February 18, 2022 • 23 mins
Bun B is a household name in the music industry and has made an inprint in the rap industry. He is the one half of the southern rap duo UGK. He has released five solo Albums, including 2010s Trill OG, which received The Source's rare 5 mic rating.
Bun B joins us to talk about his journey in the rap industry and becoming a legend in the process. He shares what has changed in the music industry since the rise of social media and the value of content ownership. In addition, he shares his new restaurant venture, Trill Burgers.
Host IG: @itstanyatime
Guest IG: @bunb
Guest Website: Trill Burgers
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Hey, money Movers, Welcome
to the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood's. 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
(00:43):
industry with trill Burgers. Money Movers, that's welcome a real
og Bunby to the podcast. Hey, Hey, how are you?
Thanks for having me? Great to have you here. Welcome, Welcome,
Welcome Bunby. You have actually been mentioned a lot in
previous episodes as an inspiration to so many as they've
taken their careers from music to entrepreneurship. So it's really
(01:03):
great to have you here. That's amazing. I hope it
will still positive stuff. Absolutely rave and glowing reviews about
you have been dropped on this podcast before. You've inspired
so many people on their journey and this is a
topic that we discuss a lot on the Money Moves podcast.
And as I back up, I'm going to tell you
a little bit more. Bank Greenwood is passionate about how
we can help lay the foundations for financial literacy, entrepreneurship,
(01:26):
and build generational wealth in our communities. That's why we
have Killer Mike is one of our founders, Ryan Glover
from Bounced TV, and also Paul Judge who's a notable
cybersecurity entrepreneurs. So really excited to have you on the
podcast today and basically allow you to tell your story
and continue to inspire so many more people. Oh no,
I'm happy to be here. Thank you guys so much
(01:47):
for having It's amazing what you guys are doing. I
just like Greenwood, but when money moves, you know, getting
you worried out, letting entrepreneurs ChIL their story directly to
the people. It's a It's a beautiful thing. And you know,
part of it is we want people to be able
to identify with you know, your story of where you
came from, how you moved up through the ranks, all
the hard work that you put in and for people
to be able to get tangible advice and road maps
(02:09):
to success. So let's go back to the beginning, when
you first started your career and launched into the industry.
How did you get here? Well, this was a very
almost accidental kind of a situation. You know, we're from
a very small town. We have big dreams. You know,
we're from Port Arthur, Texas is a very small industrial town.
Not a lot of opportunities for people coming from there.
(02:29):
But music was a big dream. It was always a
dream of Chad, better than his PIMC and it was
a dream of mine. And you know, we kind of
threw costure to the wind. We let it be known
that this was something that we wanted to do. Um,
we went around a different places. We actually ended up
and King's Flea Market in Houston, Texas. And it was
a gentleman by the name of Russell Washington who had
(02:50):
a record store in that in that flea market and
had a science that he was looking for artists. So
we jumped back in the car. You know, Port author
is about a half away from Houston weather Fleet Mark
it's located. So we jumped in the car. We drove
all the way back, got the music, then drove it
back to Houston to present it to him. He liked
what he heard. Um, he said he was willing to
(03:11):
put his money behind it. We put out our first
independent project in February of called The Southern Way until
fifty copies independently in two months. We ended up in
a bidding war and Jive Records won the bidding war.
We signed with them uh in May of and the
rest is history. As they say, wow, I mean, you
(03:34):
make it sounds really really easy. There's so many nuances
this to the story where you're like, we saw a sign,
we went and got our music, we pitched it. What
do you think was really integral to your success at
this time? Like was it just the music itself or
how you guys hustled, like how you approached breaking into
the industry. I think it's about preparedness, right, Like people
always say what it is they want to do and
(03:56):
where to go, But how prepared are you really to
get there? How ready are you if the opportunity presents
itself to take advantage of that opportunity. You know, the
only problem we had was time and gas That for
us was not a big deal, you know, in order
to to try to make that connection and and help
be you know, help ourselves be successful. So for me,
it's really always been about preparedness. You know, people say,
(04:19):
you know, man, give me a chance. I'm ready to
go with you. Never know, in this the age you
could be walking in them all. Someone could be you know,
broadcasting live on the streaming service. They they're looking for talent.
Put a mic in your hand. Now, how prepared are you?
You know? So And I tell people all the time,
be very careful what you ask for. You know, people
say they want success, they want to have a career
(04:41):
and be busy, but you'd be very surprised how much
of your personal life you may have to sacrifice sometimes, um, sleep, health, um.
There's a lot of different things that come into like
trying to get a business off the ground and trying
to be successful and trying to take advantage of opportunities
in front of you. So truly, truly be prepared for
the opportunities, not just physically, not just career wise, but
(05:03):
also mentally because it's gonna be very taxing on you
as well and for you, Like when you look back
at your career and your directory, like even the mental
headspace like, how, who was it that was really helpful
in providing mentorship or guidance for you or were you
just sort of like on your own learning the ropes.
I mean, initially we were right myself, Chad and Russell,
the guy that started the company. We didn't have any experience.
(05:25):
We had no idea how to you know, run a
record company. We didn't how to you know, put together
the artwork, how to get the music pressed up. So
we learned a lot of stuff on the fly. But
once we kind of started to find our way into
the industry and people realized we weren't born anywhere, we
did start to get some really sound sage advice. People
like Too Short came to us very early because he
was signed to the same label we were signed too,
(05:48):
and he was like, you guys have the deal, you're
in the building, but there's a lot of different things
you could be taking advantage of in their building. So
he was really good about that. Jay Prince, the founder
of Rapple Up Records, was very inspiration know for one
of us, even thinking that we could achieve a dream
being from this area. You know, they were the first
people to show that you could actually be successful and
(06:08):
have a career in hip hop at the time, but
also as we started to get into contractual disputes and
just really you know, becoming disheartened with the industry. And
you know, you start doing favors for people and you
accept reciperent, you expect reciprocation, it doesn't happen. Um. So
he opened our eyes up to a lot of different
things about them about the music industry. Helped us, you know,
(06:30):
avoid a lot of obstacles and learn how to really
take advantage of those nuances that people need to know
to get everything out of the situation. Yeah, And I
mean you've seen so much, Like your legacy in the
music industry has spanned decades right now, you've seen so
much change. Like we're talking about the nineties, like we
saw the Internet come in, we saw Napster, all these
things happen, and fast forward now to like it's so different.
(06:53):
Like what advice do you have for the young gs
coming into the into the business of music now, Well,
I'll tell young artists all the time that you know,
the music for some people can almost be secondary. Um.
The reason I say that is because you don't necessarily
just sell music anymore. With everything that comes into play
(07:15):
via social media, streaming services, um, all of these various
platforms that you're there to take advantage of. It's it's
it's not just about the music. You're selling yourself, right,
So you put these Instagram pages up, you put the
Twitter accounts, YouTube pages, TikTok's, whatever it may be. You're
you're often selling yourself as a person. You're selling yourself
(07:36):
as a lifestyle, as someone to take cultural notes from
business notes, from all of these different cultural cues as
you will, and you have to be aware of that
at all times. For example, you put out a video
and you show yourself and nice shirt, nice pants, and
you're you're a big closed person, tire So you, I
know you understand this, right. Once you that image of
(07:58):
yourself as someone who is a nice dresser and likes
nice things, you have to consistently that message, you know,
and you you you almost can't even come outside or
unless you're coming outside in a way that you've told
the public you present yourself. Now, if you're in the
business that makes the kind of money that facilitates spending
it on that kind of clothing by all means, but
(08:21):
I tell you, people don't paint yourself in a corner
making it look like you got a budge of money
when you don't. Because they don't see you with the money,
they're gonna sue. Everything else is a lot. Yeah, you
know I'm saying, So just be very careful. People don't
have a problem with you not being rich yet, that's fine.
I feel like people miss this message. They're like, we're
all on our grind on the way up. You don't
(08:41):
have to be rich yet, Like, but I think that's
what people think success is, and you've got to be
successful before, you know. It's like the Chicken and the egg. Well,
I think there's been a saying that's been around for
a while, and I think it's signed for a die
and that's fake it till you make it. That's been
a big problem for people, you know, I'm saying. And
the problem is that social media can help you facilitate
(09:04):
faking it until you make it right. But everyone at
some point will be found in a position that they
would not like to be found in. So you have
to be careful about what you're telling people. You are,
what you represent, what you have, how you move, because
at some point, if you're not in that particular space.
When people see you, they're gonna take a picture, they're
(09:24):
gonna take a video, and you're gonna have to live
with that, Oh my gosh. And that's harder. You know,
even in any product, whether it's a brand or this,
removing the negative reviews is almost harder than like, you know,
ten x glowing reviews, Like we've seen this. And so
that idea of like bad press is good press and
bad press like any press is good press does not
necessarily translate, not at all. So now you've had this
(09:46):
illustrious career in the rap game in this industry, but
you've also turned to entrepreneurship, and many people have been
singing your praises how you've helped guide them to find
alternate streams of income and build wealth outside of the
music industry. Big Teaches one of them. He's said that
you really were instrumental in pushing him to start his
mac and cheese food trucks and restaurants. Can you talk
(10:06):
about your journey from like music to entrepreneurship and um,
some of the lessons that you've learned in businesses you've created. Yeah,
so the music industry is a business, right, and I
didn't really understand that fully. When I came into the industry,
I was very young. I was uneducated to everything, and
I kind of found out a lot of stuff on
the fly. But there were people in my corner the forties,
(10:29):
the Two Shorts, the Jay Princess, people who were able
to speak truth into my life, helped me avoid some
things and put me on the correct path. So I
felt it was only right for me to pay for
it to other people. What happened is is that it
always it didn't always end up being a musical situation.
I started to have friends that wanted to transition into
other things. Teach was one of them. Teach with somebody
(10:49):
I knew very well from the music industry um, but
was in a space where he wasn't really sure where
he wanted to go. And I always tell people followed
their passion, followed their loves, so even if you're not successful,
you can still be happy. And I was like, what
is it you love to do? He was like, I
really like to cook. I'm like where. I was like,
you know what, next time I come to Miami, I
(11:09):
want to try your food. So I went to Miami
and I had some friends with me. We were all
there during the Gunball three thousand and he came by
and cooked some food for us and I ate, and
I was like, you need to do this professionally, like
there was. It was not a pastime for him. I
was like, food, it's really good. You should do it.
He was like, I don't know nothing about the food industress,
(11:29):
and that's okay. There's there's many different entry points right
that provides you low overhead but high profit points. And
I was like, food trucks would be the perfect situation
for you to introduce this brand into. He took my advice,
you know, I was. I was a bit nervous because
I knew, you know, he was. He was very serious
about this commitment. He named it after his father, his
(11:50):
father's faces the logo UM. But I trusted the brand.
I trusted the food. And his reputation in the city
was solid, so people were willing to give him a chance,
which many young upstart businesses don't have any brand aware
UM when they start. He luckily, people knew who he
was in the city and they gave it a shot.
He started catering different UM album listening parties. He eventually
(12:13):
worked his way up to a food truck. Now he's
got breaking mortar locations. The world is wide open for him,
you know. And sometimes we have to be careful that
we're not because we can often give good advice but
not take the advice that we give the right And
so I find myself in a place of transition where
it's like, Okay, you're solid in the music industry, you
(12:35):
have your publishing, your own your own your music right now.
Not too good place to be in. But what are
we gonna do with this capital? Do we have any
of the places where we can make these things happen?
And so I indorsed in in UM the cannabis space.
So I have equity and a couple of different companies.
One it's called Gee Pen Gee Pins been around UM
(12:55):
very long time, one of the earliest introductions into hardware
for cannabis consumption. And then I want to a new
company called Mez and so, but I haven't moved in
the flower yet because I feel like that's the one
you gotta hit on the head. Hardware and lifestyle um
UM products they're a little bit easier to kind of
get through the market, but the flower is really really
(13:18):
saturated right now. So we're trying to find the right
entry point for that, but we found talk to Me
offline Georgia's Georgia is the new frontier that right, and
I know my brand works in Georgia, so people. But
we did have other things that we wanted to do.
My wife and I were very big on cooking, and
(13:38):
for many years we would put up cooking videos, and
out of everything we put up on social media, it
was always the cooking videos that resonated with people that connected,
that had the most comments, at the most views, it
was always that, and so we were for for a
while we were like, we need to figure out how
to capitalize off of this because for us, it's just
us showing what we do. But there's something to be
(13:59):
said for that. You know, you're doing the stuff because
it's like it's what we do, it's what we like,
and it's like, you know, whoever it is the universe
is sending you a message like this is it, this
is it, this is it. You're like, but this is
just what we like to do, and that's like what
following your passion really looks like this is what we
like to do, and people receive it and they love
it and they respond to it and so and so
(14:19):
we were looking at opening up a location. UM. I've
been talking with a good friend of my, chevro Blay.
We had been talking about looking at locations and opening
up something in the food space in Houston. And then
while we were in the midst of trying to lock
in a location, Bam covid right, and so everything gets
kind of put back to zero on every level, right,
(14:40):
even with the music industry. Everything we're trying to figure
out how to how to re enter the space and
how to you know, keep capital coming in in this time.
And so the music industry eventually worked itself out in
terms of music sells. Thank god that we were already
UM in this digital space, because if we were still
dependent on breaking mortar record stores to sell records, we
(15:02):
might have fallen apartment, you know. And and so with
the food thing eventually came back around UM to us.
A good friend of mine, uh Andy Winn, approached me.
Andy Um used to own the clothing line UM about
twelve thirteen years ago, called I Am King. So Andrew
has always been an entrepreneur, but he over the last
couple of years moved into the food space and so
(15:23):
he had a concept that he wanted to open um
and the majority of his concepts exist exists in Los
Angeles and operate out of California, but this one was
one that he felt like he couldn't get the track
that he wanted to get there. He thought he could
get the brand off a little bit better here. It
was curious if I were partner with him. I was like,
I love the idea, but I got to try to food, right,
we gotta try to food. I tried to food. It
(15:45):
was a one I was willing to put my name
on it, and I decided to actually put my name
on it. So many people know the term trio you
know from our music. It's been connected with us. Is
from our hometown of Portanta. But everyone knows what that
word means and they know that can activity of that
term to me. So the branding is already done. So
we thought, you know, we'll name it Trull Burgers presented
(16:06):
to the public. We've been doing pop ups over the
last couple of weeks. Every time we do a pop
up a pop up, the numbers increased for people. We
actually gave away ninety burgers yesterday because um next year
I'll be performing at the Houston Livestock Showing Rodeo, which
is by far the largest cultural event musical event that
we have in Houston. It's a month celebration. They do
(16:28):
about twenty one to twenty four days of concerts, average
about sixty five thousand people per night, So it's actually
the largest music festival in the world that no one
really even knows. They sell over one point five million
tickets every year for this thing. I'm the first black
man from Houston to perform at this Rodeo on their
ninety anniversary, celebrated by getting a ninety of by Burgers.
(16:55):
So we did that yesterday. But the city has really
gotten behind it, and we're already getting calls for people
that want to open doors in other cities. But I'm like, look,
I need to open my first door. I need to
make sure my spy chain is together. I need to
have my employee situation down right. We gotta, you know,
we have to lock in on this concept and show
that it's executable, and it is. It is designed to scale, right,
(17:16):
the whole everything that he does is designed to scale up. Um.
These things can fit as a brick and mortar stand alone.
They can work in food courts, sporting venues, airports, franchise
all the way, absolutely all of that. We're gonna keep
us closer to the chest as possible, at least for
probably the first two to three years, just so we
can make sure that we lock in the concept. If
we do expand more beyond one door, we'll do it
(17:38):
here and local is it before we take it away. Um.
But I do want to extend opportunities because every everyone
that's an owner in this company is a person of color.
So we want to make sure that when we do
extend franchise opportunities that we make them available for people
of color. Yes, and this is how we create wealth
and opportunity. You know, we'll be able able to make
(17:58):
these franchises in scalable businesses and offer it to people
in our community, whether it's in Houston and you branch
out from that. But I love the thought that you're
putting into it because oftentimes people will start a business
and it's so bright and shiny and flashing, everyone wants
in and you can grow too fast in actuality, So
understanding that you go like deep into your market create success,
like understand what that looks like, and then branch out
(18:19):
like this is this is a smart business that I'm
sure you've learned over your years. Well, look, Houston is
the third largest metropolitan major metropolit in the city in
America right and being an entertainer in Houston, I've been
able to build a substantial career and you know, raise
substantial revenue, not just myself, but most of us here
because of how large the state is, how populous the
cities are here. So I don't have to necessary to
(18:42):
spend that that much marketing money outside of my regional,
my you know, immediate region in order for me to
capitalize offen And the more that I do it, and
the basically the more you make music, the easier making
music becomes, the more best back into yourself and your music,
the cheaper becomes to douce the music, and so you
even though you may decrease in listeners, you will still
(19:05):
increase in revenue stream And now I don't have to
just sell one album and one store to make money.
I can take one song, release it through twenty different platforms,
having on television shows, movie trailers, in movies, all of
these different revenue streams that are available for for me.
So I don't have to work harder as I get older,
work smarter. Yes, yes, Okay, So talk about this because
(19:26):
there's a lot of um you mentioned earlier on you
You're like, you own your publishing, you own your music.
And for someone who you know came up in the
game like twenty years ago that this seems like an
anomaly now and you're hearing a lot of people how
you know their deals were misrepresented? How do you how
were you intentional about keeping ownership over your music? So,
(19:47):
so I want to be very clear that the group
that i'm the music that I made in the group
you g K, I do not own the masters too.
But because we realized that we would never own the
masters to our group music, we worked very hard to
have ownership of our solo music. And so so that's
what I've been able to do. And so now because
it's a lot cheaper, I can put out more music, right,
(20:08):
but I don't have to sell a ton of physical units.
As long as these things stream on these platforms, it
creates enough revenue. Right, So there's a consistent stream that's
available for me. As long as I stay consistent in
releasing music, I don't have to sell a million records
to make a million doctors, right, and it didn't take
(20:28):
me long to realize that. But being locked into these
contracts that these major record labels are for you, you
will never break even within the company. You'll constantly be
relying on taking advances, but you'll never see the the
entirety of the revenue that's produced by your music. Once
we realize how much capital is actually made off of
(20:49):
off of music, and how most of these companies are
subsidiaries of publishing companies, right, the only reason they're allowed
to release music is because they already own so much
MU And I'm like, if they ended and there were constants.
So when we first signed, they bought our publishing for
a very low amount. We didn't know what it was.
We didn't know that we did. The minute um we
(21:11):
realized the value, we start trying to buy it back.
They wouldn't sell it back to us until the term,
so we just basically had to stay relevant until that
term expired, you know. So we worked very hard to
try to make good music. The rights reverted back to us,
we've been able to license them out myself and the
estate of Pency Pencey've been able to license music out
(21:33):
people remake music we just had. I just had a
song remade by Drake on his new album. You know
what I'm saying, That's that's that's more revenue Toronto six.
So you just have to to to stay relevant and
being consistent as possible in creating content. Doesn't have to
be the number one content, but if you stay consistent,
(21:55):
there are a group of people who will come to
you looking for that consistency, for that information and that content.
Once I figured that out, everything's wide open. And now
that we own everything, we can release music because we
want to, not because we have to, and we don't
have conform to anything that's going on commercially. I don't
have to sound like anybody that's popping right now. I
(22:16):
have a group of people that are locked in with
me and my movement, and as long as I serviced them,
I should be fine. Wow. I love that. That's really
great advice and it's like simple, but just sometimes that
messaging gets lost for so many people. 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
(22:37):
and go and support all his business endeavors in the
h town. I am at Bundy on Instagram, I Am
at Bundy Trilogy on Twitter, I Am at Bundy Efficient
u g K on Facebook. Um trull Burgers has their
own dedicated space, so you can follow them at trull
Burgers on Instagram or go to the website true Burgers
dot com. Alright, money Movers, this is all the time
(22:59):
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 the keys
to the financial freedom you so rightly deserve. Thank you
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to the Bank Greenwood dot com and check out the
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(23:24):
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podcasts from
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Hey, money Movers, Welcome
to the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood's. 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
(00:43):
industry with trill Burgers. Money Movers, that's welcome a real
og Bunby to the podcast. Hey, Hey, how are you?
Thanks for having me? Great to have you here. Welcome, Welcome,
Welcome Bunby. You have actually been mentioned a lot in
previous episodes as an inspiration to so many as they've
taken their careers from music to entrepreneurship. So it's really
(01:03):
great to have you here. That's amazing. I hope it
will still positive stuff. Absolutely rave and glowing reviews about
you have been dropped on this podcast before. You've inspired
so many people on their journey and this is a
topic that we discuss a lot on the Money Moves podcast.
And as I back up, I'm going to tell you
a little bit more. Bank Greenwood is passionate about how
we can help lay the foundations for financial literacy, entrepreneurship,
(01:26):
and build generational wealth in our communities. That's why we
have Killer Mike is one of our founders, Ryan Glover
from Bounced TV, and also Paul Judge who's a notable
cybersecurity entrepreneurs. So really excited to have you on the
podcast today and basically allow you to tell your story
and continue to inspire so many more people. Oh no,
I'm happy to be here. Thank you guys so much
(01:47):
for having It's amazing what you guys are doing. I
just like Greenwood, but when money moves, you know, getting
you worried out, letting entrepreneurs ChIL their story directly to
the people. It's a It's a beautiful thing. And you know,
part of it is we want people to be able
to identify with you know, your story of where you
came from, how you moved up through the ranks, all
the hard work that you put in and for people
to be able to get tangible advice and road maps
(02:09):
to success. So let's go back to the beginning, when
you first started your career and launched into the industry.
How did you get here? Well, this was a very
almost accidental kind of a situation. You know, we're from
a very small town. We have big dreams. You know,
we're from Port Arthur, Texas is a very small industrial town.
Not a lot of opportunities for people coming from there.
(02:29):
But music was a big dream. It was always a
dream of Chad, better than his PIMC and it was
a dream of mine. And you know, we kind of
threw costure to the wind. We let it be known
that this was something that we wanted to do. Um,
we went around a different places. We actually ended up
and King's Flea Market in Houston, Texas. And it was
a gentleman by the name of Russell Washington who had
(02:50):
a record store in that in that flea market and
had a science that he was looking for artists. So
we jumped back in the car. You know, Port author
is about a half away from Houston weather Fleet Mark
it's located. So we jumped in the car. We drove
all the way back, got the music, then drove it
back to Houston to present it to him. He liked
what he heard. Um, he said he was willing to
(03:11):
put his money behind it. We put out our first
independent project in February of called The Southern Way until
fifty copies independently in two months. We ended up in
a bidding war and Jive Records won the bidding war.
We signed with them uh in May of and the
rest is history. As they say, wow, I mean, you
(03:34):
make it sounds really really easy. There's so many nuances
this to the story where you're like, we saw a sign,
we went and got our music, we pitched it. What
do you think was really integral to your success at
this time? Like was it just the music itself or
how you guys hustled, like how you approached breaking into
the industry. I think it's about preparedness, right, Like people
always say what it is they want to do and
(03:56):
where to go, But how prepared are you really to
get there? How ready are you if the opportunity presents
itself to take advantage of that opportunity. You know, the
only problem we had was time and gas That for
us was not a big deal, you know, in order
to to try to make that connection and and help
be you know, help ourselves be successful. So for me,
it's really always been about preparedness. You know, people say,
(04:19):
you know, man, give me a chance. I'm ready to
go with you. Never know, in this the age you
could be walking in them all. Someone could be you know,
broadcasting live on the streaming service. They they're looking for talent.
Put a mic in your hand. Now, how prepared are you?
You know? So And I tell people all the time,
be very careful what you ask for. You know, people
say they want success, they want to have a career
(04:41):
and be busy, but you'd be very surprised how much
of your personal life you may have to sacrifice sometimes, um, sleep, health, um.
There's a lot of different things that come into like
trying to get a business off the ground and trying
to be successful and trying to take advantage of opportunities
in front of you. So truly, truly be prepared for
the opportunities, not just physically, not just career wise, but
(05:03):
also mentally because it's gonna be very taxing on you
as well and for you, Like when you look back
at your career and your directory, like even the mental
headspace like, how, who was it that was really helpful
in providing mentorship or guidance for you or were you
just sort of like on your own learning the ropes.
I mean, initially we were right myself, Chad and Russell,
the guy that started the company. We didn't have any experience.
(05:25):
We had no idea how to you know, run a
record company. We didn't how to you know, put together
the artwork, how to get the music pressed up. So
we learned a lot of stuff on the fly. But
once we kind of started to find our way into
the industry and people realized we weren't born anywhere, we
did start to get some really sound sage advice. People
like Too Short came to us very early because he
was signed to the same label we were signed too,
(05:48):
and he was like, you guys have the deal, you're
in the building, but there's a lot of different things
you could be taking advantage of in their building. So
he was really good about that. Jay Prince, the founder
of Rapple Up Records, was very inspiration know for one
of us, even thinking that we could achieve a dream
being from this area. You know, they were the first
people to show that you could actually be successful and
(06:08):
have a career in hip hop at the time, but
also as we started to get into contractual disputes and
just really you know, becoming disheartened with the industry. And
you know, you start doing favors for people and you
accept reciperent, you expect reciprocation, it doesn't happen. Um. So
he opened our eyes up to a lot of different
things about them about the music industry. Helped us, you know,
(06:30):
avoid a lot of obstacles and learn how to really
take advantage of those nuances that people need to know
to get everything out of the situation. Yeah, And I
mean you've seen so much, Like your legacy in the
music industry has spanned decades right now, you've seen so
much change. Like we're talking about the nineties, like we
saw the Internet come in, we saw Napster, all these
things happen, and fast forward now to like it's so different.
(06:53):
Like what advice do you have for the young gs
coming into the into the business of music now, Well,
I'll tell young artists all the time that you know,
the music for some people can almost be secondary. Um.
The reason I say that is because you don't necessarily
just sell music anymore. With everything that comes into play
(07:15):
via social media, streaming services, um, all of these various
platforms that you're there to take advantage of. It's it's
it's not just about the music. You're selling yourself, right,
So you put these Instagram pages up, you put the
Twitter accounts, YouTube pages, TikTok's, whatever it may be. You're
you're often selling yourself as a person. You're selling yourself
(07:36):
as a lifestyle, as someone to take cultural notes from
business notes, from all of these different cultural cues as
you will, and you have to be aware of that
at all times. For example, you put out a video
and you show yourself and nice shirt, nice pants, and
you're you're a big closed person, tire So you, I
know you understand this, right. Once you that image of
(07:58):
yourself as someone who is a nice dresser and likes
nice things, you have to consistently that message, you know,
and you you you almost can't even come outside or
unless you're coming outside in a way that you've told
the public you present yourself. Now, if you're in the
business that makes the kind of money that facilitates spending
it on that kind of clothing by all means, but
(08:21):
I tell you, people don't paint yourself in a corner
making it look like you got a budge of money
when you don't. Because they don't see you with the money,
they're gonna sue. Everything else is a lot. Yeah, you
know I'm saying, So just be very careful. People don't
have a problem with you not being rich yet, that's fine.
I feel like people miss this message. They're like, we're
all on our grind on the way up. You don't
(08:41):
have to be rich yet, Like, but I think that's
what people think success is, and you've got to be
successful before, you know. It's like the Chicken and the egg. Well,
I think there's been a saying that's been around for
a while, and I think it's signed for a die
and that's fake it till you make it. That's been
a big problem for people, you know, I'm saying. And
the problem is that social media can help you facilitate
(09:04):
faking it until you make it right. But everyone at
some point will be found in a position that they
would not like to be found in. So you have
to be careful about what you're telling people. You are,
what you represent, what you have, how you move, because
at some point, if you're not in that particular space.
When people see you, they're gonna take a picture, they're
(09:24):
gonna take a video, and you're gonna have to live
with that, Oh my gosh. And that's harder. You know,
even in any product, whether it's a brand or this,
removing the negative reviews is almost harder than like, you know,
ten x glowing reviews, Like we've seen this. And so
that idea of like bad press is good press and
bad press like any press is good press does not
necessarily translate, not at all. So now you've had this
(09:46):
illustrious career in the rap game in this industry, but
you've also turned to entrepreneurship, and many people have been
singing your praises how you've helped guide them to find
alternate streams of income and build wealth outside of the
music industry. Big Teaches one of them. He's said that
you really were instrumental in pushing him to start his
mac and cheese food trucks and restaurants. Can you talk
(10:06):
about your journey from like music to entrepreneurship and um,
some of the lessons that you've learned in businesses you've created. Yeah,
so the music industry is a business, right, and I
didn't really understand that fully. When I came into the industry,
I was very young. I was uneducated to everything, and
I kind of found out a lot of stuff on
the fly. But there were people in my corner the forties,
(10:29):
the Two Shorts, the Jay Princess, people who were able
to speak truth into my life, helped me avoid some
things and put me on the correct path. So I
felt it was only right for me to pay for
it to other people. What happened is is that it
always it didn't always end up being a musical situation.
I started to have friends that wanted to transition into
other things. Teach was one of them. Teach with somebody
(10:49):
I knew very well from the music industry um, but
was in a space where he wasn't really sure where
he wanted to go. And I always tell people followed
their passion, followed their loves, so even if you're not successful,
you can still be happy. And I was like, what
is it you love to do? He was like, I
really like to cook. I'm like where. I was like,
you know what, next time I come to Miami, I
(11:09):
want to try your food. So I went to Miami
and I had some friends with me. We were all
there during the Gunball three thousand and he came by
and cooked some food for us and I ate, and
I was like, you need to do this professionally, like
there was. It was not a pastime for him. I
was like, food, it's really good. You should do it.
He was like, I don't know nothing about the food industress,
(11:29):
and that's okay. There's there's many different entry points right
that provides you low overhead but high profit points. And
I was like, food trucks would be the perfect situation
for you to introduce this brand into. He took my advice,
you know, I was. I was a bit nervous because
I knew, you know, he was. He was very serious
about this commitment. He named it after his father, his
(11:50):
father's faces the logo UM. But I trusted the brand.
I trusted the food. And his reputation in the city
was solid, so people were willing to give him a chance,
which many young upstart businesses don't have any brand aware
UM when they start. He luckily, people knew who he
was in the city and they gave it a shot.
He started catering different UM album listening parties. He eventually
(12:13):
worked his way up to a food truck. Now he's
got breaking mortar locations. The world is wide open for him,
you know. And sometimes we have to be careful that
we're not because we can often give good advice but
not take the advice that we give the right And
so I find myself in a place of transition where
it's like, Okay, you're solid in the music industry, you
(12:35):
have your publishing, your own your own your music right now.
Not too good place to be in. But what are
we gonna do with this capital? Do we have any
of the places where we can make these things happen?
And so I indorsed in in UM the cannabis space.
So I have equity and a couple of different companies.
One it's called Gee Pen Gee Pins been around UM
(12:55):
very long time, one of the earliest introductions into hardware
for cannabis consumption. And then I want to a new
company called Mez and so, but I haven't moved in
the flower yet because I feel like that's the one
you gotta hit on the head. Hardware and lifestyle um
UM products they're a little bit easier to kind of
get through the market, but the flower is really really
(13:18):
saturated right now. So we're trying to find the right
entry point for that, but we found talk to Me
offline Georgia's Georgia is the new frontier that right, and
I know my brand works in Georgia, so people. But
we did have other things that we wanted to do.
My wife and I were very big on cooking, and
(13:38):
for many years we would put up cooking videos, and
out of everything we put up on social media, it
was always the cooking videos that resonated with people that connected,
that had the most comments, at the most views, it
was always that, and so we were for for a
while we were like, we need to figure out how
to capitalize off of this because for us, it's just
us showing what we do. But there's something to be
(13:59):
said for that. You know, you're doing the stuff because
it's like it's what we do, it's what we like,
and it's like, you know, whoever it is the universe
is sending you a message like this is it, this
is it, this is it. You're like, but this is
just what we like to do, and that's like what
following your passion really looks like this is what we
like to do, and people receive it and they love
it and they respond to it and so and so
(14:19):
we were looking at opening up a location. UM. I've
been talking with a good friend of my, chevro Blay.
We had been talking about looking at locations and opening
up something in the food space in Houston. And then
while we were in the midst of trying to lock
in a location, Bam covid right, and so everything gets
kind of put back to zero on every level, right,
(14:40):
even with the music industry. Everything we're trying to figure
out how to how to re enter the space and
how to you know, keep capital coming in in this time.
And so the music industry eventually worked itself out in
terms of music sells. Thank god that we were already
UM in this digital space, because if we were still
dependent on breaking mortar record stores to sell records, we
(15:02):
might have fallen apartment, you know. And and so with
the food thing eventually came back around UM to us.
A good friend of mine, uh Andy Winn, approached me.
Andy Um used to own the clothing line UM about
twelve thirteen years ago, called I Am King. So Andrew
has always been an entrepreneur, but he over the last
couple of years moved into the food space and so
(15:23):
he had a concept that he wanted to open um
and the majority of his concepts exist exists in Los
Angeles and operate out of California, but this one was
one that he felt like he couldn't get the track
that he wanted to get there. He thought he could
get the brand off a little bit better here. It
was curious if I were partner with him. I was like,
I love the idea, but I got to try to food, right,
we gotta try to food. I tried to food. It
(15:45):
was a one I was willing to put my name
on it, and I decided to actually put my name
on it. So many people know the term trio you
know from our music. It's been connected with us. Is
from our hometown of Portanta. But everyone knows what that
word means and they know that can activity of that
term to me. So the branding is already done. So
we thought, you know, we'll name it Trull Burgers presented
(16:06):
to the public. We've been doing pop ups over the
last couple of weeks. Every time we do a pop
up a pop up, the numbers increased for people. We
actually gave away ninety burgers yesterday because um next year
I'll be performing at the Houston Livestock Showing Rodeo, which
is by far the largest cultural event musical event that
we have in Houston. It's a month celebration. They do
(16:28):
about twenty one to twenty four days of concerts, average
about sixty five thousand people per night, So it's actually
the largest music festival in the world that no one
really even knows. They sell over one point five million
tickets every year for this thing. I'm the first black
man from Houston to perform at this Rodeo on their
ninety anniversary, celebrated by getting a ninety of by Burgers.
(16:55):
So we did that yesterday. But the city has really
gotten behind it, and we're already getting calls for people
that want to open doors in other cities. But I'm like, look,
I need to open my first door. I need to
make sure my spy chain is together. I need to
have my employee situation down right. We gotta, you know,
we have to lock in on this concept and show
that it's executable, and it is. It is designed to scale, right,
(17:16):
the whole everything that he does is designed to scale up. Um.
These things can fit as a brick and mortar stand alone.
They can work in food courts, sporting venues, airports, franchise
all the way, absolutely all of that. We're gonna keep
us closer to the chest as possible, at least for
probably the first two to three years, just so we
can make sure that we lock in the concept. If
we do expand more beyond one door, we'll do it
(17:38):
here and local is it before we take it away. Um.
But I do want to extend opportunities because every everyone
that's an owner in this company is a person of color.
So we want to make sure that when we do
extend franchise opportunities that we make them available for people
of color. Yes, and this is how we create wealth
and opportunity. You know, we'll be able able to make
(17:58):
these franchises in scalable businesses and offer it to people
in our community, whether it's in Houston and you branch
out from that. But I love the thought that you're
putting into it because oftentimes people will start a business
and it's so bright and shiny and flashing, everyone wants
in and you can grow too fast in actuality, So
understanding that you go like deep into your market create success,
like understand what that looks like, and then branch out
(18:19):
like this is this is a smart business that I'm
sure you've learned over your years. Well, look, Houston is
the third largest metropolitan major metropolit in the city in
America right and being an entertainer in Houston, I've been
able to build a substantial career and you know, raise
substantial revenue, not just myself, but most of us here
because of how large the state is, how populous the
cities are here. So I don't have to necessary to
(18:42):
spend that that much marketing money outside of my regional,
my you know, immediate region in order for me to
capitalize offen And the more that I do it, and
the basically the more you make music, the easier making
music becomes, the more best back into yourself and your music,
the cheaper becomes to douce the music, and so you
even though you may decrease in listeners, you will still
(19:05):
increase in revenue stream And now I don't have to
just sell one album and one store to make money.
I can take one song, release it through twenty different platforms,
having on television shows, movie trailers, in movies, all of
these different revenue streams that are available for for me.
So I don't have to work harder as I get older,
work smarter. Yes, yes, Okay, So talk about this because
(19:26):
there's a lot of um you mentioned earlier on you
You're like, you own your publishing, you own your music.
And for someone who you know came up in the
game like twenty years ago that this seems like an
anomaly now and you're hearing a lot of people how
you know their deals were misrepresented? How do you how
were you intentional about keeping ownership over your music? So,
(19:47):
so I want to be very clear that the group
that i'm the music that I made in the group
you g K, I do not own the masters too.
But because we realized that we would never own the
masters to our group music, we worked very hard to
have ownership of our solo music. And so so that's
what I've been able to do. And so now because
it's a lot cheaper, I can put out more music, right,
(20:08):
but I don't have to sell a ton of physical units.
As long as these things stream on these platforms, it
creates enough revenue. Right, So there's a consistent stream that's
available for me. As long as I stay consistent in
releasing music, I don't have to sell a million records
to make a million doctors, right, and it didn't take
(20:28):
me long to realize that. But being locked into these
contracts that these major record labels are for you, you
will never break even within the company. You'll constantly be
relying on taking advances, but you'll never see the the
entirety of the revenue that's produced by your music. Once
we realize how much capital is actually made off of
(20:49):
off of music, and how most of these companies are
subsidiaries of publishing companies, right, the only reason they're allowed
to release music is because they already own so much
MU And I'm like, if they ended and there were constants.
So when we first signed, they bought our publishing for
a very low amount. We didn't know what it was.
We didn't know that we did. The minute um we
(21:11):
realized the value, we start trying to buy it back.
They wouldn't sell it back to us until the term,
so we just basically had to stay relevant until that
term expired, you know. So we worked very hard to
try to make good music. The rights reverted back to us,
we've been able to license them out myself and the
estate of Pency Pencey've been able to license music out
(21:33):
people remake music we just had. I just had a
song remade by Drake on his new album. You know
what I'm saying, That's that's that's more revenue Toronto six.
So you just have to to to stay relevant and
being consistent as possible in creating content. Doesn't have to
be the number one content, but if you stay consistent,
(21:55):
there are a group of people who will come to
you looking for that consistency, for that information and that content.
Once I figured that out, everything's wide open. And now
that we own everything, we can release music because we
want to, not because we have to, and we don't
have conform to anything that's going on commercially. I don't
have to sound like anybody that's popping right now. I
(22:16):
have a group of people that are locked in with
me and my movement, and as long as I serviced them,
I should be fine. Wow. I love that. That's really
great advice and it's like simple, but just sometimes that
messaging gets lost for so many people. 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
(22:37):
and go and support all his business endeavors in the
h town. I am at Bundy on Instagram, I Am
at Bundy Trilogy on Twitter, I Am at Bundy Efficient
u g K on Facebook. Um trull Burgers has their
own dedicated space, so you can follow them at trull
Burgers on Instagram or go to the website true Burgers
dot com. Alright, money Movers, this is all the time
(22:59):
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 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 blog. Money Moves is an I Heart
(23:24):
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