MAYHEM IN MEMPHIS
Three 6 Mafia's Juicy J Tears the Club by Himself this Time

by DeMarco Williams

For 18 years now, Three-6 Mafia’s Juicy J, DJ Paul and a few other disorderly Tennessee residents have caused all kinds of hell to the rap world, tearin’ up clubs (“Sippin’ On Some Syrup” still gets heads noddin’) and beatin’ down barriers (the group’s “It’s Hard Out Here For a Pimp” was the ’05 Oscar winner for Best Song) in the process.

But just because the calendar reads June ’09, doesn’t mean the crew has to stop anytime soon. On the contrary, Juicy has a brand new collection of speaker-shattering tracks called Hustle Til I Die on store shelves. The Hypnotize Minds label release is loud, gritty and features a Gucci Mane cameo. Translation: It’s perfect for the summer. INsite recently chatted with the Three-6 frontman to talk Hustle, survivin’ and cookin’. Hope you’re ready for a taste of the real South.

What do you love most about Memphis?

The food, the barbecue. And that Memphis music scene is so off da chain, you wouldn’t even believe it. There are so many gifted musicians and talented rappers, singers, producers. There are so many talented people in Memphis that nobody knows about. From us starting Hypnotize Minds, we’re trying to help out as many people as we can. We still tryin’ to help out people in Memphis.

Let’s go back a minute. What was Memphis like during your teenage years?

I grew up in a real hard, rough neighborhood- North Memphis. It was rough, man. It’s a blessing that I made it up outta there. It was stuff happening everyday. A lot of times, man, when you’re coming from the hood, it gives you a hustler’s mentality, know what I’m sayin’? Since I wasn’t born with no silver spoon in my mouth, I got that hustler’s mentality from the hood. I’m always hustlin’. That’s what I named my album Hustle Til I Die. I know what it feels like to be straight broke, nuthin’ in ya pockets. No food in the fridgerator. I went through all of that, growin’ up. For me, growin’ up from that just makes me hustle more. I guess, I’m good now but I still like to hustle. I like to help other people. I wanna help some of these young people, these young musicians comin’ out of Memphis. I just enjoy helpin’ people out and makin’ money on the side myself.

Juice, in what ways has your hustle changed in this digital age?

Everything now is online. It’s a lil’ easier than it was back then. Back then we used to just pass CDs out. Put out the snippets and put the posters out. Now you can shoot your own videos for nuthin’ and post it up on You Tube. You can go online and on MySpace and let everybody know you got an album comin’ out. You can do all sittin’ at home! The grind now is the internet. People don’t even watch TV no more. Everything is online. Everything you missed you can go watch it on You Tube. You ain’t gotta be sittin’ at home, waitin’ on your favorite TV show to come on. You can just pull it up on You Tube. That’s the new hustle game.

Are you still learning this new game?

I’m on it, man. I know the times. I’m still doing the mixtapes. But I’m doin’ the internet stuff too. Like I said, I come from the hood. All I ever did was hustle. So, I gotta be up on everything. I’m up on everything in the music business right now- especially in the rap game. I’m up on everything, man.

Let’s go into this new album. What’s its focus?

This album is about ballin’, gangstas. It’s some gangsta music and it’s partyin’- all of that wrapped into one.

Are songs like “30 Inches” and “Ugh Ugh Ugh” meant to be fun, escape records?

“30 Inches” is not a fun record. That’s just a gangsta record. That’s just a straight street record. The “Long Dick Her”(“Ugh Ugh Ugh”) record is a club record. Niggas can just dance to it. It’s like the stuff we did back in the day like “Slob on the Knob.” I even took some samples from that song and put it on there. But, I mean, I got some gangsta stuff on there. I got hustlin’ records on there, records talkin’ about what’s goin’ on in the streets, how niggas tryin’ to get money, all of that.

What are some of you and Paul’s secrets of stayin’ connected like you all have for so long?

Man, you gotta be loyal. You can’t have no ego and you gotta be loyal. You gotta respect a nigga. If you respect your brutha and you’re loyal, you’re good. You ain’t got no problems. That’s the key to success. That’s how you do it- simple as that. Keep it real. If you see sumthin’ that don’t look right, speak on it. If you see sumthin’ you wanna do, speak on it. Just keep it real. It is what it is. That’s how we’ve been all these years, so that’s how we maintain to keep our partnership rollin’.

What else do you love doing?

I go to bars, man. Just hittin’ up a lot of bars. I’m not the biggest club man in the world. Strip clubs are cool, but I like bars. When I’m working in the studio, after we finish up a good record, I just go to a bar. I take a couple shots of Patron, head to the house and go back to the studio to work on some more music.

So, I’m liable to catch you on Beale Street any weekend?

If a nigga lookin’ for me, he can catch me at the bar!

Anything else coming up, movie-wise?

We got things in the works. The checks ain’t cleared yet, so I wanna keep it secret. The movie stuff is not as fast as the music stuff. With the movie stuff, you gotta prep it and make sure the music syncs up with the picture. It take s a minute for the movie stuff. We got some things in the works. We got another reality show that we shot the pilot to. We’re getting ready to start shopping it to some networks. I can tell you about that. That’s something we did out our own pocket. It’s called Cookin’ Ain’t Easy. It’s a cooking show. We’re cooking all kinds of foods- Jewish food, Indian food, all kinds of stuff. It’s a reality show but there’s comedy too. A network ain’t picked it up yet, but somebody’s tryin’ to shop it right now. We shot the whole pilot out our own pocket. We did it all independent. We own the show. We created it. We businessmen, man.

Are you cooking or are you the host?

I’m doing the hosting. I can’t really cut up like that to cook in the kitchen. I’m doing the hosting. I got Paul and Big Triece doin’ the cookin’. And I got this other dude, a friend of mine named Victory. He’s a real good cook.

«HOME