Third time's the trillest

Bun B, Drake, and hip hop all-stars cowboy up at historic RodeoHouston performance

Thanks to help from his super friends, Trill City turned into the epicenter of the hip-hop world on Tuesday, March 12 as Bun B reclaimed his title as the most-attended male rap performer in RodeoHouston history with 75,005 paying attendees.

On a night that sizzled hotter than a double-patty Trill Burger being served at one of the locations on the NRG Stadium concourse, the 33-song, 90-minute set featured a who’s-who of internationally recognized stars, including Drake, Nelly, Rick Ross, Eve, Ying Yang Twins, That Mexican OT, and DMC of Run-DMC.

It was a coup de grace from the Port Arthur-raised, long-time Houston-cultural ambassador and entrepreneur. The affable and influential artist built his name to bucking bull-sized levels at RodeoHouston since he first brought his rap spectacular to the dirt and dust in 2022 as his H-Town Take Takeover. In 2023, he grew the show to his Southern Takeover, which drew an impressive 74,573 fans.

The 2024 performance expanded even further into the All-American Takeover, promising to bring in some of the biggest rappers on the planet, promoters wisely announcing artists in the weeks leading up to the show. However, demand for tickets reached a fever pitch when Drake was announced last week, skyrocketing resale prices into the hundreds of dollars.

The anticipation was palpable walking up to the stadium and on the rodeo grounds, people dressed in an eclectic mix of Western-wear and leisurewear, and sometimes a mash-up of both. In other words, it was a perfect encapsulation of the music that makes Houston great.

Videos by popular sports, comedy, and music luminaries introduced artists throughout the night. Shannon Sharpe and several Houston Astros kicked off the show and hyped up the crowd on-screen before Bun B started things off with his solo hit, “Draped Up,” dressed up in a tricked out leather poncho and black cowboy hat, backed by an impressive nine-piece band that took songs to another level.

Bun, always the savvy showman, then ceded the spotlight to his many guests for most of the evening. Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch video-introduced California rapper E-40, who got people dancing in the aisles with “Snap Ya Fingers” and “Tell Me When to Go,” dressed in an all-red jacket-pants outfit, gold glasses and cowboy hat.

E’s funked out beats gave way to West Coast rap pioneer Too Short for the classic “Blow Tha Whistle,” and the first singalong of the night. He wrapped up his, ahem, too short, two song set with the jazzy track, “The Ghetto.”

Cedric the Entertainer introduced a still-youthful-looking Nelly, representing the Midwest with a four-song medley of his biggest songs, including “E.I.,” “Country Grammar,” “Over and Over,” and “Hot in Herre,” easily the best moment of the show up to that point. If a late Gen Xer/early Millennial closed their eyes hard enough, they’d be transported directly back to the set of MTV’s Total Request Live.

Questlove and Black Thought of The Roots brought out another star of the TRL era, the versatile and fantastic Eve, gorgeously dressed head-to-toe in black leather adorned with a black cowboy hat. Her Latin-flavored “Who’s That Girl” sounded as fresh as it did when it was released in 2001. The Dr. Dre-produced “Let Me Blow Your Mind” highlighted her sultry flow, finishing with a call out to the ladies in the house.

“If you’re still having a good time, shout hell yeah,” Bun proclaimed between songs. And Houston shouted, “Hell yeah.”

Lil’ Jon queued up ATL’s Ying Yang Twins, “Say I Yi Yi,” turning up the heat another notch, the crowd now fully invested in the party. “Miss New Booty,” “Whistler While You Twerk,” and “Get Low,” recalled a bump-and-grind nightclub, the earworms working their way up the rafters, a guitar solo on the latter song making it absolutely nasty in a good way.

DJ Khaled teed up Florida’s Rick Ross, drawing a huge response with his anthem, “Hustlin’.” Thong-and-fishnet clad booties accentuated “Pop That” on the big screens.

The focus turned back towards the Gulf Coast with Scarface introducing Baytown’s fast rising That Mexican OT. He paid homage to past Tejano rodeo shows with an all-white cowboy attire, running through his tracks “Cowboy Killer” and “Johnny Dang” before wrapping up with an enthusiastic “Muchos gracias.”

It wouldn’t be a RodeoHouston Takeover without slab cars, Bun B taking back the mic for “Get Throned” as Lil’ Keke came out in a black Cadillac. Yellowstone star Ryan Bingham then joined in on acoustic guitar for “One Day,” one of the quieter moments of the evening.

“We dedicate this song to all of our fallen friends and fallen soldiers,” Bun said as he asked the crowd to light the stadium with their cell phones, remembering the Houston scene’s lost members. “If you are here missing someone, put up a light for them.”

“And to thank you for all that you’ve done for me and my family, I present to you, the boy,” he said as three black cars drove towards the stage. “This is our newest resident, please make some noise for Drizzy Drake.”

A collective scream rose through the building, the moment many had been waiting for, Drake kicking into “Energy,” wearing a burnt orange tinsel-tassel jacket, tasseled black track pants and a Bun B Trill album t-shirt. Drizzy put down his microphone to let the audience take over for a few bars on “Sicko Mode.” “God’s Plan” and “Hotline Bling” touted his crowd work skills, a fireworks and pyro display taking things over the top.

“The first time I did this song in Houston, Texas was at Warehouse Live,” Drake said, before officially announcing his move to H-town with an ode to the local scene on “November 18th.”

An appearance by the legendary Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of Run-DMC followed and brought a quick dose of NYC East Coast rap for “Bun’s House.”

And the only fitting way to end the night was with a group jam session on UGK’s “Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You),” the lights coming on as the set passed curfew.

The guest rappers that performed across the night smartly covered a broad swath of classic hip-hop eras and cities, mostly catering to those who grew up in and around the chopped and screwed years that put Houston on the map. But those fertile years of rap in the 713 were only one part of nationwide hip-hop movement so well represented on Tuesday night.

“Houston, I love you! Now go outside and get you a Trill Burger,” Bun B said, donning a crown as he rode off on the back of a pick-up truck, the after-parties surely just getting started.

There’s no word whether Bun B will be back next year, but if so, this record-setting performance would surely be hard to top. No doubt, we’d all line up again to pay our respects to the King of Trill.

Setlist
Draped Up, Bun B
Snap Ya Fingers, E-40
Tell Me When To Go, E-40
Blow Tha’ Whistle, Too Short
The Ghetto, Too Short
E.I., Nelly
Country Grammar, Nelly
Over and Over, Nelly
Hot in Herre, Nelly
Who’s That Girl, Eve
Rich Girl, Eve
Let Me Blow Your Mind, Eve
Tambourine, Eve
Say I Yi Yi, Ying Yang Twins
Miss New Booty, Ying Yang Twins
Whistle While You Twerk, Ying Yang Twins
Get Low, Ying Tang Twins
Hustlin’, Rick Ross
BMF, Rick Ross
All I Do/Pop That, Rick Ross
Cowboy Killer, That Mexican OT
Johnny Dang, That Mexican OT
Get Throned, Bun B
One Day, Bun B ft. Ryan Bingham
N 2 Deep Intro, Drake
Energy, Drake
Nonstop, Drake
Sicko Mode, Drake
God’s Plan, Drake
Hotline Bling, Drake
Rich Baby Daddy, Drake
Bun’s House, Bun B ft. DMC
Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You), Bun B featuring group

Drake Bun B All American Takeover Rodeo 2024

Photo by Marco Torres/@marcofromhouston

Drake performed seven of his biggest hits.

concerts celebrities rodeohouston rodeo

Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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