 Intro
2 Still On The Grind
3 Everybody Wanna Ball
4 Feelin’ You
5 The Pimp & The Bun
6 She Luv It
7 7th Street Interlude
8 Swishas & Erb
9 Purse Come First
10 Harry Asshole
11 Used To Be
12 Steal Your Mind
13 Texas Ave. Interlude
14 Hard As Hell
15 Da Game Been Good To Me
16 Outro
UGK: The Trill OG?z
Sunday, March 15, 2009
WordofSouth.Com: ?UGK 4 Life? March 31st, marks the end of an era. Will this album give UGK the proper send off the fans expect? How important is it to you that the fans are satisfied with this project?
Bun B: This album will absolutely give them what they expect. The fact is if I didn?t give them what I felt they deserve?not so much what they expect but also what they deserve because for 17 years of unconditional support ? I wasn?t going to do it. The ?Underground Kingz?double album debuted number one on the billboard two-hundred charts, had a Grammy nominated single, number one. If that had to be the send off, it would have been an excellent way for UGK to go out. I felt like I had the opportunity to give us one last shot, one last go and it wasn?t just a matter of taking a couple of songs and putting out an album, but actually having enough structure and theme to make a cohesive project and I thought I had that; we moved forward and made that happen.
WordofSouth.Com: 17 years, UGK had an unbelievable run. It?s the final UGK album. Did you ever think that day would come?
Bun B: I never thought we were going to have the first one (laughs). We signed with Jive; it was a five album deal. I never assumed people would want to hear five albums from us to be honest. My entire career has been icing on the cake. I had a great run as a member of UGK and the UGK legacy will still live on, longer then you and I. For me, it?s definitely been rewarding at the end of the day. I?m content; I?ll be very content with UGK?s placing in history at this point.
WordofSouth.Com: Absolutely. ?Da Game Been Good To Me? is the first single, and it?s the epitome of what UGK music should sound like. Was that song cut off the last album and if so, why? Is a music video coming to accompany the song anytime soon?
Bun B: No it was not cut off the last album but it was produced by the same people that helped co-produce the last UGK album. The production from the last double album and this album is extremely cohesive because it?s the same production team. The last double album, if you notice the credits, a lot of them was co-produced by several people and those same people are the co-producers or lead producers on this album.
There is a video that is going to accompany this song. I?m not going to perform in it. It?s more-so of a retrospective look back at the career of UGK from pictures, photo shoots and videos from the first album all the way up until today.
WordofSouth.Com: That plays perfectly into my next question. With it being the final UGK project, I imagine you carefully picked out which guests and producers you wanted to appear on the album. Tell us about that process of finding the right names.
Bun B: Well it was more-so about making sure that it made sense to listen to UGK and these are people Pimp C would have done these songs with. For me to have a song about women dancing and shaking in clubs and to have Lil? Boosie and Webbie featured on it ? people know that number one, they?re apart of the UGK family and two, they?re direct Pimp C prot?g??s and three, they?re known for making songs about women in clubs ? it was a perfect fit.
It?s the same thing with 8Ball, MJG, E. 40 and B. Legit on a song called ?Used to be? on this album. The song is basically talking about the circumstances that we started with in our careers and how far we?ve been able to go, where we?ve arrived to and what we?ve achieved. I thought 8Ball & MJG, E. 40 and as well as B. Legit coming from the same era and to still be viable artists in this day and time, I thought it was an excellent fit on the record. And with them all being friends of UGK and had previously recorded with us, it makes sense to the UGK fans.
WordofSouth.Com: We like that explanation. Were Pimp C?s vocals for this album recorded specifically for the next UGK album or was he working on a solo project?
Bun B: He was working on both. A lot of these songs are songs as I said, that came from recording sessions for the last ?Underground Kingz?album where we got to the point were we knew all the songs weren?t going to make it onto that album and some of them would make it onto this album. An example of this would be ?Here We Go Again? produced by Mannie Fresh and features Ron Isley. It was actually the first full song I and Pimp C completed after his release from prison. It was something that was just so special, we could never get the right mix on it and we didn?t want to just put it out because it meant so much to us because it was our first time back.
That?s in the instance and also in the instance is the song ?Hard as Hell? which is featuring and produced by Akon. It was originally recorded for the last album and meant to be the follow-up single to ?International Players Anthem? but it ended up becoming too costly a song for the budget on that album and got pushed over to this album.
WordofSouth.Com: We appreciate the in-sight delivered to some of those songs right there. How often during the post-production of this album did you see yourself saying ?What would Pimp C do?? since you normally took a back-seat role in the rest of the UGK projects.
Bun B: Well I was very lucky to have people around that were involved in the project in terms of the mixing and mastering of the last projects as well, with the exception of N.O. Joe who I couldn?t reach out to be apart of this album simply due to time constraints. Everyone else has already been apart of the process; especially a person like Mike Dean who was a long time friend and recording partner of Pimp C. He has a very, very good understanding of the kinds of elements that Pimp C would want brought forward in the music as for making drums, key boards, bass guitars and different things stand out more than others, and making sure certain things were very clear and the sound was grand enough and the mix was warm; you know what I?m saying?
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