![]() ![]() “We said, ‘We want our shit to be big like Stax, but nobody’s gonna knock our shit down,’” Juicy recalls with a laugh. Juicy remembers being a teenager watching on TV as Stax’s iconic studio was demolished, and vowing to build something in the city that would never be demolished. & the M.G.’s and out-of-towners like Otis Redding. Juicy shares that they were inspired by the success of Stax Records, their hometown’s legendary soul label that developed both local acts like Booker T. Though now defunct, Three 6 Mafia members Juicy J and DJ Paul’s labels, Prophet Entertainment, later named Hypnotize Minds, were instrumental in building Memphis rap, signing artists including Project Pat, Gangsta Boo and La Chat, while mentoring Nashville talents like Young Buck. Memphis, dating back to the mid-1990s, has a rich history of independent labels and musicians building the kind of creative support a city needs to flourish and endure a changing of the guard. has a plethora of talented vocalists, but the rest of the infrastructure for a successful music scene can still be lacking. ![]() Nowadays, pretty much every city in the U.S. ![]() “The swagger of the city, the bravado of our artists can’t be duplicated anywhere else, and that is why I believe we’ve had this successful run and will continue deep into the future.” He cofounded N Less Entertainment with Marcus “Head” Howell in 2016. In fact, even latter-day Three 6 Mafia became a replica of itself, as they continually strived to retain the underground essence of their own beginning.“Memphis is a city that breeds originality, and today’s music listeners are looking for originality,” says Zach Randolph, an NBA All-Star-turned-record label owner whose jersey was retired by the Memphis Grizzlies in 2021. Years later, in the wake of the successive Dirty South explosion, you can trace back the influence of Mystic Stylez, as a myriad heedless Southerners began throwing 'bows, blazing hydro, and embracing taboos left and right. For the most part though, Three 6 Mafia is hell-bent here, literally, and that in itself was novelty enough for its time. And if you want evidence that there's more to Mystic Stylez than shock value, listen to "Da Summa," a calm moment of respite amid the thundering chaos that very well could be seen as the Memphis underground version of "It Was a Good Day" or the countless other laid-back summertime anthems of the mid-'90s. All of this would be sheer exploitation for the sake of exploitation if not for the craft, especially in terms of production. 3"), sex ("Porno Movie"), and occultism ("Mystic Stylez"). Throughout the album, Three 6 Mafia embraces one taboo after another, often many at once, mainly violence ("Tear da Club Up"), drugs ("Now I'm Hi, Pt. Mystic Stylez became so for several reasons, among them the album's overall eerie tone, producers Juicy J and DJ Paul's Dirty South-defining lo-fi beats, and the group's downright confrontational rhetoric. It's one of those albums that came and went during its initial release yet became a cult classic years later. Yet years later, Mystic Stylez stands out as a definitive effort, defining not only what the collective would base its future empire upon but also the horrorcore style of hardcore rap that thrived among the underground scenes outside of New York during the era (e.g., Esham in Detroit, Brotha Lynch Hung in Sacramento, etc.). ![]() After all, it was released independently in 1995, a time when indie rap labels struggled to break out of their local markets, and furthermore, the group was from Memphis of all places and their style was far from the mainstream - very far. When Three 6 Mafia released Mystic Stylez, the album that's widely seen as their full-length debut, it didn't make too many waves. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |