Three 6 Mafia: Memphis Horrorcore That Ended Up at the Oscars
The most surprising line in the Three 6 Mafia story is also the best known: in 2006, a group that began on homemade horror-themed Memphis mixtapes won an Academy Award. Three 6 Mafia took the Best Original Song prize at the 78th Academy Awards for "It's Hard out Here for a Pimp," from the film Hustle & Flow, and became the first hip-hop group to win that category and the first to perform at the ceremony.
To get there, the Memphis group first had to build a sound from scratch. Three 6 Mafia formed in 1991 out of a crew around DJ Paul, Juicy J and Lord Infamous, with Crunchy Black, Gangsta Boo and Koopsta Knicca joining the lineup over the following years. Their 1995 debut, Mystic Stylez, became an influential cult classic, and the group later grew into a platinum-selling act on its own Hypnotize Minds label.
This Three 6 Mafia artist profile covers that whole span: the dark, lo-fi tapes of the early 1990s, the crunk-era peak of When the Smoke Clears: Sixty 6, Sixty 1, and the commercial high point of Most Known Unknown. Their global album sales stood at 5.5 million as of 2016.
For first-time listeners, expect a sound that starts menacing, then turns anthemic without losing the Memphis edge.
Triple-Time Flows, Horror Beats and Club Chants: The Three 6 Mafia Sound
The group's earliest recordings came out of Memphis's scrappy tape scene. DJ Paul and Lord Infamous, performing as Da Serial Killaz, released "Portrait of a Serial Killa" in 1992, a record built on dark beats by Paul and horrorcore-style lyrics, and it is recognized as a pioneering work of the horrorcore genre. Lord Infamous, who had been rapping since around 1989 with his signature triple-time flow, supplied the group's most recognizable voice in that early period.
Production stayed in-house. DJ Paul and Juicy J produced the group's records and those of their Hypnotize Minds artists, which gave every release a consistent, dark character even as the sound moved from lo-fi tapes to major-label polish. The 1999 album CrazyNDaLazDayz, credited to a trio subgroup called Tear da Club up Thugz, is considered one of the first albums made entirely in the crunk production style.
Over time the sound brightened. With Chapter 2: World Domination, DJ Paul and Juicy J polished the darker sound into something more palatable while keeping their authenticity, and by the mid-2000s the club chants had become full pop-rap hooks, as on "Stay Fly" and "Poppin' My Collar." The early records are chilly and horror-minded; Most Known Unknown plays more like a victory lap.
Juicy J and his future bandmates came up wanting to make music like gangsta rap acts such as N.W.A and the Geto Boys.
From Mystic Stylez to Last 2 Walk: Three 6 Mafia's Rise From the Underground
The Three 6 Mafia timeline begins with the early tapes: Da Serial Killaz's "Portrait of a Serial Killa" in 1992, and DJ Paul and Lord Infamous's Come With Me to Hell in 1993, which previewed future hits such as "Tear da Club Up." The group name came from a line Lord Infamous rapped about the "Triple Six Mafia." After Koopsta Knicca joined in 1994, and Crunchy Black and Gangsta Boo in 1995, Mystic Stylez was released on the Prophet label and earned recognition in Memphis and across the Southern underground; their first song on the radio was "Da Summa."
A split with Prophet led DJ Paul and Juicy J to found Hypnotize Minds, which signed a distribution deal with Relativity in 1997, followed by a deal with Sony. Chapter 2: World Domination (1997) reached gold status and number 40 on the Billboard 200, and included "Tear Da Club Up." CrazyNDaLazDayz followed in 1999 and also went gold.
The big breakthrough came with When the Smoke Clears: Sixty 6, Sixty 1 in 2000, which became the group's first platinum album and produced "Sippin' on Some Syrup," featuring UGK. Our review of When the Smoke Clears looks at the record that gave the group its first platinum certification. In the next few years the group released the Choices soundtrack in 2001, and Da Unbreakables in 2003, which was certified gold on the strength of the single "Ridin' Spinners." Gangsta Boo left after Choices: The Album, and the lineup narrowed over time.
The peak came in 2005 and 2006. Most Known Unknown debuted at number three, sold 1.6 million copies in the US, and delivered "Stay Fly" with 8Ball & MJG and Young Buck, which reached number 13 on the Hot 100 and went double platinum. "Poppin' My Collar," remixed with Project Pat, went platinum. They also made the comedy Clean Up Men in 2005 and a sequel to their Choices film. Then came the Oscar, for a song they co-wrote with Frayser Boy.
Afterward the group splintered. Crunchy Black departed in 2007, leaving DJ Paul and Juicy J as the official lineup. They appeared with Timbaland on Justin Timberlake's "Chop Me Up," starred in the MTV series Adventures in Hollyhood, and released Last 2 Walk in 2008, with guests including Akon, UGK and 8Ball & MJG. Juicy J later moved fully into a solo career, and DJ Paul formed Da Mafia 6ix with several original members in 2013. In 2019 DJ Paul and Juicy J announced a Three 6 Mafia reunion, with a Memphis show that October and a tour that followed.
Why Three 6 Mafia Still Shapes Southern Hip-Hop
Three 6 Mafia's place in hip-hop history rests on two things: the sound they invented and the doors they opened. Memphis's tape underground, with its horrorcore leanings and triple-time flows, became the foundation for a regional style that the group then carried to the Oscars. That is not a small leap. Winning an Academy Award for a hip-hop song and then performing it live, with Taraji P. Henson reprising the chorus, was a visible moment for Southern rap on the biggest stage the culture had touched at that point.
They also acted as an incubator. Through Prophet and Hypnotize Minds, Paul and Juicy J built a roster that included Project Pat, whose 2001 album Mista Don't Play: Everythangs Workin reached number four on the Billboard 200 and went gold. The label's catalog, produced almost entirely by the two founders, gave Memphis a name beyond its borders.
The balance sheet is more complicated. Several members left citing, among other reasons, group dynamics and alleged financial mismanagement; Lord Infamous and Koopsta Knicca have since died; and the later records are a notch below the early tapes in intensity. But the best of the catalog, from Mystic Stylez to When the Smoke Clears, still gets cited by listeners who want to hear where crunk and a darker Southern sound took shape. For a Southern hip-hop education, Three 6 Mafia belongs next to UGK, OutKast and Scarface.
