ABOVE: Bun B chats with Idea Generation’s Noah Callahan-Bever in a Live Taping Experience at White Oak Music Hall (Photo by Medron White/Forward Times)

Real Conversation Served Up Alongside Trill Burgers

On June 28, in partnership with Tres Generaciones tequila, media platform Idea Generation held a live conversation with Houston rap legend Bun B at White Oak Music Hall. The session was hosted by Noah Callahan-Bever, a veteran content creator and strategist who has written for MTV News and served as editor-in-chief of Complex magazine. Callahan-Bever sat down with the Trill OG, who recently celebrated the wildly successful opening of his Trill Burgers restaurant, for a frank and uncensored three-part conversation about ideas, creativity, and business.

Inside White Oak Music Hall, guests enjoyed customized tequilas from the open bar. They waited in line outside for Trill Burgers being fired up on the grill. They entered a photo booth where they wrote messages to their younger selves. They heard DJ Supastar on the turntables. And they listened raptly as Bun B spoke about his younger self — growing up as Bernard Freeman in Port Arthur, TX, where he met Chad Butler. They became friends, bonding over a shared love of hip-hop. They adopted new monikers and formed a group called the Underground Kingz. With Freeman and Butler renamed Bun B and Pimp C, UGK signed with Jive Records in 1992.

DJ Supastar (Photo by Medron White/Forward Times)

Bun warned fellow creatives about the record business: “This is how record deals, or any kind of deals, typically work. They put a 75 or 80-page contract in front of you, and you see these yellow tabs coming out the side – these three yellow tabs […] And the check is sitting right there. You see the check in front of you, on the table. So, you’re just trying to sign whatever the f–k they want you to sign so that you can get to that check. I’m literally signing my life away, because I’m looking at three pages of an 80-page contract, those only three pages giving me what I want. I’m not paying attention to the other 77 pages that are giving them what they want […] This is why I tell people, ‘Make sure you know what you’re really getting yourself into.’”

UGK’s first album Too Hard to Swallow (1992) was altered before hitting the stores. “They sent us the album,” Bun remembered, “and I want to say at least three or four songs had different music – like, totally re-produced.” When they contacted the label, they said, “Well, the samples didn’t clear, so we had to remake those records.’”

Label problems continued to plague the group throughout the 1990s. But UGK had a commercial breakthrough in 2000 with two high-profile features: on Jay-Z’s smash hit “Big Pimpin’” and on Three 6 Mafia’s “Sippin’ on Some Syrup.” Both collaborations raised UGK’s profile. And after Pimp C came home from a three-year prison sentence in 2005, the label offered UGK creative freedom for their next project: a self-titled double album released in 2007. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — giving the group their first number-one album. The single “International Players Anthem” scored a Grammy nomination.

Trill Burgers meal captured at White Oak Music Hall (Photo by Medron White/Forward Times)

After the album’s release, Pimp called Bun on the phone. “He called me and we had a very long conversation,” Bun remembered. “I told him I loved him. He told me he loved me. And he was dead two days later.”

On Dec. 4, 2007, Pimp C was found dead in a Los Angeles hotel room, due to a fatal combination of prescription cough syrup and sleep apnea. Though the audience chatter had grown louder over time, a hush fell over the room when Bun discussed the loss.

“You don’t know how much time you have with people,” Bun mused. He told the crowd: “If there’s somebody you got an issue with and it’s petty, but you’re waiting for them to be the bigger person, just go ahead and do it. Be the bigger person. Now if you don’t want to f–k with them no more, don’t f–k with them no more. But make peace and don’t leave s–t hanging. ‘Cause you don’t want to be in that room when they’re in the casket, wishing you would’ve said something.”

Guest enjoys Trill Burgers meal (Photo by Medron White/Forward Times)

As he moved through the grieving process, Bun B also moved into other fields beside music. Now he’s a restaurant owner. Callahan-Bever asked how Bun got involved in the food industry, and why burgers, specifically? “Well, it wasn’t particular that I said I wanted to do a burger,” Bun replied. “I’m a fat dude; I eat almost everything.” As the audience laughed, Bun explained that he’d wanted to get into the food business for years. One day he was approached by Andy Nguyen and Nick Scurfield. They had a new burger concept and wanted to know if Bun would be a part of it.

“I honestly didn’t really know if I wanted the responsibility,” Bun said. But he agreed to a meeting. “I ate the burger, and this is the best burger I’ve ever had in my life,” he told Callahan. I’m like ‘This is the greatest s–t in the world.’” Offered two options — be the face of the brand, or own a part of the company — he chose the latter.

Trill Burgers launched in 2021 with pop-up shops. Last summer, it won Good Morning America’s “United States of Burgers” competition, earning the title of “the best burger in America.” But Bun wants the restaurant to be about more than just good food: “We want to show people there is a way to be everything you are culturally and still deliver a product to everybody, even if they don’t agree with you or identify with you.”

“You got to leave a lot of bulls–t at the door when you go to the Trill. Just like the rodeo,” he said. “If you’re white and you don’t like black people, don’t go to the rodeo. if you’re black and you don’t like white people, don’t go to the rodeo. They’re going to be there, turning up. Mexican, gay — it doesn’t matter. Whatever your prejudice is, you got to leave it at the door.”

Trill Burgers team prepares meals for hungry guests
(Photo by Medron White/Forward Times)

Trill Burgers were served to guests who attended Idea Generation’s Live conversation with Bun B at White Oak Music Hall (Photo by Medron White/Forward Times)

Guest enjoys a Trill Burger, dubbed “America’s Best Burger” at Idea Generation’s Live Building Session with Bun B (Photo by Medron White/Forward Times)

Idea Generation host Noah Callahan-Bever (Photo by Medron White/Forward Times)

Bun B chats with host Noah Callahan-Bever during Idea Generation’s Live conversation taping (Photo by Medron White/Forward Times)

Idea Generation’s Live Building Session in Houston, TX was powered by Tres Generaciones Tequila (Photo by Medron White/Forward Times)

Bun B discussed his storied musical career and wildly successful food venture, Trill Burgers during the live conversation (Photo by Medron White/Forward Times)

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