Bun B has been in the game for a minute now. He's been hot, and he's been, well, not (or, as he puts it, "I've been the next big thing like three or four times now"). He's seen unknowns become superstars and can't-miss kids fall completely off the map.

So when MTV News caught up with him down in Austin, Texas, at South by Southwest — where he was promoting the final UGK album, 4 Ever — we figured he'd be just the guy to ask about the current crop of up-and-coming MCs, including Kid Cudi, who made headlines last week by announcing he would retire after the release of his debut album this summer.

If anyone could set the record straight (and perhaps give Cudi some career advice), it would be Bun, who's been doing this for nearly 20 years now.

"I can understand a kid like that, who came into the game — he's from Ohio, a small-town kid like myself — and within a matter of months, he went from being a person where, you know, like, 'That kid's got some pretty good talent,' to, 'Oh, my God, this is the next thing,' " Bun told us. "That could be pretty overwhelming for a kid that probably just wants to make good music. People are making him into a brand instantaneously, and that's a lot of pressure to put on an individual. So I can completely understand someone being like, 'You know what? I thought I was just going to be able to make music. This is turning into something wholly different.'

"One piece of advice I would give Cudi is to make sure he gets what he wants out of the situation, because there's gonna be a lot of people who make sure they get what they want out of the situation," he continued. "You gotta really know what it is you want before you step in. This game has a million directions it can pull you into, so if you come into it with no direction, then there's no telling where you'll end up. So you gotta make sure you come in with some kind of plan — just an outline, dude."

And Bun isn't just talking to Cudi here. He's trying to talk to a whole bunch of "young, talented" cats like Asher Roth, B.o.B and Charles Hamilton, whom Bun said could all be capable of great things, so long as they learn not to believe the hype and take charge of their careers.

"The reality is, these magazines and media outlets have to sit back and designate something and bring people's attention towards something, so being labeled 'the next big thing' or winning best new artist, you know, you've gotta be careful," he said. "Because once you take somebody who's probably humble within themselves and be like, 'You know what, you're the next big thing,' sometimes that alters their perception of themselves, their perception of the direction they need to go down, or even hinder their path. Or sometimes it propels it. This whole game is a Catch-22, man.

"And once you get in this game, you get in really deep, and you think you can do this or that, but next thing you know, your single gets serviced, and you get added to 700 stations in a week," he continued. "And next thing you know, you're a phenomenon. You're not just a person or an artist, you're a phenomenon. I see big things for these dudes, you know, Cudi and all them, but they've just got to learn to be careful about it all."