Bun B and Lil’ Keke Rave About UH Football’s Slab Walkout Entrance, Expect Other Teams To Copy the Coogs Amid Pat McAfee Love — How Houston Suddenly Became the Coolest Program in College Football

Bun B could not help but break into a big grin when he saw Willie Fritz’s University of Houston football team come out onto the field behind a Houston slab, swangas extended rims spinning and beat pounding. And the Houston hip-hop icon, proven entrepreneur and champion of all things H-Town knows the viral buzz it’s created is real. Earned. And pure H-Town.

“It’s definitely got people talking,” Bun B tells PaperCity. “That’s why we’re on the phone right now. Guys like Pat McAfee talking about it on his show. It’s something that separates the identity of a team like UH from many, many other organizations. I would say almost any other organization. We have different car cultures around the country, but I don’t know of any university that’s done this. . .

“I don’t remember anybody having a car like that lead the team onto the field. Have people done photo shoots with cars at universities? Sure. But to actually have a slab drive out onto the field, leading the team onto the field, that’s an actually new thing.”

Which is why McAfee could not stop raving about it on his show, ESPN’s most popular show, the most influential show in sports TV today. UH football made itself relevant again last season under Willie Fritz and is No. 22 in both major college football polls heading into this Saturday night’s home game against Southern. But now it’s nationally cool too.

Pat McAfee raving about Houston football’s vintage red slab walkout intro, using the @PaperCityMag video throughout the segment. “I love what happened down in Houston,” McAfee says. “And obviously the rims there —classic Houston I do believe from my understanding . . . Love that… https://t.co/ujU5C0G2OR

— Chris Baldwin (@ChrisYBaldwin) September 8, 2026

“I like the innovation,” McAfee says. “Houston’s always seemingly ahead of everybody else with everything.”

This slab walkout is another Houston first. “Now I do believe they’ll end up in a situation where people try to copy this,” Bun B says.

Yes, Bun B expects other college football programs to try and copycat UH. Talk about a satisfying twist for Cougar fans.

It’s good to have the best intro in the land. It’s even better when it ties so deeply into the city you call home that people can feel it deep in their bones.

“That’s something,” Lil’ Keke, one of the H-Town rappers most associated with slab culture, tells PaperCity of the UH slab walkout intro. “That’s a beautiful thing there.”

“It’s definitely got people talking. That’s why we’re on the phone right now. Guys like Pat McAfee talking about it on his show. It’s something that separates the identity of a team like UH from many, many other organizations. I would say almost any other organization.” — Bun B to PaperCity

Slabs, which stands for slow, loud and banging, have been a core part of Houston’s car culture since the 1980s, with hip-hop stars jumping in and adding their own twist to the mix more and more in the 1990s. The late DJ Screw is rightly credited for creating the chopped and screwed style of hip hop that gave Houston music a sound unlike any other and brought slabs in. Lil’ Keke was one of Screw’s big collaborators and innovators.

“It’s something that originated in the eighties, the mid eighties, because the original rims, the original size rims, came out then,” Bun B says. “. . . Everybody was really drawn to the ’84 (rims). But there was a very limited production of that rim. So they were very hard to get, secure. They’re almost impossible to get now. You can’t buy them anymore.

“So the rims that you saw on (the UH) Cadillac is a newer produced rim from a local company.”

UH Football’s Slab Intro Future

So would Bun B want to be the celebrity driver of the slab for one of these UH football stadium walk ins?

“Sure,” he says. “I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t want to drive a slab. But I think it’s a great opportunity for them to incorporate the mascots. And I think with his particular car, and you have to look at the tunnel this car has to come through. So you really have to have some experience driving these kind of cars. That car has the longer swangas out. So that one you really have to understand how wide those things really poke out, how much clearance you need to drive one of those things.”

Slab amateurs need not apply. But Shasta and Sasha riding along would make the stadium walk-in intro even more dramatic.

That this is happening at the University of Houston, off Scott Street, makes it hit home even more to these Houston icons.

“First of all we have to realize that the University of Houston is set dead center in the middle of the Third Ward,” Bun B says. “So a lot of that slab culture is dominant in the immediate area. It wouldn’t be surprising for anyone attending the University of Houston to see a slab. In real time, riding around, through their neighborhood. They wouldn’t even have to go far from campus to see that part of culture.”

Bun loves that this distinctive spinning slice of Houston culture is spreading. When he performed at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo a few years ago, he become the first performer to bring a slab into a RodeoHouston concert, driving it right onto the dirt. “When we had our production call that was literally the first thing I asked them,” Bun B says. ” ‘Could I have slabs on the dirt?’

“And they had no idea what I was talking about. So we kind of had to explain what a slab was. Typically Cadillacs, More predominant than any other car. Though there are slabs that are Lincolns.”

New University of Houston on-field intro with players coming out behind a vintage red slab before running onto the field. A little dash of Houston worthy theatrics for the new season. pic.twitter.com/N7jf8IBuOl

— Chris Baldwin (@ChrisYBaldwin) September 5, 2026

In a somewhat confusing twist to the uninitiated, slab is also the term for the street the slabs ride down too. “Slab is not only the car, but the street,” Bun B notes. “So the car is considered the slab. But the other terminology in Houston is the street that you drive on. If you drove down Westheimer Street, or any street in Houston, you’re driving down the slab.”

There are few things more distinctly Houston than slabs. But those spinning swangas are spreading. When Bun B toured in Japan, local music star DJ☆GO was riding a slab in Tokyo. Complete with the candy paint (a very glossy paint, which takes a specialist to apply) that help make Houston’s slabs pop out so much.

Seeing that play out before UH’s nationally televised season opener, knowing plans call for it to be repeated before every home football game this season, makes these Houston music icons’ hearts proud. Which is exactly the point for a revamped Houston athletic department that is determined to build on its connection with the city it calls home.

“It goes back to Built by Houston and the whole city and how it plays a big part in everything,” UH athletic director Eddie Nuñez tells PaperCity. 

“That’s something, That’s a beautiful thing there.” — Lil’ Keke to PaperCity on UH football’s slab walkout entrance.

Houston’s pro teams have long embraced the city’s slab culture. Bun B teamed up with the Astros to help design a special hat that celebrated slab culture in Houston, complete with a spinning element to represent the swangas. The Astros also did a limited edition bobblehead of Bun B with a slab several years ago. The Houston Rockets’ Ashtray hat pays homage to the clean interiors of slabs and Lil’ Keke is a regular promoting the team and its ties to Houston culture. And Bun B, the owner of Trill Burgers, raves about how the Texans have embraced Houston’s one-of-a-kind car culture, noting how the team’s Toro mascot comes out in a souped up golf cart that sort of looks like a slab. The Texans also did a DJ Screw and slab merch drop just last year.

Bun B tells PaperCity that he is also teaming up with the Texans and Buffalo Bills for a special limited edition collaboration drop tied to  Sunday’s much anticipated season opening showdown between the two prime AFC contenders.

“I think people will think it’s pretty cool. And it’s something that’s tangible,” Bun B reveals. “It’s not just the idea of a video or something. It’s going to be something tangible that fans can actually get their hands on.”

Almost everyone agrees that the University of Houston has raised the bar by having its football team walk out behind a slab as its new stadium entrance. This is UH promoting Houston, being Houston.

“I think it’s a great moment for Houston,” Bun B says. “I think it’s a great moment for the Cougars. I think it’s a great representation of how slab culture is a positive thing in the city of Houston. A lot times these things can be misrepresented by people who aren’t really tied in enough to really understand what it truly represents.

“And I think it’s a great thing to see UH embrace it like this in real time.”

UH football is having a national moment, suddenly being talked about as one of the coolest programs in the land. By Willie Fritz and a slab.