UGK for Life

HP: Over the years, countless platinum-selling artists have cited your or UGK's work as a springboard for their own career, but those big sales numbers have never really come. Are you okay with artists clearly making lesser-quality work — Soulja Boy, for example — selling more units than you?

Bun B: No disrespect to a Soulja Boy, you can't really get into judging the quality because, in theory, if you're making good music it should sell. At the same time, I do pretty good units but I definitely go out on the road and do my shows, which is where most artists get the heart of their money from. I've always relied on merchandise, going out on tour, selling T-shirts, doing production work or ghost-writing to compensate for that.

HP: After everything you've accomplished — hell, you sold out the Museum of Fine Arts just by saying, "Hey, I like this movie, come watch it and you'll be cool like me" — what's left? When is it time to hang it up?

Bun B: I'm not ready to quit. I'm still pushing. We just put out the UGK skateboard deck, a collaboration with Stevie Williams from DGK [Dirty Ghetto Kids]. We just put together some Bun B and Pimp C sneakers. I'm definitely trying to bring some more hip-hop to the art community and vice versa. And really getting back to the music. I'll be doing my first concert since Pimp passed [Friday]. I'm bringing the whole UGK family, and we're gonna celebrate Pimp's legacy and keep the movement alive. It's UGK for life, R.I.P. to the Pimp.