36 Classic Hypnotize Minds Songs You Should Know

By Brendan Frederick

Memphis rappers like Gangsta Pat and Eightball & MJG were just starting to get national attention when two local teens on opposite sides of town, Paul Beauregard (known as DJ Paul) and Jordan Houston (known as Juicy J) began making lo-fi 4-track mixtapes and selling them in school. Inspired by Memphis pioneer DJ Spanish Fly, they both started sprinkling original raps into their blend tapes, and soon their tapes found distribution at local car stereo shops alongside mixtapes by more established peers like DJ Squeeky and DJ Sound. Paul and Juicy became friends around 1993, and each DJ's group of regular rappers joined forces to create a loosely-defined crew called The Backyard Posse.

The two DJs started collaborating on mixtapes together, and soon the idea to record a proper group album under the name Triple Six Mafia (eventually Three 6 Mafia) took hold. The name, which referenced the satanic number 666, was created by Paul's brother Lord Infamous, who was the driving force behind the group's early horrorcore aesthetic. In addition to Paul, Juicy, and Infamous, the group's other core members—Koopsta Knicca, Gangsta Boo, and Crunchy Black—were all down by 1994, alongside a rotating cast of characters.

Three 6 Mafia's debut album Mystic Stylez garnered attention around the South and in the industry, thanks to the group's controversial image and regional hits like "Tear Da Club Up." By 1997, during the post-No Limit gold rush, their label Hypnotize Minds (originally known as Prophet Entertainment) had signed with a major and broken into the mainstream. Over the next decade, Three 6 would become an urban radio staple, and the Hypnotize label would release a variety of albums by Memphis affiliates, including Juicy J's brother Project Pat and white rapper Lil' Wyte. Along the way, they inspired Atlanta's burgeoning crunk genre, and influenced a generation of millennial stars like A$AP Rocky and Wiz Khalifa to mix spooky, dissonant sounds with melodic gangsta rap.

Today, Juicy J is more famous than ever as he approaches 40 years old, collaborating with Katy Perry and inspiring Miley Cyrus with his strip club soundtracks. This is the improbable fifth act in his 20+ year career, but it's a little bittersweet for longtime Three 6 Mafia fans, who aren't used to seeing the Juice Man without DJ Paul by his side. Meanwhile, Paul seems to be going back to the roots, founding a new group called Da Mafia 6ix, featuring all of the group's core members except for Juicy J.

These two hip-hop icons have been through so much over the last two decades that it's hard to keep track of it all. Well, here's a good place to start. From early mixtape tracks to their official entry into the pop charts, Pigeons & Planes presents 36 Classic Hypnotize Minds Songs You Should Know.

Project: The Serial Killaz Portrait of a Serial Killa

Year: 1992

Inspired by N.W.A. and proto-horrorcore Rap-A-Lot releases by Ganksta N-I-P and the Geto Boys, DJ Paul and his brother Lord Infamous decided to start a duo called The Serial Killaz while still in high school. Paul went by the nickname "Killaman," while Infamous adopted the alias "Da Scarecrow." DJ Paul started wearing a Chuckie doll over his malformed right hand. The title track from their first mixtape Portrait of a Serial Killa provides a good blueprint for the foundation of the Triple Six sound: unapologetic lyrical depravity over dissonant horror movie soundtracks with a hip-hop bump. In a nod to Led Zeppelin, the song even ends with some lyrics played backwards—who knows what kind of satanic message they were masking.

For teenagers in South Memphis in the early ’90s, gangs and drugs were everywhere. Paul's family definitely ran in Gangster Disciples circles, but Infamous was not interested in glorifying that life. "I liked N.W.A but I said I don’t wanna talk about gangbangin’," he remembered in a 2009 interview. "So I said I’ma take it to another level, I’m gonna do something dark. What’s worse than a gangbanger? Evil, satan itself." Lord Infamous had the vision, and it was his dark, oddball sensibility that would set the Triple Six crew apart from their peers in the local Memphis scene and ultimately bring them national notoriety.

Project: DJ Juicy J's Vol. 6
Year: 1992

This Too $hort-inspired ode to oral was originally recorded when The Notorious Juicy "Low Down" J was a junior in high school circa 1991, and became the signature song of his early mixtape and club DJ career before linking up with DJ Paul. It's both an x-rated fairy tale and a not-so-polite introduction ("Juicy is my name / Sex is my game"). And in retrospect, it's a perfect distillation of everything that would go on to make Juicy so great: the steady, logical flow, the bawdy humor, and the innate knack for coining catchy phrases. Perhaps most importantly for his future career, it emphasizes a very specific lyrical structure that was perfect for chanting along to in the club. It became intertwined throughout Hypnotize history—versions appeared on his next two mixtapes, and the song was re-recorded on the Tear Da Club Up Thugz album in 2000, and by La Chat on a female response called "Slob On My Cat" in 2001. Twenty-one years later, a new generation of rappers, from Big Sean to Tyga, still regularly quote it in song.

Project: DJ Paul & Lord Infamous The Serial Killaz

Year: 1992

"Where's Da Bud?" was probably Paul and Infamous's first local hit, and you can hear a crew of eager kids singing the song's catchy chorus at the beginning of this mix. Versions of "Where's Da Bud?" appeared on a number of mixtapes between ’92 and ’95, and the song was re-recorded in a proper studio for Three 6's second studio album, Chapter 2: Da End. But the original version best captures the rawness of the duo's early sound, and shows Lord Infamous's precise double-time flow and hook-writing abilities in full force.

Project: DJ Juicy J Vol. 7

Year: 1993

Prior to starting the Triple Six Mafia, Paul and Juicy were involved with a crew called The Backyard Posse, featuring an unwieldy number of hungry Memphis rappers. This song, which closed out the mixtape that Juicy J released just before officially joining forces with DJ Paul on Vol. 1: Da Beginning in 1993, includes contributions from core Backyard members D-Magic, Homicyde, Nigga 9, and Gangsta Blac, along with DJ Paul. Each did a solid job of sticking to the format, ending their verse with a dramatic reminder: "It's the Backyard!" The song still bangs, but it's mostly notable because it's the only concrete evidence of the short-lived local supergroup, aside from a few shout-outs on mixtape interludes.

Project: DJ Paul & Juicy J Vol. 1: Da Beginning

Year: 1993

While they had casually collaborated on a few projects before, DJ Paul and Juicy J didn't officially join forces until the release of Vol. 1: Da Beginning, the first of three collaborative DJ Paul & Juicy J mixtapes that were released leading up to Mystic Stylez. Each tape was branded as a "Notorious Killamix," meant to signify the fusion of Juicy J's "Notorious Mix" series with DJ Paul's "Killamix" series. The collaboration must have been a big deal back in 1993, since Paul and Juicy had both developed their own fan bases in M-Town by this point. Da Beginning was filled with a lot of mixing and cutting that reasserted their skills as DJs and reminded listeners of some of their greatest hits, but it also included a few new collaborative songs, including this laid-back ode to sippin' their favorite smoothed-out fruity liqueur.

Project: Lord Infamous Solo Tape
Year: 1993

After developing a following on DJ mixtapes, the next career move for Memphis rappers in the early ’90s was to release a "solo tape"—a precursor to the so-called "street album" that would become so prevalent in the 2000s. Lord Infamous was the first of the core Triple Six rappers to release a solo tape in 1993, and he got a boost from this local anthem that he's described as "a big underground hit." The Scarecrow showed up to show off his rapid-fire flow, warning the bustas about the "killers off South Parkway." DJ Paul's beat screwed down the synths from the ’80s electro jam "Don't Stop The Rock," and was an early example of his penchant for chopping and screwing vocal samples on the hook.

Project: Lil Fly's From Da Darkness Of Da Kut

Year: 1993

This was one of the first songs that DJ Paul recorded with Lil Fly, a 16-year-old rapper from South Parkway known for kicking grown up game. Fly, along with his cousin Gangsta Blac, become a core member of the Prophet Posse until 1995, when he left the crew, renamed himself Playa Fly, and released the memorable diss song "Triple Bitch Mafia." While he missed out on national success, Fly went on to become one of the most enduring figures in the local scene, making noise in Memphis and around the south with his independent albums.

With a hook that was sampled from DJ Zirk's local classic "2 Thick," and an arrangement that strongly resembles DJ Squeeky's mixtape cut "Slangin' Rocks," this Lil Fly joint is also a prime example of why DJ Paul's mixtape rival Squeeky has repeatedly accused Paul of being a flagrant biter. "Their whole style, their beats, hooks, everything were based on shit I did," Squeeky said in a Memphis Flyer interview last year. "All the hooks that you heard from them [earlier on] were samples they took off my mixtapes. They were making their own songs off them. That’s how they got started." While it's tempting to chalk these accusations up to jealousy, there's simply too many obvious examples of Paul and Juicy re-using elements of Squeeky and his partner Zirk's songs to deny it. In fact, DJ Paul remade "Slangin' Rocks" again in 1999 on Project Pat's Sony-distributed national debut Ghetty Green—with no sample credits, obviously.

Project: Project Pat Solo Tape

Year: 1994

Juicy J's older brother Project Pat was a core member of the budding Triple Six crew, bringing a bombastic flow and much-needed levity to their sound. He started to distinguish himself with this early local hit that appeared on his first solo mixtape in 1994, featuring chuckle-worthy gangsta raps like, "Niggas trip me out always trying to play hard / Ridin' around the hood shootin' up a nigga's car / A car ain't alive and a car ain't the nigga / You sayin' I'ma die? Motherfucker pull the trigga."

Just like Lil' Fly's "Slangin' Rocks," the song's brilliant hook ("Murderer, robber / Psycopathic skitzophrenic!") was sampled from DJ Zirk's "2 Thick," a fact that surely dismayed rival DJ Squeeky. "I'm realistic to the god damn bone," Pat spits on the song. And unfortunately, he proved his point when he was arrested on an aggravated robbery charge and locked up for an extended bid later that year, missing out on Three 6's initial asendency into the hip-hop mainstream.

Project: DJ Paul & Juicy J Vol. 2: Da Exorcist
Year: 1994

It's hard to pinpoint the exact moment when Paul and Juicy stopped repping The Backyard Posse and started branding themselves as the Triple Six Mafia, but it seems to have happened some time in late 1993, after Lord Infamous came up with the name in one of his rhymes. By the spring of 1994, the Triple Six was in full effect, and plans were being made to release a proper "posse tape," which would be called Smoked Out, Loced Out. But before releasing the Triple Six project, Paul and Juicy reunited for a new "Notorious Killamix" tape that included this all-star anthem (which, ironically, did not appear on Smoked Out, Loced Out.

Considered by many to be the greatest posse cut in Hypnotize history, "Smoked Out, Loced Out" features the early crew's key players at the top of their game. Project Pat's verse, in particular, was so memorable that Juicy J quoted it on his recent Stay Trippy album. The song is also notable because it was the first to feature the famous sample of Lord Infamous saying "Triple Six Mafia," which is supposedly a clip from the song where the name was invented—although the identity of that song is lost in the annals of Memphis rap history.

Project: DJ Paul Vol. 16: For Tha Summa of ’94

Year: 1994

In the summer of ’94, Da Brat and Lady of Rage were battling it out for the title of gangsta rap's freshest female. In the South, Mia X was starting to build her name in New Orleans, and a duo of Memphis ladies named UNLV (Unfortunately No Longer Virgins) had released an album on well-known Atlanta independent Ichiban. But the Queen of the South crown was still very much up for grabs when a solo song by 14-year-old Gangsta Boo popped up on DJ Paul's Vol. 16: For Tha Summa of ’94.

Paul, who was still a teenager himself at this point, had previously tried working with a few local female rappers. But his old classmate Lola, who he knew from Hillcrest High, ended up making a big impact on "Cheefa Da Reefa," an addictive weed-smoking anthem that showed she wasn't afraid to play with the big boys. After getting such a positive reaction to the song, Boo was invited to be a full-fledged member of the newly-minted Triple Six Mafia. Four years later, Boo became one of the first artists to release a solo album under Hypnotize Minds' national distribution deal, and would remain a core member of Three 6 Mafia until her departure in 2001.

One amazing side-note about female rappers in M-Town: Triple Six affiliate Skinny Pimp had a well-known female rapper in his crew named Lady Bee, who released several solo mixtapes in the early ’90s. Years later, it was revealed that Lady Bee was actually just Skinny Pimp with his vocal pitch turned up high to sound like a woman. This was especially embarrassing, considering Lady Bee had released explicit songs like "Where Da Big Dicks At?"

Project: Triple Six Mafia Smoked Out, Locced Out

Year: 1994

Often overlooked in discussions about Three 6's key players, Koopsta Knicca was perhaps the best rapper in the crew next to Lord Infamous. He had a melodic flow that walked the line between singing and rapping, but he never ever came soft from a lyrical perspective, sticking reliably to the gleefully over-the-top violence and crime tales that gave the group it's horrorcore edge.

Koopsta, who was an orphan from Texas who moved to Memphis after his parents passed away, clearly had some dark issues bouncing around in his head. On this classic underground track from Triple Six's first independent album Smoked Out, Loced Out, he muses about kidnapping and murder over a beat that screwed the "Days of Our Lives" theme song down to a demonic jingle. The remix featured one of Paul's most genius samples ever, the lonely piano line from Faith No More's "Epic." Koopsta's 1994 solo tape Da Devil's Playground, on which "Stash Pot" also appeared, might be the strongest, most fully-realized underground release from the pre-Mystic Stylez days. And luckily for us, Koopsta reissued it in 1999 for a national audience.

Project: Koopsta Knicca's Devil's Playground
Year: 1994

In the summer of ’94, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony blew up with their double-platinum EP Creepin' On A Come Up, captivating hip-hop with their rapid-fire, melodic flow and dark, gothic imagery. Not surprisingly, the Triple Six crew noticed some similarities, and felt that the thuggish ruggish Cleveland crew had completely jacked their style. Koopsta Knicca and Lord Infamous, in particular, were underground kings of the morbid, double-time sing-rap that Bone was taking worldwide. Skinny Pimp made their feelings clear on this song, spitting, "So fuck you Bone / Bitin' our fuckin' style / You hoes gon' get kidnapped / You bitches lay it down."

After "Lay It Down" hit the streets on Koopsta Knicca's solo mixtape Da Devil's Playground in late 1994, Bone was in Memphis for a concert. Journalist Sacha Jenkins was with the group at their hotel before the show, on assignment for VIBE, when they were informed about Skinny Pimp's diss, and presumably the kidnapping threat. "We stole your whole career? And ya'll let it ride for six months?" said a pissed-off Wish Bone. "We ain't never been to this state! And I know they can't come to East 99 talking' no shit like that." That night, an unknown crew of local rappers attempted to bumrush the stage and take over Bone's show, but security shut it down. Their relationship with the locals didn't improve when Layzie Bone called Memphis a "bunk-ass town" in Jenkins's VIBE article that was published in early 1995.

The Mystic Styles cut "Live By Yo Rep" brought the beef to another level, and soon other local Memphis rappers and even national figures like Twista and Do Or Die would be taking aim at Bone Thugs. But it's worth noting that it was the lesser-known mixtape cut "Lay It Down" that sparked the battle that would span several years.

Project: DJ Paul & Juicy J Vol. 3 Spring Mix

Year: 1995

In early 1995, Three 6 Mafia was set to finally make an impact on the national scene thanks to Mystic Stylez, their first album distributed by regional powerhouse Select-O-Hits. But before the album's release, Paul and Juicy teamed up for the third and final installment in their "Notorious Killamix" series called Vol. 3: Spring Mix. It's a shame that the tape's standout song "Playa Hataz" didn't end up making the cut on Mystic Stylez, because it remains a great distillation of the group's dissonant, menacing aesthetic. The track samples fluttering flutes from Grover Washington Jr.'s "Masterpiece" and the sad, off-key saxophones from DJ Zirk's oft-sampled "2 Thick." And as usual, Lord Infamous is ten conceptual steps ahead of the other rappers on the song (Gangsta Boo, Juicy and Paul), considering sick thoughts like "Why come I must torture and paralyze victims before I'm truly satisfied?" while everyone else just talks about shooting haters.

Project: Three 6 Mafia Mystic Stylez

Despite becoming local stars on the verge of national attention, the Triple Six crew had never had a song played on the radio in early 1995, probably on account of their pseudo-Satanic stance and generally aggressive content. But with their big album Mystic Stylez on the way, Paul and Juicy seemed determined to craft a song that would be safe enough for radio without sacrificing their integrity. The result was "Da Summa," a smooth song that sampled Rick James's "Hollywood" and saw the crew waxing nostalgic on the safe topic of summertime in M-Town. Even Lord Infamous managed to go an entire verse without murdering someone (although he does mention carrying "my automatic gat in case I have to dig a plot of dirt." Close enough, Scarecrow.) Local stations K97 and MAGIC 101 took notice, giving the hometown heroes some long-overdue spins.

Project: Three 6 Mafia Mystic Styles

Year: 1995

Throwing a jab at Bone Thugs on Koopsta Knicca's underground album had gotten Triple Six mentioned in the February 1995 issue of VIBE, which was a big deal for a crew who had never released a nationally distributed album. Imagine what could happen if they really went after Bone for biting their style? The Prophet Posse had become local stars by beefing with DJ Squeeky a few years earlier, and now it seemed that they were becoming nationally known by trying to fry a bigger fish. The beef created a narrative for the Triple Six—underground heroes ripped off by crossover sellouts—that in some ways has defined their career.

In early 1995 Three 6 was finishing up their first nationally-distributed studio album Mystic Stylez, thanks to a new Select-O-Hits distribution deal for Prophet Entertainment. With the stage set, they assembled the key players—Lord Infamous, Skinny Pimp, Juicy J, Gangsta Boo, and DJ Paul—to create a song for the album that would really pull the rug out from under BTNH.

They opened "Live By Yo Rep (B.O.N.E. Dis)" with the voice of female reporter, on assignment from "Bone Magazine," posing a question to Triple Six: "What would you do if someone tried to duplicate your ideas?" The crew then spent five full minutes detailing the various ways that they would torture and kill the Bone Thugs, including:

-Cut them with razor blades

-Impale them with a red-hot pitchfork

-Send their bodyparts to their mothers

-Slowly pull off their skin

-Give them autopsies

-Pour hot grease on them

-Pour hot acid on them

And that's just Lord Infamous's verse. The song's over-the-top nature made people pay attention, and Select-O-Hits distributed a new EP called Live By Yo Rep in late 1995 to capitalize on the buzz. Ironically, Lil Fly's verse was removed from the later version of the song after leaving the group and releasing his own diss song, "Triple Bitch Mafia."

Project: Three 6 Mafia Mystic Stylez

Year: 1995

While most of Paul and Infamous's early material veered towards spooky horrorcore and goofy teenage sex fantasies, there was another strain of hip-hop that was starting to take hold in Memphis in the early ’90s. Pretty Tony's 1990 local classic "Get Buck" started the trend of capturing rowdy group shouting in songs, like a gangsta version of step team chanting set to music. And then in 1994, Eightball & MJG's club hit "Lay It Down" turned the aesthetic into a regional curiosity. Paul and Juicy fleshed out the chanting trend on "Tear Da Club Up," a song that became Triple Six's first real hit across the South, popping up on Billboard's Hot Rap Singles chart in 1996.

In many ways, "Tear Da Club Up" was a precursor to the crunk movement of the early 2000s, and was the beginning of Three 6's movement away from horrorcore towards more aggressive club music, an evolution that would almost completely change their sound by the late ’90s. But there was still something decidedly creepy about the song, thanks to the juxtoposition of the angelic "Young & The Restless" theme song with a menacing, off-key synth line.

"Tear Da Club Up" would become the biggest hit on Mystic Stylez, pushing the album to #59 on the R&B chart and piquing the interest of major labels. In fact, the lead single from Three 6 Mafia's 1997 major label debut Chapter 2: World Domination, was "Tear Da Club Up ’97," a cleaner, bigger remake of the song that replaced "Young & The Restless" with the dramatic theme from the ’70s action drama "S.W.A.T.." The new version hit number 70 on the R&B singles chart and got the group some spins outside of the South, but there's something about the original that has allowed it to really stand the test of time.

Project: Kingpin Skinny Pimp King of The Playaz Ball
Year: 1996

The highly-influential "Lookin' 4 Da Chewin'" was an early underground hit for Skinny Pimp back in 1993, when he was making mixtapes with DJ Paul and Juicy's rival, DJ Squeeky. "Da Chewin'" was a slang term for fellatio, and the phrase stuck. Paul, then in high school, was clearly a fan, featuring the original on his early mixtapes alongside hits by Dr. Dre and Al Kapone. So after Skinny had a falling out with Squeeky and defected to the budding Triple Six posse, it was only right that Paul remix the beat for Skinny's solo debut King of the Playaz Ball.

Predictably, Paul lifted the melody from John Carpenter's brilliant Halloween theme, but the sample gives the new version a menace that the goofy original never had. Skinny Pimp's performance is a perfect example of what made him a local star, raising eyebrows with quotables like, "Say ahhh—not the thermometer, bitch it's the nine inches!" (a line that would be prominently featured on Three 6's 2000 track "Azz N Tittiez.")

Project: Kingpin Skinny Pimp King Of Da Playaz Ball
Year: 1996

With Prophet Entertainment starting to really take off, Skinny Pimp was poised to be label's first big solo star. His 1996 solo debut King of Da Playaz Ball was announced by "One Life 2 Live," a smoothed-out single designed for radio play. To take things to the next level, Prophet's first-ever music video was filmed, showing Skinny Pimp in prison wrestling with his demons and debating whether or not to sell his soul to the devil, played by DJ Paul. The song never really made waves outside of Memphis, but it gives a rare early glimpse at Paul and Juicy in action (along with Crunchy Black's serious dancing skills). Skinny left the label shortly after his debut dropped, claiming that Paul and Juicy had tricked him into signing away the rights to his album for $10,000.

Project: Gangsta Blac Can It Be?

Year: 1996

After Skinny Pimp, longtime crew member Gangsta Blac became one of the first solo artists to release a studio album under Prophet's distribution deal with Select-O-Hits. Can It Be? remains one of the strongest releases in the crew's history, showcasing proper studio remakes of lo-fi mixtape favorites alongside new joints. The album didn't make much of an impact outside of M-Town, but it's filled with gems like "Life's A Bitch," which got some extra attention thanks to it's appearance on the Priority Records-distributed compilation Young Southern Playaz Vol. 1. The song is actually a bit of an aesthetic outlier in the Triple Six catalog, showcasing a soulful boom-bap sound that feels closer to 2Pac than DJ Paul. But it's a welcome departure, laying the perfect foundation for Gangsta Blac's existential examination of what it all means.

Project: Gangsta Blac Can It Be?

Year: 1996

Snorting sound-effects and a mind-blowing Art of Noise sample usher in this five minute love letter to cocaine and South Memphis (both of which were known locally as "Funkytown"). References to recreational cocaine use were nothing new for Triple Six, including an underground favorite named "Powder" that's been remade several times. But the crew was getting real money off of music by ’96, and their drug habits were similarly extravagant. "A lot of what messed Three 6 Mafia over was the drugs and drug addiction," Project Pat said in a recent interview with Complex. "A lot of them was on drugs badly. And we all did them, but some maintained and some didn’t." This song was likely recorded during sessions for the crew's second album Chapter 1: The End, but it ended up being released as a bonus track on Gangsta Blac's debut, serving as a warning shot for the new Three 6 project. This song is especially ironic given the fact that they would soon be dissing former crew members for using drugs.

Project: Three 6 Mafia Chapter 1: The End

Year: 1996

In 1995, after the release of Mystic Stylez, Lil Fly became the first of many original Prophet Posse members to leave the crew. Triple Six claimed he was booted because he was addicted to cocaine, while Fly claimed DJ Paul had stolen his money. Whatever really happened, Lil Fly quickly reemerged under the grown-up name Playa Fly, releasing a popular diss song called "Triple Bitch Mafia." Three 6 responded with "Gotcha Shakin'" which begins with Paul talking directly to Fly: "You fuckin' punk—I'm fittin'a take your fuckin' beat and go nationwide with it, bitch. Don't never bite the motherfuckin' dick that feeds you." Indeed, "Gotcha Shakin'" uses a tightened-up version of Playa Fly's beat, and it appeared on the group's second proper album Chapter 1: The End, which is rumored to have sold over 100,000 copies across the U.S. It's worth listening to the song through to the end, where everyone in the crew shouts insults at Fly for a full two minutes, including Gangsta Boo exclaiming "I heard you had AIDS, you weak motherfucker!"

Project: Three 6 Mafia Chapter 1: The End,  Three 6 Mafia Chapter 2: World Domination

Year: 1996

After getting a taste of radio play by sampling Rick James on the Mystic Stylez single "Da Summa," DJ Paul decided to revisit the R&B sample formula for a single from Three 6's follow-up album, Chapter 1: The End. He lifted Lisa Fischer's Grammy-winning #1 R&B hit "How Can I Ease The Pain," a heart-wrenching quiet storm classic from 1991. The ironic result, "Late Nite Tip," was far from sentimental, essentially a booty call disguised as a love song. The highlight has to be DJ Paul and Gangsta Boo's battle-of-sexes argument: "I need a Coach bag / I can't be even doin' it / I need my hair done / Me too, I ain't got nothin' to do with it." While it was first released as a single from Chapter 1, "Late Nite Tip" was later repackaged as a single from Three 6's major label debut Chapter 2: World Domination, complete with a jiggy video that got spins on BET and helped the song make a minor impact on the R&B chart.

Project: Three 6 Mafia Chapter 2: World Domination
Year: 1997

Longtime fans of the Triple Six often cite their major label debut Chapter 2: World Domination as the moment when the crew started moving away from their earlier horrorcore sound towards proto-crunk club music and generic Southern rap tropes. And while it's true that Three 6's next two crew albums were completely dominated by rowdy chant choruses and ultra-clean production, Chapter 2 still has a handful of dark joints that sound like fully-realized versions of the spooky mixtape sketches that made them famous.

"Anyone Out There," in particular, is an artistic zenith for Lord Infamous, who had become a master of gothic storytelling, like a hip-hop version of Edgar Allen Poe. The song samples the appropriately creepy score from the 1993 killer dog flick Man's Best Friend, and Infamous crafts a tale that would make a great horror movie climax. Speaking in the first-person, the Scarecrow is sitting inside an insane asylum after murdering his entire family. He develops a plan to break out with a little help from the janitor, but…no spoilers. Listen for yourself to hear how the story ends.

Project: The Kaze Kamakazie Timez Up

Year: 1998

In the early ’90s mixtape days, The Kaze was a group (then called Killa Klan Kaze) consisting of MC Mack, Scanman, and K-Rock, three North Memphis associates of Juicy and Project Pat. They appeared on Da End in ’96 and World Domination in ’97, after which K-Rock left the group. The crew shortened their name and added Project Pat, newly home from prison, to the lineup, releasing an album called Kamakazie Timez Up ‎on Prophet in 1998. "Pure Anna" was a remake of a mixtape collaboration that MC Mack did with Lil Corb and Owtlaw Tha Masque Mane back in 1994, but it's Pat who steals the show on the new version. Newly released from a multi-year prison bid, Pat detailed his struggles with adjustment to life on the outside: "It seems like I might not even make it out here on these bricks / Might have to murder a chick, might have to kill a bitch / Maybe they gon' lock me up for dope ass lyrics that I spit / Like they did my nigga C-Bo, stressing gangsta shit." Luckily Pat stayed out of prison long enough to see Sony release his solo debut Ghetty Green the next year.

Project: Indo G Angel Dust

Year: 1998

Before linking up with Hypnotize Minds, Memphis rapper Indo G made waves around the South when he released an album on Miami's Effect Records (a subsidiary of Luke Records) with his partner Lil' Blunt, led by the 1994 single "Blame It On The Funk." Given that Indo already had a national track record, it's perhaps not surprising that he got fast-tracked as the first solo artist to release an album under Hypnotize's new deal with Reativity.

Angel Dust, released in 1998, is considered one of the weakest releases in the Hypnotize discography, but it's interesting to hear Paul and Juicy attempting to experiment with new sounds, from the rock joint "My Niggas Crazy" to the Spanish guitar-tinged "Cleopatra." The album's first single "Remember Me Ballin'" was a decidedly smoothed-out affair, featuring a loop from of Curtis Mayfield's "Give Me Your Love" and a barrage of 2Pac-esque platitudes on morality. Gangsta Boo is really the star here, spitting a standout verse ("I'm young in age, old in the head, trick I been everywhere/Takin' flights to NY lookin' for somethin' to wear") and looking the best she ever looked in the song's Brooklyn-based video. Sadly, no one remembers Indo ballin'.

Project: Gangsta Boo Enquiring Minds

Year: 1998

Released a month after Indo G's Angel Dust, Gangsta Boo's debut album Enquiring Minds was expected to be a massive commercial hit for the Hypnotize camp. Going platinum was a big deal in the late ’90s, and all the elements were there to duplicate the success of female rappers like Foxy Brown and Lil Kim: sex appeal, real rhyme skills, and a big-name co-sign. And going platinum was especially a big deal for the Three 6, since their boasts were getting bigger and they had only gone gold.

Gangsta Boo's lead single "Where Dem Dollas At?" was hands-down the most radio-friendly song released by Hypnotize up until this point, aided by the smoothed-out beat, which was in fact a complete jack of Memphis rapper Tela's "Sho Nuff." While largely overlooked today, "Sho Nuff" was actually the most successful song ever by a Tennessee rapper, reaching number 58 on the Hot 100 pop chart and number 32 on the R&B chart. Paul and Juicy tightened up the arrangement and added on one of their signature chant hooks that was tailor-made for the strip club. Paul even came very close to signing in his verse. In the video, Boo balled out in NYC while hanging out with Chrystale Wilson, the actress who played stripper Ronnie in Ice Cube's hit movie Players Club a few months prior.

"Where Dem Dollas At?" did become Hypnotize's biggest hit yet, but not as big as they had hoped. It reached number 49 on the R&B singles chart, but failed to crack the ellusive pop charts. And more importantly, the album did not go platinum (or even gold). But if there was a certification for spins in the strip club, "Where Dem Dollas At?" probably would have gone diamond.

Project: Tear Da Club Up Thugz CrazyNDaLazDayz

Year: 1999

While often accused of lifting other artists' beats, DJ Paul and Juicy had rarely worked with outside producers, or even outside rappers. But in 1999, Paul and Juicy went all in with Mannie Fresh and the Cash Money crew, who were riding high off the success of Juvenile's 400 Degreez and B.G.'s Chopper City in the Ghetto. Mannie worked on "Ballers," the lead single from Project Pat's Sony debut Ghetty Green, as well as "Hypnotize Cash Money," the lead single by Tear Da Club Up Thugz, a paired-down Three 6 spinoff consisting of Paul, Juicy, and Lord Infamous. It's likely that Paul and Juicy admired Cash Money's ability to cross over to the pop charts without watering down their sound, a feat Three 6 had failed to achieve thus far. "Hypnotize Cash Money" was a minor R&B hit, but the Tear Da Club Up Thugz album CrazyNDaLazDayz gave Hypnotize Mindz its biggest Billboard success yet, charting at number 18 (number 4 on the R&B chart) and garnering the title "Hot Shot Debut" in February 1999.

Project: Three 6 Mafia When the Smoke Clears: Sixty 6, Sixty 1
Year: 2000

Getting rowdier on the Tear Da Club Up Thugz side project had paid off, and Three Six continued their evolution towards more aggressive chanting on When the Smoke Clears: Sixty 6, Sixty 1, their first album of the new millennium. The lead single "Who Run It," released in January 2000, was a high energy club anthem that featured all six group members getting buck over the same Delfonics horn sample that Missy Elliott used on "Sock It 2 Me." But it's DJ Paul's creative drum pattern that really sets it apart from the endless list of crunk shout-a-longs Three 6 churned out, making incredibly spare use of the snare, keeping the listener on edge with unexpected bursts. When the Smoke Clears: Sixty 6, Sixty 1 became Three 6's first platinum album, debuting at number 6 on Billboard.

Project: Three 6 Mafia When the Smoke Clears: Sixty 6, Sixty 1

Year: 2000

It's hard to say whether DJ Screw influenced Triple Six, or Triple Six influenced DJ Screw, since they were both making surreal, slowed-down gangsta music in the early ’90s. But there's no doubt that there was a shared respect between Texas and Tennessee hip-hop, two long-incubating local scenes that drew on similar influences and experiences. So it's kind of shocking that Paul and Juicy had never collaborated with any of their Texas peers until they connected with Port Arthur icons UGK on Three 6 Mafia's long-awaited second national album When The Smoke Clears.

While recreational cough syrup use had been an underground phenomenon for many years, "Sippin' On Da Syrup" introduced the world to the bizarre trend. The choppy hook was sampled from Project Pat's "Ballers," and the plucking synths from Marvin Gaye's "Is That Enough" were laid over some mid-tempo 808s. The result was a welcome break from the manic energy of their recent singles, harking back to the surreal sound of Three 6's early material. But it's UGK's Pimp C who really shined, dropping what might be his greatest verse ever, filled with endless LOL quotables like "We eat so many shrimp, I got iodine poisoning."

"Sippin' On Da Syrup" was a commercial breakthrough for Three 6 Mafia. 1997's Chapter 2: World Domination had gone gold, but the album's two singles both stalled out in the 70s on Billboard's R&B Songs chart. It's hard to fathom now, but it was nearly impossible for a hardcore Southern rap artist to get heavy nationwide airplay—even on "urban" radio—throughout the ’90s. "Sippin' On Da Syrup" signaled the changing tides, rising to number 30 on the R&B chart.

Project: Project Pat Mista Don't Play: Everythang's Workin'

Year: 2000

Project Pat's debut had been a marginal success, charting at number 52 on Billboard, but failing to go gold. His star continued to rise after appearing on the hook for Three 6's "Sippin' On Da Syrup," and then Pat returned with a new album, Mista Don't Play: Everythang's Workin', in 2001. The single "Chickenhead" was a game of dozens over a bounce beat, with Pat squaring off against Hypnotize Minds's new female rapper La Chat in a friendly battle-of-the-sexes. "You riding clean but ya gas is on E / Be steppin' out ain't no decent shoes on ya feet," says Chat, to which Pat responds, "That's just the meter broke youn't know'cha talkin' bout / Anyway, them new Jordans finna come out." The music video really sold the song, with Pat and Chat (a woman nearly as imposing as Pat, who was also known for rocking gold teeth) going toe-to-toe (and insulting each others' breath) at the drive-in.

"Chickenhead" proved that Pat was one of the great characters in rap, as funny and creative as E-40 or Cam'Ron. With its irresistible "Bawk! Bawk!" hook, the song was just silly enough to really take off in the summer of 2001, becoming the first Hypnotize Minds song to ever appear on the Hot 100 pop chart. Mista Don't Play hit number four on Billboard, eventually going platinum, making it the highest-selling solo album on Hypnotize to date.

Project: La Chat Murder She Spoke
Year: 2001

In the wake of "Chickenhead" mania, Hypnotize Minds landed a solo deal for Project Pat's rhyme counterpart La Chat on Koch Records. After trying to follow Foxy Brown and Lil' Kim's sexpot playbook on Gangsta Boo's debut, Paul and Juicy took the opposite route with Murder She Spoke, La Chat's unapologetically rugged debut that hit number three on Billboard's Independent Albums chart. The lead single "You Ain't Mad Iz Ya?" aimed to recapture the he-said-she-said magic of "Chickenhead" with lines like, "Shit a bitch that want yo pockets, I'm checkin' wallets / ATM, yo check book, whatever you call it." The song failed to chart, but Chat established herself as one of the most entertaining and lyrical ladies in the South.

Project: Da Headbussaz Dat's How It Happen To'M

Riding high on a platinum album and a platinum solo artist, Paul and Juicy teamed up with former No Limit rapper/producer Fiend to form an indulgent side-project called Da Headbussaz in the early 2000s. They went back to the basics and released an independent album, Dat's How It Happen To'M, through Select-O-Hits. The brute-force single "Get The Fuck Out My Face" flipped the beat from Moby's "Flower" into a stadium-sized crunk anthem. It's rivaled only by Ludacris's "Move Bitch" (also made in collaboration with a New Orleans native, KLC) for the title of most disrespectful hook of 2002.

Project: Frayser Boy Gone On That Bay
Year: 2003

With the bottom falling out of the record industry, it was getting harder to convince major labels to take chances on new rough-around-the-edges Memphis rappers. Gangsta Boo and Koopsta Knicca left the Hypnotize Camp in the early 2000s, leaving a creative and financial vacuum that Paul and Juicy filled by signing a new crop of rappers and going independent with distribution by Memphis institution Select-O-Hits. Koopsta Knicca's protege Frayser Boy had landed guest spot on La Chat's 2001 debut, and Paul and Juicy decided to release his solo debut Gone On That Bay (a reference to the Frayser Bay area where he was raised) a year later. It's filled with bleak gangsta rap like "I Had To Get'M," a great introduction to Frayser's no-nonsense style.

Project: Three 6 Mafia Da Unbreakables
Year: 2003

DJ Paul and Juicy kind of blew their "Sippin' On Da Syrup" cache by releasing Choices: The Album, a cobbled-together soundtrack for their straight-to-video movie that featured too many rowdy club joints and "Chickenhead" rip-offs. The next proper Three 6 Mafia album, Da Unbreakables was the first without Gangsta Boo and Koopsta Knicca, and the new four-man lineup began to experiment more with the sound of the burgeoning Houston scene, collaborating with a then-incarcerated Pimp C and Lil' Flip on three songs. For the most part, the rest of the album was filled with rowdy crunk threats, except for "Bin Laden," which sticks out as the song that most closely resembles the old Triple Six. With a menacing, minor beat, a morally-confusing reference, and a lot of weed, it sounds like a beefed-up version of more than a few mixtape classics.

Project: Lil Wyte Phinally Phamous

Year: 2004

Another post-2000 addition to the Hypnotize roster was a white rapper from Memphis named Lil' Wyte, whose demo tapes with the group Shelby Forest Click convinced Paul and Juicy to sign him as a solo artist. Wyte's independent Hypnotize debut Doubt Me Now stayed true to Paul and Juicy's sound and sold over 100,000 copies. His follow-up, Phinally Famous, hit number six on the R&B chart and sold double his debut thanks to songs like the standout DJ Paul collaboration "By 2 Da Bad Guy," a reference to Scarface and an old track from one of Paul's mixtapes. Wyte's gangsta white trash image has been a hard sell to the broader hip-hop audience, but he's developed a loyal following thanks to his sharp, enthusiastic delivery, scrappy aesthetic, and consistent quality.

Project: Three 6 Mafia - Most Known Unknown

It was a sad day for longtime Hypnotize Minds fans when it was announced that Three 6 Mafia's 2005 album would only include three group members: DJ Paul, Juicy J, and Crunchy Black. Rappers had come and gone from the crew over the years, but the prospect of a Three 6 Mafia without Lord Infamous— one of three founding members, the inventor of the group's name and style, and the best rapper in Hypnotize history—just didn't make sense. Imagine Public Enemy trying to make an album without Chuck D. Yeah, it was kinda like that.

But against all odds, Most Known Unknown was a truly excellent album. Paul and Juicy's production took center stage, and they seemed intent on moving beyond the increasingly generic crunk club anthems that had dominated their albums since the late ’90s. And while they had been sampling ’70s R&B records since the beginning, Paul and Juicy seemed to be newly inspired by the popularity of Kanye West's chipmunk soul beats. For the album's first single, "Stay High," they sampled Willie Hutch's 1973 song "Tell Me Why Our Love Has Turned Cold" to create a new kind of party anthem that finally broke from the "Tear Da Club Up" formula. The absence of Lord Infamous was a lot less noticable after they invited fellow Memphis pioneers Eightball & MJG, and G-Unit's Nashville rapper Young Buck, to fill the void.

The new sound was a hit with mainstream audiences, and the song—which was retitled "Stay Fly" for the radio—became the first song by Three 6 Mafia to ever chart on Billboard's Hot 100 pop chart, eventually peaking at number 13. The crossover success of "Stay High" signaled the end of Triple Six Mafia's long career as underground heroes, and paved the way for the next phase of their career that would include an MTV reality show and an Academy Award. Yeeeeeeeeah!