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Why You Should Be Following This Rapper’s Viral ‘Trill Meals’ Cooking Videos

4 minute read

Bun B might be best known for being one-half of the beloved southern rap group UGK, but it looks like the “Int’l Players Anthem” rapper has got a new hustle in his life: creating viral cooking tutorials for YouTube.

Aptly titled “Trill Meals,” the video series (which began on his Instagram and subsequently moved to YouTube after his posts went viral) features Bun B and his family creating savory dishes like oxtail with cabbage and cornbread and oven fried chicken with rice and beans, all while he provides running commentary on how to make the meal that’s both practical and humorous. During the minute-long videos, he also provides special tips to viewers like making sure that Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning is used liberally and that listening to church music while you cook is a great way to enhance a meal.

The Texas rapper started making the videos on a whim that was born out of the simple joy of cooking at home with his wife since the pair travel often; unlike other cooking videos online that he found “really technical and kind of bland,” he put his skills as a rapper to good use with his narration, telling TIME that he “thought it would be fun to put a little voiceover on it sometimes…and people really seem to be enjoying it.”

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the Texas rapper is taking his own cooking videos to the web now, seeing as he’s long been a foodie, going so far as to launch a food-oriented website in 2013 called You Gotta Eat This, an online community where users can share reviews and pictures of food that they’ve enjoyed. He hopes that both the website and Trill Meals will encourage his followers to see food as more than just sustenance, but a way to relate to one another.

“Everything is not always going to be perfect, everything doesn’t always turn out the way that we want to, but we have fun doing it,” he said. “It’s really about the time that we spend together in the kitchen; it’s really not about the food, but about the communing.”

While Bun B is still shocked at the overwhelming popularity of his videos so far, he’s not surprised at the video that’s been getting the most rotation online: his wife’s lobster mac and cheese recipe.

“We travel around and everyone likes to brag on their mac and cheese,” he said. “My wife was like, ‘I don’t think anyone can touch my mac and cheese’ and I didn’t think they could either. We’re fun people, I crack jokes all the time, so this is just an extension of how we are around the house.”

For aspiring cooks looking to have as much fun in the kitchen as Bun B, consider the three staples that the rapper always has on deck in his home: “We always like to keep fresh seafood, fresh vegetables, and good company. When we did the oxtails, we had a couple of friends from out of town and you know, food isn’t fun by yourself, so you always want to keep good company to enjoy a meal with. That’s what we’ve been lucky to do with Trill Meals is have everybody in the kitchen with us. That’s kind of how people feel when they watch it – they don’t feel far removed, it’s not like we’re in this studio space or anything. Feels like it can be anybody in any kitchen. It just happens to be us.”

Watch one of Bun B’s Trill Meals tutorials below.

 

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Write to Cady Lang at cady.lang@timemagazine.com