By DCist Contributor Josh Solomon
“D.C. Chillin'” isn’t as simple as you thought it was.
Six years ago, an eclectic arrangements of artists stood in front of Ben’s Chili Bowl. While Wale shot the “Chillin” music video, go-go legends the Backyard Band and Houston’s Bun B hung around the shoot. The cameos weren’t just for the video—these guests were featured across Wale’s “Attention Deficit” album (see Bun B’s verse on “Mirrors” and the reinterpretation of Backyard Band’s “Pretty Girls”).
While Wale hasn’t single-handedly shaped the DMV’s hip-hop sound, his style is an indication of how Houston’s sound and style was welcomed into the dialect of the District. ‘Uncle Bun,’ as Big G of the Backyard Band calls his longtime friend, will be headed to Howard Theatre this Sunday, July 26. Local talent DJ Remi and the band will share the stage with Bun B for another one of their joint concerts. It’s become a standard to which the H-Town giant looks forward.
“It’s love man,” Bun B tells DCist. “D.C. is one of the few cities [where], when we leave from Houston, [it still] kind of feels like Houston.”
It was in the ’90’s when he was first introduced to the District’s hospitality. At Howard University’s Homecoming (before the celebration became a more formal event) Bun B and his late rapping partner of UGK, Pimp C, walked around the grounds in awe.
“It took us a while, but when we came here, we rocked,” he adds. “It was just the outpouring of affection. It was just ridiculous. We were like, ‘We gotta come back this way every chance we get because it’s special up here.’”
And so a relationship was born between the Houston native and the DMV.
Almost a decade later, Bun B met Backyard Band. At the old Palace Nightclub in Northwest by Brightwood Park. Big G and the rest of the band used to play with a lot of Houston artists from the Rap-A-Lot label, including the UGK duo, Devin the Dude, Scarface, and the Geto Boys.
“It was straight to meet those guys and just to know they were so down to earth and were down with the music,” Big G says. “We could shake hands with them and talk to them, he would spit the game to us, so he was just like ‘Uncle Bun’ from off the brink.”
The family-oriented label, as Big G described it, always appreciated the go-go sound. Bun B and the others may not have sampled the District sound like Wale has done, but they became good friends, backing each other morally and rocking out together in concert. And when they do come together musically, bringing together two distinct regional sounds, Backyard Band lead singer Weensey says that the chemistry makes it feel seamless—but not without some nerves.
“Oh man, it’d be something different because you get butterflies in your stomach when you do something like that,” Weensey says. “It’s like an element of surprise because you’re surprising yourself as well as the crowd.”
Come Sunday, the band, alongside Bun B, will play fan favorites like “Int’l Player’s Anthem” and jam out to some more recent Bun’ releases. He’s cooking up a new album, which he says should be out in the Fall.
Fans could also hope for a guest appearance or two: “You don’t want to give too much away, but if Wale is in town, anything goes.” he says, calling the rapper his “little brother.”
The extent of Houston vibes, which have dominated some of mainstream hip hop recently, have had their own vibrations here in D.C.
“It’s a different area, but we have a lot in common,” Bun B says. “And so I know I can speak to that area in a certain way. I can communicate with them on a deeper level, just based on how they move, because we move similarly.”
He doesn’t just mean musically. Bun B’s wife, Angela Walls, is a huge fan of mumbo sauce, and when Takoma Park native and Maryland basketball superstar Steve Francis played in Houston, their families would come together and share a meal. Although cooking technique differs between the regions, crabs are also a staple in both D.C. and Houston and Bun B especially appreciates the community style the crustaceans bring to the table.
“Nobody really gets full off of crabs, you know what I’m saying? You can eat that stuff all day,” he says. “It’s really about the company you’re eating with more than anything.”
It goes deeper than breaking bread, though.
“Everybody [in D.C.] eats that. It’s not about black or white thing, it’s a regional thing,” he proclaims. “It’s an us thing. We all do that. So we all kind of leave our apprehensions about people at the door, sit down and eat in fellowship as humans. That’s, I think, the most distinct thing that the people in D.C. have with the people in this area.”
As Bun B gets ready for his D.C. appearance, he will surely be welcomed by a crowd that has loved him and Houston as a whole for two decades in what has become a perhaps unexpected musical and cultural bond.
Bun B, Backyard Band, and DJ Remii perform Sunday at the Howard Theatre. Show begins at 10:30pm. 21+, accessible venue. Tickets starts at $35.
