Hip-hop legend Bun B partners with Tom Frank and Merrick Creative to launch Merrick Studios podcast network [Interview]

Excerpt from EARMILK - Originally published on 9/9/25 by Deaundre Dixon

Southern hip-hop legend, educator, and entrepreneur, Bun B, of UGK and Trill Burgers fame, has partnered with veteran designer, marketing strategist, and podcast host Tom Frank, chief creative officer at Merrick Creative, to create Merrick Studios, a podcast network with a mission to bring passionate voices with unique, often underrepresented perspectives to the forefront by providing them with an in-house production team, promotional reach, and monetization strategies, all in an attempt to reach the widest audience possible. Already, Merrick Studios has an assortment of podcasts covering a wide array of subject matter ranging from real estate and design on ‘PlaceShaper,’ comic and movie culture on ‘The Love/Hate Relationship with Comic Culture,’ and Merrick’s flagship podcast, hosted by Jeffrey Sledge, Tom Frank, and Bun B himself, ‘Unglossy,’ which aims to shine a spotlight on the true, unfiltered stories of cultural powerhouses such as Keenan Scott II, Marcus Samuelsson, Eric Liedtke and Andre Reed.

Sledge, a former Atlantic and Jive Records A&R who discovered Bun B and Pimp C back in the '90s, was the lynchpin that brought Bun B and Tom Frank together, ultimately leading to this collaboration…