Three 6 Mafia - Living Large

If you were to place a bet on Memphis group Three 6 Mafia wining an Oscar, you would have found the odds very high as it just wasn’t expected. But the trio which is now a duo did win the Oscar and you can safely say; their lives have never been the same since. Pretty much basing themselves in Hollywood since their win, the boys, DJ Paul and Juicy J have already caused chaos in the city of angels. Shooting their MTV reality TV show Welcome to Hollyhood, gives fans their interpretation of fame and how two Memphis boys can act up and act out. Fame comes with a price and as seasoned vets in the game, these two are well aware of that. Here they discuss that price and defend their play on words which has caused some upset within the confines of Hip-Hop.

You guys are out in Hollywood right now, how are you finding Hollywood as opposed to Memphis

Well the prices are different, you know what I mean, you pay $5 for something in Memphis and then here it is $15. I paid $10 for a PB and J here in Hollywood.

Normally you in end up in Hollywood because of acting, you ended up there because of music. Did you ever think it was possible

We never saw this coming, you wake up one morning and then the next minute everyone knows you, and it’s a blessing. You try to take advantage of all the opportunities out here. Sometimes you want to go where everyone knows your name.

Was it difficult waking up like that

You just have to stay focused. I mean the best thing for us was being in the music business for over ten years. We’ve grown, we made some money and have learned how to deal with people so when we won the Academy Award© everything just blew out of the roof and everyone was just coming to us, talking to us, telling us they could do that for us and do this for us; but we’ve been through situations like this for years. But one good thing about 36 Mafia is we party a little bit and we may drink a cocktail every now and again but we have always been focused, not everyone in the group, but we have been focused on making good music and not go to as many parties. You know we have been in the studio for the last three months, no parties. I mean we go to a bar every now and again and there is nothing wrong with treating yourself but you have to stay true to your roots, what you have been doing and by that you wont get off balance and lose focus.

Do you feel if you didn’t stay focused it would be disrespectful to Hip-Hop after winning such an award

We have a lot on our shoulders, you know people expected us to curse on stage and we didn’t. Everybody was like ‘wow, they didn’t curse.’

Was that hard not cursing

No not hard at all. The main thing was we had never done anything like that before, millions of people watching us on TV. We were at the Academy Awards© and we had never been to them before, so we were a little nervous. We have done clean shows before so it wasn’t a problem. We just held our ground and prayed on it and here we are, you are interviewing us.

Have there been any negatives to this fame

People are always going to have negatives, but if it is true it’s true, if it’s not true, it’s not true. If people were to say we were devil worshippers that isn’t true. My father is a preacher; I grew up in a church environment so being a devil worshipper isn’t true. I don’t worry what people say about me, as long as I am in the studio working hard, doing something good and I am taking care of my family and they are straight, I don’t care what people are saying about me. You know so many of us grew up in a church environment so we are used to being thankful for what we have. You know the first thing we say when we get in the back of a police car is ‘Oh my God, oh Lord have mercy, I don’t want to go to jail.’ There is always a church environment wherever you go which is good.

Your TV show is Welcome to Hollyhood; was this something you jumped at the chance to be involved in

Well it has always been that we wanted to do our show, but it is not so much that it is your average reality show; you know this is Three 6 Mafia at its best. You see us in the street, you see us in the studio recording our album and how we come up with the songs. You know people are going to be like ‘holy shit I didn’t realize people played spoons anymore, or the guitar while they sip on a cold ice tea, or I have never seen a person fall asleep on top of a piano and make music while they are asleep.’

So what exactly is the premise behind the show

It is Three 6 Mafia after we won the Academy Award©, you know we still live in Memphis but we have a house out here. We are trying to make it big in Hollywood as they have big things out here in Hollywood, you know they have big things here. We are trying to write more songs for movies and then in between we are trying to pitch our own movies in between and then in between all that we have a new album that we have to finish.

Now calling it HollyHood, some people that seem to have this play on words which doesn’t necessarily sit well with Hip-Hop purists and critics, you don’t see it that way

See it as downgrading Hip-Hop? No I don’t think so. Like I say you slip on a banana peel there will be some talk, you know someone will turn around and say if I slipped on a banana peel I shouldn’t have walked over that damn spot. There is always something that someone is going to say. As John Kerry said when I saw him on TV before, ‘You can’t please everybody.’ That stuck in my head. We come from the hood, Three 6 Mafia was created in the Hood, we don’t come from here. So keeping it real it is HollyHood.

FemaleFirst - Melanie J Cornish