Good morning! This is a free newsletter and will remain free — but today, we’re introducing a new feature that will only be for paying subscribers moving forward: we’ll be interviewing some friends about their movie-watching habits and opinions, starting with the legendary Bun B — rapper, burger entrepreneur, educator and all-around good fellow. Here, he talks about Raisinets, what actors he thinks are assholes in real life, what not-really-Denzel movie he saw strictly for Denzel, and so much more! For more of this, join the paid tier — there’ll be new interviews like this every Tuesday, starting next Tuesday — on top of the weekly newsletter and new episodes of 2J3BD you’ll already get once a week for free. In fact, right now, our One Battle After Another episode is live! Go check that out.
2J3BD is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
2J3BD: What’s a movie you love?
Bun B: Honestly, Beat Street. Growing up, when my parents divorced, my mom and I moved to Port Arthur. I would have to take the Greyhound from PA to Houston for spring break and summer vacation and all that type of stuff, but I would never stay with my dad. I would stay with my brother — I had an older brother who had his own apartment and his own things. And my brother was one of the first people I knew who had a VCR and movies and shit like that. He’s at work, I’m in the apartment and my brother — he’s gonna hate me talking about this — my brother used to sell weed. So I would have to sell the weed…Port Arthur’s spring break is a different spring break from Houston’s. So I’m in Houston for my spring break but people are still in school, and my brother lived across the street from Westbury High School. People would come at various points of the day to buy weed from the apartment. So that’s all I would do is sit around, sell weed and watch movies.
And Beat Street was one of those movies.
Yes. To be honest, Weird Science put up a very strong fight. But Beat Street was different. Like every other kid, I just watched the battle. Over and over. I just watched the battle over and over and over. And I could never figure out how Crazy Legs got those tennis shoes off and on his hands. I would just sit there and watch this shit…and then I watched it enough where I was like, oh, he’s not a breakdancer. He’s a real actor, you know what I’m saying? Cause his moves was wack. But naw, Beat Street was compelling because you got to look into the life of — you got to see rappers, you got to see DJs and breakdancers, but it really kinda revolved around graffiti. But the backstory of Ramon and all that, which gave it emotional weight because the guy just died on the track — which was new to me because (I’m from Houston), I’m like, wait, you die if you fall on the track? Like, I didn’t understand that kind of a thing. But the music, seeing Ice-T and all those type of guys in this movie. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Melle Mel, it was really…for a kid in Houston who had no idea what was actually happening on the streets of New York as this culture grew, it gave me a bird’s eye view of what was actually happening. I was like, “Yo, motherfuckers are in the club, meeting up in the club and battling. That’s crazy!” And these are real crews! This is the real Rock Steady Crew! That was the one for me, I have to say.
2J3BD: What’s a popular movie you’ve never seen?
Lawrence of Arabia. I think it’s one of those movies that, if you didn’t see it in the theatre, then you’re not gonna grasp the scale; you’re not really seeing it right. Now if there was a theatre that could show it in its original version, I might be open to it. But I don’t even know if Lawrence of Arabia is my kind of movie. Are there any Arabians in this movie?
I don’t know. I know it stars Peter O’Toole.
Right, and that means not, right?
Unless Peter O’Toole was born in Egypt.
I love this fact about Sean Connery: Sean Connery played every race on the planet and never changed his accent. Like, he was always Scottish in every movie.
I’m gonna say this. I’m gonna give you this: though I’ve seen it in bits and pieces and I have an idea of what it represents, I’ve never seen ET.
What? Why?
That’s another one where I was like, I don’t think this is for me.
Even as a kid? 1982?
I’m 9.
Maybe you felt like you were too old for it?
I don’t even know if it was that. There’s a lot of shit that I should’ve seen that I just haven’t, like Breaking Bad. It just didn’t seem interesting to me. I’ve never seen Breaking Bad, I’ve never seen the dragon shit…what is that? Not Lord of the Rings…
Game of Thrones. Yea, very not up my alley but Eric and I ended up really liking most of it, until the last season. Which is surprising because we’re not into any dragons or fantasy or anything.
Interesting because you guys seem very D&D-ish.
That seems rude. That’s rude and also not true.
(laughs)
It’s good, though.
I’m sure it’s good, it’s got so many viewers. But for instance, I’ve had to turn everyone in my circle onto Peaky Blinders, they all missed it. And some people can’t get into it with the accents and shit. Some people just can’t watch it.
Styles loves Peaky Blinders, by the way.
It’s one of the best shows ever, for sure.
2J3BD: What’s a good date movie?
That’s a great question. I would say…maybe Love & Basketball, but you’ve kinda got to be into basketball? Years before Queenie, before I moved to Houston, I picked the worst date movie ever. Pulp Fiction.
What makes that bad?
The girl I was dating at the time was the daughter of a preacher and she was very strict about a lot of things. I didn’t know what Pulp Fiction was gonna be, I’m just like, this is the new Tarantino movie. We’re in there and they get to the pawn shop — and they’ve got Bruce Willis in there, and you can hear the grunting in the room. And Bruce Willis is looking for a weapon. And the girl was like, “What’s going on in that room? What’s happening in that room?” And I kinda knew but didn’t want to spoil it, you know? And then when they open the door and dude’s raping Ving Rhames, the girl got up, walked out, never spoke to me again.
Fuck!
Worst date ever!
Tell me you stayed.
I stayed and watched, yeah. She was my ride! I had to get somebody to get me. But hell no, I’m not leaving that movie. The greatest thing I’d seen in my life, at that time. Movie, TV show, you name it. I had no words. It had no structure, it was so not linear. And that shit really blew my mind. I could grasp how great the movie was and how different it was from everything else.
2J3BD: What’s a movie you could talk about for two hours?
