As previously reported, Bun B is teaching a Religion & Hip Hop Culture course at Rice University, press play to find out the details.

Nothing captures the holiday spirit quite like Bun B. Now share the Christmas love and spirit with you friends and family with the Bun B x Goodwood “A Trill Xmas Story Box Set” complete with four tree ornaments. Get em here for $50. It’s a trilly good deal.

Bun B will soon be trading his Source Magazine 5 mics for the professor podium as he recently confirmed in an interview with NPR that he will be teaching a “Religion & Hip-Hop Culture” Course at Rice University starting in the Spring of 2011. Excerpts from the interview include:

How did you first become involved in this?
I was guest lecturer for the hip hop and religion class in fall ’09 and I got to talking with Dr. Anthony Penn, the teacher of the class and head of religious studies at Rice. We found out that we shared a lot of the same ideas and it occurred to us — well him primarily — that me being an addition to this course in a teaching aspect could be an opportunity to create something very new and very real in higher education.

What’s the course going to include?
We’ll be reflecting on the nature and content of hip hop as a religious experience. As well as religious expression. We’ll discuss the history of rap music and find the different parallels and correlations between religion and hip hop. People will be surprised at how many instances there are. Just the Five-Percent Nations presence in hip hop alone during the late ’80s and early ’90s — we could teach for days just on that. And other different things — we have Jewish rappers now.

You can be sure Rice students will be waiting in line to enroll in this class.

Bun B x Standard. Bun B continues to be one of the strongest streetwear supporters in hip-hop. It was just announced that he has teamed up with famed photographer Zach Wolfe to create a series of exclusive items for streetwear stores Standard. Items include limited edition prints, posters and t-shirts. Check the video compliments of the Eskay crew.

We have been covering VERY closely the relationship that Bill Gates has formed with the hip-hop community though his Microsoft Zune marketing campaigns. While Steve Jobs and Apple have done relatively little with hip-hop promotions, Gates and the Zune have gone full force signing everyone from Continue Reading…

Houston bred Bun B has been an avid supporter of the street wear movement including collabs with Greedy Genius. Now he has teamed with L.A. based The Hundreds for the release of an exclusive tee that just hit the streets this past week.

Check more pics of the exclusive tee Continue Reading…

Think you know your Dirty South hip-hop? Now you can test your knowledge with the official Southern Hip-Hop History trivia game by online gaming site Pop Jax. The game is part of a unique marketing collaboration with Asylum Records that was announced last week. Asylum is home to Bun B, Scarface, BG and numerous others and are prominently featured in the quiz game which also includes video and music clips. Test your skills now here at the Pop Jax Southern Hip-Hop History website.

Microsoft has aggressively been trying to shed it’s old school image as it continues to fight Apple for computer and MP3 player market share. While Steve Jobs and Apple have done a fantastic job integrating the Apple line of products with popular and hip-hop culture, Bill Gates and co. have been a step behind. But according to Microsoft, things will change.

Microsoft has recently reached out to the hip-hop community including Pharrell for it’s “I’m a PC” ad campaign, Bun B as an official sponsor of the Zune, and now Common has joined the Microsoft gang and will promote the Zune with his upcoming album “Universal Mind Control” due out on December 9th. The Common/Microsoft partnership is already visible in Common’s recently released video to his single “Universal Mind Control” where a Zune is shown in the first couple seconds of the video.

In a recent interview with Ad Age, Common reveals why he decided to work with Microsoft and the Zune. “The Zune is something that I’ve been confident about associating myself with, because I think it’s got a fly presentation to it. It is truly about music lovers, for me,” Common stated. “I know that Microsoft has been around for 20 years, they established themselves in the mid-’80s, and since then they’ve progressed. Microsoft is classy, it’s a timeless brand, and it means something to the world, internationally, and I felt like that’s the direction of what I want Common to be, to be honest.”

Zune promo video with Common

Universal Mind Control video with Zune player in first 3 seconds