After following up their debut and EP with a second album, Da End, Three 6 Mafia signed to Relativity Records.

While these topics weren't exactly MTV material, they did garner a considerable cult following - quite similar to what Esham was doing in Detroit at the time - and the group used controversy to further fuel their growing popularity via the media by releasing an EP, Live by Yo Rep, which took lyrical shots at Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. After an enthusiastic response within the South, the group changed their name to Three 6 Mafia and put out their first official album in 1995, Mystic Stylez.Īt this early point in their career, the early Three 6 Mafia camp prided themselves on being as raw as possible, rapping explicitly about sex, drugs, and violence.

1, a collection of their early recordings from 1991-1994), they began officially collaborating with local MCs these resulted in their first underground release as Triple 6 Mafia, Smoked Out Loced Out. After Juicy 'J' and DJ Paul honed their beats to the point where they had developed a trademark sound (later showcased on Underground, Vol. In 1991, DJ Paul met up with another hot local DJ, Juicy 'J,' who was a fan of his mix tapes the two began producing tapes with them rapping over beats and they eventually began integrating local MCs into their music. After releasing their first official album in 1995 and their first major-label album in 1997, Three 6 Mafia soon found themselves on the verge of superstardom once When the Smoke Clears debuted at number six on Billboard's album charts in summer 2000, it became evident that Three 6 Mafia no longer were an underground group.īefore Three 6 Mafia became a sprawling slew of loosely connected side projects, DJ Paul began his musical career as a popular Memphis DJ around 1990, creating mix tapes at home with his brother, Lord Infamous.

Furthermore, group leaders Juicy 'J' and DJ Paul's cinematic production perfectly compliments the group's theatrical rapping, causing many to call them the South's Wu-Tang Clan, as both groups are led by in-house production, feature a closed roster of rappers, and also release innumerable affiliated solo and compilation albums. Representing Memphis, TN, the group's six core members - Crunchy Black, Gangsta Boo, Lord Infamous, Koopsta Knicca, Juicy J and DJ Paul - give the group its dark image, vividly rapping about drug use, violent aggression, pornographic sex, and anything else remotely evil. Without compromising their dark image as a malevolent ap group from the South, Three 6 Mafia quickly evolved from a humble underground ap collective to a commercially successful dynasty by retaining their raw qualities and releasing countless albums under a number of monikers.

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