Bun B has reacted to André 3000’s appearance on The Late Show with Steven Colbert, during which 3 Stacks cited UGK as one of his biggest influences.
In an Instagram clip posted on Wednesday (January 24), the Texas rap legend wrote: “When you realize the people that inspire you feel the same about you, the hard work has indeed paid off. Salute my brother @andre3000.”
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The video, which can be viewed in full below, finds André reflecting on the artists that inspired him growing up, listing UGK as well as 8Ball & MJG, George Clinton, Sly Stone, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Odd Squad and Kraftwerk.
Andre’s OutKast groupmate Big Boi commented on Bun’s post: “Facts,” while fellow Texas native Yella Beezy wrote: “Yall inspired the WORLD Unk stop acting so modest !!! Cracc yo shit YALL PAVED THE WAY for us.”
The connection between OutKast and Bun B’s classic group with the departed Pimp C runs deep. In 2020, Juicy J revealed that Three 6 Mafia were originally supposed to be featured on UGK’s “Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You)” instead of André 3000 and Big Boi.
In an interview with HipHopDX, the Memphis O.G. said he and DJ Paul (who together produced the song) had actually staked their claim to the guest verse duties first, but the label superseded their efforts. In fact, he said he felt “crazy” when he first heard André’s iconic verse.
“I was like, ‘God dang!’ because, see, what was crazy, me and Paul did a verse on it at first,” he explained. “And the label — we didn’t even notice this, we moving around. The label had denied the clearance. I was like, ‘What the fuck? Why y’all didn’t let me know?’ Man, I was ready to go up there and fucking cause hell at that label. I was like, ‘Who would authorize something dumb like that?’”
Motivated by his frustrations, Juicy did some digging to find out what actually happened to the rhymes that he laid over the beat and was “so fucking mad” when he found out.
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“So then they put OutKast on it and I didn’t even know,” he recalled with a laugh. “I was like, ‘What happened to our verses?’ [UGK] were like, ‘Man, they didn’t clear y’all so we put OutKast on it.’ I was like, ‘Fuck! Put our verses back on it!’
“André 3000 and muthafuckin’ Big Boi. Legendary. I called that label — I ain’t even going to tell y’all the shit I said. I was so fucking mad.”
