The Most Consequential Southern Rap Verse Ever Recorded

The one opportunity I had to speak with Bun B was far too brief, and the occasion far too solemn, to ask him the question I really wanted to ask. It was August 9, 2015, the one-year anniversary of the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the flashpoint for the Black Lives Matter movement. Bun B was in neighboring St. Louis for a concert organized to show support for the community that had endured not only the tragic loss of Brown’s life to police violence and the militarized repression of their protest, but also the indignity of the grand jury decision to not indict the officer who killed the 18-year-old. Officially, I was there in the capacity of a journalist documenting the varied ways Brown’s life was being remembered and celebrated. Backstage at the venue, though, I was a hip-hop head standing in awe of the fact I was only a few feet away from a certified legend.

I was close enough that it would have been easy to introduce myself to Bun, and I’d seen him be more than willing to have conversations with others, so I probably could have gotten away with a few questions. But given the circumstances that had brought us both there, it didn’t feel wholly appropriate to ask him what was actually on my mind, a question I ask myself on a near weekly basis: How the fuck did you rap like that on “Murder”????