By Jeremy Kaplan
Bun B's latest album Trill O.G., which dropped this week, has become the latest recipient of the vaunted five mics from The Source, the first LP to grab the honor since Lil' Kim's 2005 release, The Naked Truth. Although a number of rap albums were eventually bumped up from an initial less-than-five or non-existent rating (either because they were re-considered or because their release dates preceded the magazine's founding), Bun's solo record is one of only 14 albums to get the Source's five mics immediately upon release, marking it superior from the get-go.
And although he's nearly 20 years into the game, Bun still considers himself a late prodigy, as he told our Mixtape Daily recently. Since the tragic death of his UGK brother in 2007, Pimp C, Bun has turned his attention to his solo career. Now, with the release of Trill O.G., Bun can bask in the moment, which places his latest record alongside Biggie’s Life After Death and Ice Cube’s AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, classics that also received the maximum rating when they first came out. (A total of 43 albums have earned five mics to date.)
In the elite five-mic club, Bun joins fellow Texas rappers Scarface (who has two five-mic albums of his own) and the Geto Boys; the only other Southerners in the group are Outkast.

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