the southern takeover

Bun B cowboys up for his Houston Rodeo Takeover with Southern star cast and surprise guest Erykah Badu

On Friday, March 3 night, Houston icon Bun B returned to the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo with a bunch of hip-hop/R&B artists, successfully packing NRG Stadium with people who were ready to take that trip down memory lane.

Bun first hit the stage for this year's Southern Takeover, dropping a couple of sanitized bangers from his days in UGK (Underground Kingz) with the late Pimp C, with a full band behind him. He rocked a black, fringe leather fit, complete with a poncho bearing the UGK logo and a cowboy hat bearing the Monster Energy Drink logo.

Then came the cavalcade of stars. Last year, he stuck to Houston artists: Paul Wall, Slim Thug, several Lils. This year, he opened up the lineup to artists from other Southern states. First up was Tennessee, as he brought out Tela, producer/performer Jazze Pha and duo 8Ball & MJG – all Memphis boys – to do a few numbers.

The crowd got more turnt when Bun introduced Mississippi MCs David Banner, as he and Houston MC Lil’ Flip performed their rambunctious collabo “Like A Pimp,” and Big K.R.I.T., who teamed up with Bun to do a cleaned-up version of their “Country Sh*t” remix.

The stadium rafters truly started rattling when welcoming talent from Louisiana. Lafayette singer Cupid had people line-dancing in the aisles when he sang his hit “Cupid Shuffle.” That was just an appetizer for the main course, which came in the form of Cash Money Millionaires Juvenile and Mannie Fresh.

After Fresh gave the crowd a few bars of that Big Tymers fave “Get Your Roll On,” Juvenile followed with two crowd-pleasers you just knew he was gonna do: “Rodeo” and the one-and-only “Back That Thang Up.” Bun came up unfortunately short with Georgia, a state rich with hip-hop talent.

He got Atlanta-bred Trinidad James, who wore a red, Roy Rogers-style cowboy outfit and did an adequate rendition of his hit “All Gold Everything.” (Houston radio personality HardBodyKiotti did briefly come out to help Bun led the audience in swag-surfing as they performed “Swag Surfin” from Stone Mountain’s Fast Life Yungstaz.)

As for Texas, it wasn’t as bountiful as the myriad Houston legends he rounded up last year, but there were still some memorable moments. A guitar-wielding Scarface did a couple of songs; one of them served as background music for an “In Memoriam” montage of all the local/national rap stars we’ve lost throughout the years.

Screwed Up Click alumni YungStar performed as a trio of slabs – carrying such Houston rap vets as Slim Thug, Killa Kyleon and the Botany Boyz – did a brief promenade on the stadium floor. (One of them was also covered with the logo from Bun’s Trill Burgers business.)

But the final guest was a real surprise. After telling the Houston audience he loved them, Bun showed them how much by bringing out Dallas neo-R&B queen Erykah Badu. Wearing a large coat and an even larger silver hat, Badu stalked the stage and occasionally flashed her grill to the cameras as she performed “On and On” and “Tyrone.”

The latter ended with Badu giving quite the dramatic, high-pitched finale. The show came to a close with everybody coming back onstage to join Bun in performing another UGK classic “Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You).”

“We put 75,000 people in here tonight,” Bun told the audience, before all the performers hopped on the back of trucks and rode off the stadium floor. (The show announcer later declared that it was 74,573 audience members— that's more than last year's H-Town Takeover.)

Houston's OG gave an entertaining, family-friendly show that took people back to a simpler time, when people mostly used their computers to burn mix CDs.

Photo by Marco Torres

Hometown hero Bun B surveys a crowd of 74,573 adoring fans at his Southern Takeover.

Setlist

“Wood Wheel,” Bun B

“Pocket Full of Stones” Bun B

“Get Throwed,” Bun B

“Tired of Ballin’,” Tela, Jazze Pha

“Girls in the Club,” Tela, Jazze Pha, 8Ball & MJG

“Space Age Pimpin’,” 8Ball & MJG

“Like A Pimp,” David Banner, Lil’ Flip

“Country Sh*t (Remix),” Big K.R.I.T., Bun B

“All Gold Everything,” Trinidad James

“Swag Surfin,” Kiotti Brown, Bun B

“Cupid Shuffle,” Cupid

“Get Your Roll On,” Mannie Fresh

“Rodeo,” Juvenile

“Back That Thang Up,” Juvenile

“I Look Good,” Chali Boy

“Knocking Pictures Off the Wall,” YungStar

“Wanna Be a Baller,” YungStar

“Havin’ Thangs,” Big Mike

“Smile,” Scarface

“Mary Jane,” Scarface

“Big Pimpin,” Bun B

“On and On,” Erykah Badu

“Tyrone,” Erykah Badu

“Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You),” Everybody

Bun B David Banner Erykah Badu Houston Rodeo Pimp C Slim Thug Southern Takeover rodeohouston

Movie Review

Dark satire Digger could bring an Oscar nomination for star Tom Cruise

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Tom Cruise in Digger.

For most of the 21st century, and especially the last 15 years, Tom Cruise has been a “movie star” rather than an “actor.” That’s not to say he’s a bad actor, but rather that his focus has been on making blockbuster movies where his unique ability to go all-in on action supersedes any need for introspection. Now perhaps past his action movie days, he’s giving full-on acting another try in Digger.

Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, an eccentric oil baron whose current project is drilling for oil in Greenland. Turns out that’s a bad idea in multiple ways, most significantly when an explosion at the site manages to calve an ice shelf five times the size of Boston. That humongous piece of ice then starts on an inevitable collision course with mainland Europe, where it is predicted that there will be hundreds of thousands of deaths and uncountable property damage from the ensuing tsunami.

That sounds bleak, and it is, but the film plays the scenario for laughs thanks to over-the-top characters like Digger, his sister Emma (Sandra Hüller), U.S. President Compson (John Goodman), and the unnamed Vice President (Michael Stuhlbarg). As those people and others try to spin the disaster of epic proportions, others like the scientist Ganesh (Riz Ahmed) try to get the leaders to see reason or to take responsibility for their actions.

Written and directed by Alejandro Iñárritu and co-written by three others, the film has more than a few surprises in store, including one big one that will go unspoiled here. Suffice it to say that for anyone who might be put off by how Cruise (who seems to be channeling his Les Grossman character from Tropic Thunder) and others are acting in the trailers for the film may change their minds about the performances after actually having seen the complete product.

What can be said is that the film is a wild, wacky, and occasionally disorienting experience that also doubles as a cogent critique of the governments and corporations responsible for climate change and unchecked capitalism. Digger is a motormouth who often cuts off people with relevant information to impart, having already determined that he knows all he needs to know about a certain topic. He’s stuck in his ways in many respects, including trying to keep alive a 20-year-old cat that clearly wants to die.

Once the full scope of the story is revealed, it becomes easier to understand what Iñárritu and Cruise are trying to accomplish with the film. It has some similarities to Stanley Kubrick’s dark satire Dr. Strangelove, but it also tries to stay grounded in certain ways. The push-and-pull between those who only seem to be out for themselves and those who want to get to the truth of the matter is played out on different fronts throughout the film. Not all of it lands, but enough does to not make the film seem completely unhinged.

Cruise has been nominated for three Oscars, and it’s clear he’s aiming for a fourth nod with this performance. He does his best to sell every quirk and aspect of the character, epitomized by a gonzo speech that utilizes every mental and physical skill he can muster. The supporting actors are hit-and-miss, but Ahmed comes off the best as a person serving as Digger’s moral conscience. He’s an antidote to Cruise’s mania, but then turns it up to 11 when needed.

Not everything is as it seems in Digger, and the out-there approach by Iñárritu and his team falls into the love-it-or-hate-it dichotomy that applies to many of his films. The very fact that everyone involved was willing to dedicate their whole selves to such an off-the-wall concept makes it deserving of attention, even if not everything is a success.

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Digger opens in theaters on October 2.

movies film

the southern takeover

Bun B cowboys up for his Houston Rodeo Takeover with Southern star cast and surprise guest Erykah Badu

Movie Review

Dark satire Digger could bring an Oscar nomination for star Tom Cruise

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