Bun is okay with rappers taking each other’s lines
Bun B opens up about Jay-Z jacking a few of his lines on “99 Problems.” During a recent conversation with Talib Kweli on the People’s Party, Bun explained that he has no problem with Hov using some of his bars. On the record from Hov’s 2003 release The Black Album, the New York mogul directly borrowed Bun’s lyrics from UGK’s song “Touched,” from their 1999 album Ridin’ Dirty.
“Now, once upon a time not too long ago/ A n-gga like myself had to strong-arm a ho/ Now, this was not a ho in the sense of having a pussy/ But a pussy having no goddamn sense, tryna push me,” Jay-Z raps.
“I feel like enough people know,” Bun B said about Jay borrowing the lyrics. “But I don’t feel like it’s that big of a deal. I would call it mutual respect. We do this a lot in Hip Hop, right? Where we have artists who have said, ‘Fuck that was dope, the way he said that.’ And sometimes you wanna pay homage to that wordplay. How many songs, Kweli, have you listened to and been like, ‘I woulda rhymed that last part like this.’”
“And I think that’s what happens,” he added. “I think you feel like, ‘This is a dope rhyme, I don’t think enough people heard this shit. I’m finna drop this shit in here.’ Sometimes you take a dope rhyme and make it a hook, and then people gotta go back and figure it out. But nah, I don’t think a lot of people know that. I don’t think it’s a big deal that they don’t know. Or a big deal if they do.”
