DJ Paul: We were hoodlums! (laughter) Thugs. Street folk.
When did you get your start in the rap game?
DJ Paul: When we started off, Juicy J and I was makin' mix-tapes. On the tapes, we started pro- grammin' little beats and loopin' records and rappin' over them. After a while, when the cheese got a lit- tle better, we got drum machines and we started putting little songs on our mix-tapes, which turned into albums. They were little underground TDK tapes with all original songs from us. Juicy J had groups he was dealing with and I had groups that I was dealing with, and we just took the best members out of each one of'our groups and put them together and made Triple 6 Mafia. Triple 6 Mafia got a deal and landed their first CD called Mystic Styles, and we changed the name to Three 6 Mafia.
On your old mix-tapes and several of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's songs, there were several disses that were hurled at one another. How did your beef start and what has become of it now?
Juicy J: It started off mainly because of a big misunderstanding. When they first came out there was a lot of people telling us how similiar our music was and all that old shit. Finally we met them in person at Atlanta's airport. Bone was on their way to catch a plane, and we were dropping somebody off at the airport and they saw us, came over to our Suburban and got in. We just talked and was laughin, and shit. They explained to us how they heard our shit and that they didn't bite it. It all ended up kinda cool. We just squashed the shit like real men.
When the group first started, it seemed like you didn't need any help from a major label because you were all doing so well. Why did you decide to sign with Relativity?
DJ Paul: At first we was seeking a deal, but the shit wasn't going right. So we just got up our lit tle cheese and got a distribution deal and pressed the first tape and CD with our money. We started a buzz and just too it from there. Our last tape sold a lot. Both of our albums and our EP sold real good, so the major labels began hollerin' at us. Everybody started to call us but Relativity came with the best deal for us at the time.
Do you think being from the South makes it harder to get signed?
Juicy J: In the beginning, yeah. It made it way harder! At first they didn't want to give Southern people a chance until like Eightball and MJG came out and started doing good, and Master P. After that, every Tom, Dick and Harry was flying down here tryin' to grab a nigga or two.
What's the deal with the Memphis rap scene, how come there's not that many artists out there representing the region?
Juicy J: Yeah, it's plenty of talented motherfuckas from Memphis but Memphis rappers don't stick together. All of them act like they done went platinum but niggas ain't sold shit! They don't help each other out like niggas in New York. Like I was watchin' a video and they had like Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and a bunch of other rappers in a restaurant having a food fight. If you did a video like that in Memphis, there would have been a shoot-out. We need to learn how to stick together.
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