Peace Bub, it's an honor to have your time and we appreciate you doing this interview. Please introduce yourself to the readers.
Ayo Overtime Hustlin’, I appreciate ya’ll having me on. My name is Bub Styles aka Cold Cut King aka Boar’s Head Bubs aka Spiff aka your mother’s favorite bedtime story reader. I’m a rapper, curator and scumbag from the illustrious borough of Brooklyn, New York City.
As mentioned, your both a content creator and emcee. Emcee wise you recently released your latest single “On Sight” where you display your braggadocious lyrical ability with a gritty delivery. Tell the readers about this track and what inspired it?
My music is really just a stream of consciousness. I don’t go into the studio with the intent to write a specific type of song like, “this one for the streets” or “Imma get emotional on this one.” The beat I choose to write to at the time dictates how the song is gonna pan out. When I heard the Vinyl Villain beat that would become “On Sight,” it gave me really ominous, gloomy, aggressive, but also grand vibes. The joint starts off with some fly fatboy shit and progresses into some street-stalking maniacal shit and by the second verse we’re in full spooky mode. Special joint, braggadocious and gritty for real.
You're a Brooklyn bred emcee, a borough known for birthing a lot of hip hop greats. Who were some artists who insured you and your sound?
Coming from Brooklyn, it was never really a choice to like hip hop or not. That shit was a requirement in the borough for real, it’s just so much a part of us. New York City rap was something I was obsessed with as a kid and made me who I am today for sure. As far as musical influences, I got my aggression and attack from Big L. Got my
outlandish animated style from Busta Rhymes. Got my experimentation with flows and calm viciousness from Ghostface KIllah and the smooth shit from Biggie. The pin-point delivery came from Pun. The list goes on, but to this day you can still find all my childhood icons in all my music for sure.
You definitely have a sound that you do very well and is unique to you. I can only describe it as “your talking that shit!!” How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
My music on the surface is raw, loud and aggressive, but the more you go through my catalogue the more you realize you can unpeel layers in my styles. I have party music, slower emotional insightful music, love songs, smooth jazzy shit and so much more sprinkled throughout all my albums and it takes a thorough listener to hear all the shit I have to offer. But don’t be mistaken, I’M TALKING THAT SHIT. My music is for scumbags with big hearts. For drug dealers with morals, violent offenders with a soft side, if you will. Your neighborhood armed robber and your grandmother both bump my shit to get in the zone they seek.
Your able to talk that shit and that’s well displayed on your “Fume Raider” project released earlier IN 2024 in June. Tracks like “Johnny Rotten” with Pro Dillinger and “Space Boots” stand out for me, but what was your favorite or standout track from this release?
“Fume Raider” is such a dope album to me man, I really love that shit. Those songs were made over a span of about three years, so I had a while to get it to the place I felt like it needed to be. I think it’s a three way tie for favorite joint on there. I think “Chip Off The Old Brick” is just a really good representation of what fans expect from me. Two vicious 16s with a crunchy half-comical hook, its the quintessential Bub. “Block Scholars” is up there too, wordplay is just crazy. I was definitely in my tactical bag with that joint. “Cucumber Water” has to one of my favorites too, just a smooth jazzy joint to ride out to which I think alot of people gravitate towards when I get in that zone.
Who are some of the other artists and producers who you worked with on “Fume Raider”? How do you select who you work with?
Fume Raider is fully produced by Fumes The Threat out of Denver. He’s a fuckin beast, one of my favorite producers I’ve worked with and we still have so much more shit in the cut coming up. Far as features, it’s all people who’s music I respect, fit the sound of the album and just really wanted to work with. Chubs and Pro Dillinger I have tons of previous music with, but everyone else were artists that I’ve been tapped in with and got the chance to work with for the first time. Got legendary Poison Pen on there who I remember looking up to when I was like fuckin 16, Recognize Ali who I’ve had my ears on for a few years, Hidden Character who’s a new just really fire, different type of artist, and my UK mandem Wishmaster who tapped in on his trip to NYC. Really fire mix on this album.
Outside of your music, everyone who is a hip hop head is familiar or should be familiar with your “China Town Sound” brand, which you are the creator of, along with Gee. How did that come about?
“Chinatown Sound” has really been such a rollercoaster of workload and awesome opportunities. We really didn’t mean to have it become all this, and it’s still so unreal that it has. It started with just a street acapella
freestyle of mine on Christmas Eve 2021 that Gee shot just right outside his apartment in Chinatown. We didn’t think much of it, and just dropped it like ten minutes after shooting. The response the post was picking up was just so sudden and positive that we really had to take a step back ourselves, like “we have something here.” At first it was really supposed to be just a mini-series of homies in our scene freestyling in Chinatown, we were thinking maybe five or ten episodes. But then with the response we were getting, we just couldn’t stop. Ten episodes turned to twenty, twenty to fifty, the artists just kept getting bigger, and now we’re up to almost four hundred episodes. We’ve had just a surreal time building this platform from literally nothing, and this is really just the beginning.
So what the series is about and who has been on there?
We describe “Chinatown Sound” as “Curbside Proverbs.” The acapella aspect paired with the subtitles really lends itself to being a platform artists visit when they want their words to be heard without distraction. Our vision was to have the rap we love displayed in a street setting. It’s reminiscent of poetry reading almost, with the bustling city sounds in the background and just the artist’s words to focus on. We’ve had so many different artists of all styles, some of the most notable notoriety-wise being Benny The Butcher, Large Professor, Freeway, Cassidy, China Mac, Luh Tyler, Don Q, Smoke DZA, Gashi, Millyz, Bizzy Banks, Neek Bucks, 26AR, Smif N Wessun and so many more. Lots more in the tuck too, keep an eye out.
Do you have a most memorable episode?
I think the most memorable episode for me was Cassidy. He was the first artist we shot that I was a fan of as a kid, where it was seeming like shit was coming full circle in that moment and there was a higher caliber of artist that would be interested in doing this. When he pulled up I had to pinch myself like “wow that’s really him and he’s pulling up for us.” Being from New York City, I’ve been in the same spaces as a lot of celebrities and shit so it never really phased me, but it just hits different when it’s for work you’re actually a part of. I think of that episode as a real turning point for the platform, at least in my mind.
We appreciate you chopping it up with us, before we wrap up what’s next for Bub Styles and China Town Sound?
The workload is never ending. My new album “Business Casual Gold Caps” produced by Vinyl Villain is out now. I have four albums to follow this one, more videos, more shows, more freestyles, more glutton, more jiggy shit coming out always. For Chinatown Sound, we have our producer-focused series “Pirate Selection,” look for more episodes of that very soon. We also have our mini-documentary series “Soundscape,” many more of those to come. Tons of new artists of ever-growing calibers dropping three times a week like clockwork as per usual. Keep an eye out, we’re not slowing down any time soon.
Please leave us with your contact and social media information.
Find me on all platforms under “BUB STYLES,” Instagram @bubstyles. I have about twenty albums out so if you’re just hearing about me or haven’t done your research, there’s a lot to catch up on if you fuck with the sound. Thank you Overtime Hustlin for having me on, it’s a pleasure to be part of ya’ll world.
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