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8/24/2010
 @BugsyWorld
In their prime, the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs were known for their bruising, consistent inside game coupled with slashing guards that could pick apart a defense. Bugsy, a talented MC on the rise, is far from reaching his prime but exhibits many of the same characteristics of his hometown team. Whether he’s describing his home or snapping your neck with jaw-dropping lyrics, Bugsy has no shortage of weapons in his arsenal to choose from. HipHopGame got with the MC who’s got next to talk about his city, upcoming projects and hitting the museum.
I know you’ve been working hard on your Hometown Heroes mixtape with the Kid Robot clothing line. How’s the project coming?
Oh, man, it’s been crazy, man, just knowing that I can actually link up with somebody as prestigious as Kid Robot. Their boutique is a very big sneaker spot out in San Antonio and they’ve been very instrumental in bringing guys like Wale and Biz Markie out here. I just had the opportunity to work with Julio and those guys and we put together a nice classic for the internet.
Why do you think Kid Robot wanted to work with you?
Honestly, man, I guess hailing from Texas, there’s not too many artists out here that actually took the internet and used it to their advantage. Not to knock my region, but we’re still kind of on that old Phil Jackson playbook, still that out of the trunk, worried about independent units and still chasing ringtone units and still chasing BDS. To be honest, a lot of the gains I was making was coming from the web. I just totally attacked that and I guess that seems to be the new age now. They wanted to link up and make sure that they had a project with somebody that was going to get out there instead of just sitting in the region. A lot of guys are satisfied just selling CDs in Texas. You could sell 200,000 CDs out here and still not be known outside of Texas. That’s not my goal. My goal was to sell everywhere and not just to be stuck in my region.
 What kind of response do you get in San Antonio to your music?
Honestly, they’ve been knowing my name for awhile. I worked with DJ Double R, who worked with Dame Grease. We worked with pretty much everybody. Paul Wall, Flip…They knew my name from that but that was still kind of on the Texas mixtape circuit. Once I started going outside of that, the city got on my back and they started rooting for me. They realized that it was someone from their city being welcomed on a much larger scale than what they were used to. Once I started getting the support of my city and let them know that I was riding for them and wasn’t being all glamorous…I wanted them to stop putting us in a category like Paul Wall and Flip, who have made such a big impact on the game. But they don’t realize that there are other artists out here who make good music.
Is it a conscious effort to not fall into the same category as Paul Wall and Lil’ Flip?
To be honest with you, Brian, it would be a lie to say I didn’t. I’ve been in the studio with them and I worked with these guys and they’re good friends of mine. But at the end of the day, just seeing the movement that they had and seeing just how long it actually lasted and seeing what was the cause of it not continuing to grow kind of gives me that whole drive to actually not do what they were doing. And that’s not to talk down on them and I’m not saying anything they did was wrong. I just learn from their mistakes being that they actually put Texas on first. Now that I’m in the studio, I’m just making music speaking from my heart. Anybody knows me knows that it’s not about straight Texas stuff. It’s about speaking from the heart.
What else can we expect to hear on the Hometown Heroes mixtape?
Of course my music and we got some new music from artists like Wale and B.o.B. I’m going to have seven-eight songs from me on there. Hopefully it’s accepted the way it should be. You’ll get a good load of Bugsy and a lot of the good music that’s out now from generation next, the generation that’s doing their thing now and we got next and stuff. We just reached out to people we knew to get new music and some people reached back and we made it a dope mixtape.
What did it mean to you when your “Hometown” music video was placed in the San Antonio Museum of the Arts?
That meant everything. Not to brag or boast, man, but that video has done a lot for my entire city. It has brought so much recognition to the city. But that moment right there, waking up and getting that phone call and knowing we were going to be there, I’m not going to lie to you, I was born and raised in San Antonio and I’ve never been to the Museum of Arts. That’s just how prestigious it was. Coming from where I come from, the east side of San Antonio, that’s just not what people from my area do. There’s art from Mother Teresa and dinosaur fossils and all sorts of crazy stuff and the fact that somebody received my video and categorized it there, that meant everything to me, bro.
Did you think “Hometown” would go that far?
No. To be honest with you, that song itself wasn’t even supposed to be that type of record. DJ Double R came to the studio that night I recorded and to be honest, I recorded three or four joints. We all, as artists, have songs that we don’t care what nobody else thinks about. “Hometown” was going to be that joint and it was going to be my favorite joint. My DJ was telling me we had to do a video for that and all that. It turns out that it benefitted my city even more than it benefitted me.
 When are you going to get Bugsy Day in San Antonio the way Trae has Trae Day in Houston?
Right now we’re working with the Office of Cultural Affairs. There’s some big ballers out here and I’m working with my city councilors and stuff. We have some seminars coming up with people like George Hill from the Spurs and some big names coming out to speak to the kids and to let them know that there’s a lot of other things we could do out here. The organization is called S.A. Arch. It’s a very big organization out here and they gave us the opportunity to link up with these guys and they’ve heard the record. We got the cover of the newspaper and all that. They wanted to work with us and I suggested I get a day like Trae because that’s something positive. He’s viewed as a gangsta rapper and that’s something positive he’s doing for Houston. He’s giving back to them for an entire day. We’re trying to get the same thing out here. Keep your fingers crossed, man.
What would go down on Bugsy Day?
We want the Freeman Coliseum. It’s big and it’s by the AT&T Center where the San Antonio Spurs play. There’s a lot of history there, bro. Every class coming from San Antonio has graduated there and there’s been some big concerts like Aerosmith and Beyonce and U2. Crazy names. Just to get out there and throw a big concert for the city, it would be real big for the city. I’m working with S.A. Food Bank. They do the turkey drives for Thanksgiving and all the holidays like that. We’re working with those guys right now. We’re actually doing two events in December. We’re trying to tie it all in and we need it out here. There’s a lot of gangbanging out here in San Antonio and we’re trying to get back to a more positive form of hip-hop out here.
Who else should we watch for coming from San Antonio?
My homie Question dropped a new project. I just did a verse for his record “Oh Yeah.” That’s going to be crazy and it’s been received very well. I got my artist, he’s not actually born and raised in San Antonio but he’s coming up here. His name is Young Trap and his single is called “Traphouse.” There’s also an R&B cat named A.J. Hearns. He’s on his whole Chris Brown thing and he’s got the girls in a frenzy. He just came off the Drake tour.
How’s your Hometown Kid EP coming?
Oh, man, that’s going to be all me. That’s going to have 13-14 songs and I want to have that out in December and make that transition into the new year. I’m focused on the Hometown project now and the Hometown Kid will come out next. I’m making this whole Hometown movement. I’m basing everything around that. There’s a few cats who tried to steal the whole hometown swag and take it for what it’s worth but I’m taking it because it started right here in San Antonio and I have to make sure I keep running with it.
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