Boss on Deck

The Devil Made Me Do It

Posted 03/22/2007 at 11:54 PM  |  2 comment/s

Three Six Mafia made their MTV debut last night with Three Six Mafia’s Adventures in Spring Break, a prelude/teaser to their upcoming reality series, Three Six Mafia’s Adventures in Hollyhood, which makes it’s debut in two weeks. For the Spring Break episode, they grabbed a few white cheerleaders from USC and headed down to somewhere in Mexico (I was only half paying attention, it’s been a long coupla weeks) to basically get drunk, try to get the chicks to take their clothes off, and act a damn fool – basically get their Memphis Walk on. Now here’s the thing, I love Three Six Mafia. As a Memphis dude, I’m pretty much down to support most anything coming outta the M that gives us shine. Hustle & Flow (MTV Films)? I supported it – even though plenty of Memphis folks I know, particularly rappers and other music industry types, thought the film made the town look real ass-backwoods. Three Six’s Oscar win? I supported it (seriously, in that category – Best Original Music From a Motion Picture – no other track played as significant a role in shaping the story of a movie as “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” so I thought it was no contest from jump), even though tons of folks, including Denzel Washington, thought the whole ordeal was degrading, both to women and the black community in general. And the Memphis Tigers? Well, they ain’t quite in the same category in terms of cultural shifts, but Texas A&M better get the F outta the way tonight (especially now that Wisconsin’s gone and busted my office bracket all to shit), and I’ll leave it at that. And Three Six getting a reality show on MTV? Well, hell yeah, I support that. I ain’t never had the apparent displeasure of making records with them (when an army of cats gets cut down to the two dudes who call themselves “Da Checkwriters,” it ain’t hard to guess what’s up on the frontlines), so I’ve got no reason to hate. Plus Juice and Paul (and even Pat) have always been cool to me – it’s Koopsta Knicca that I ain’t so high on – so I wanna see them win. But…

….The problem with watching Three Six do, well, just about anything, especially anything on television, is that it’s often hard to tell if they’re in on the joke. And the problem with that, either way it shakes down, is that you either get a corporate system that’s laughing at the black folks acting the fool, while egging them on to act even more the fool, or you get a group of black folks acting the fool because they think that’s what the system wants them to do – essentially playing into, and perpetuating, some sorta antiquated stereotype at both their own expense and at the expense of an entire demo (and if you wanna split the hairs of the demo even finer – it’s not just the black population that runs the risk of being damaged by the broadcasting of such imagery, it’s the hip hop, or even more to the point, southern hip hop that catches the bad one). But…

Here’s the thing: I thought the show was wild funny. On top of that, I’m looking forward to the upcoming series. Then again, as I like to say around the office, I do this. I mean, seriously. This is my job, but it’s also come to define my life. I’m a white dude from Memphis who’s spent damn near the last ten years working in, writing about, directing the conversation about and basically living with rap. I’m not just some record exec flying back to Connecticut on the weekends like, ‘Tell that black guy we’re not putting his album out until he poses with the gun. Alright, Jeeves, I’m off to see Muffy…’ I’m not friends with the artists I cover, but I do consider them peers. We’re all working to shape this culture – they make the music, I help make the magazines. And we’re all working to keep the culture alive and vibrant, both for all of you out there and for all of us, cause ultimately, we all love it and we all (you, me, Three Six) define ourselves by its very existence.

See, I’ve spent time around Three Six and while they might be hamming it up just a lil’ bit for the television crews, they’re legitimately funny guys who basically just like acting a fool because it’s funny and they don’t give a fuck. And just to tie it back to MTV, isn’t it the exact same thing that the Jackass and BAM crews are up to, and have been up to, for years? Technically, shouldn’t that simply be enough? Like Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O, DJ Paul and Juicy J simply like acting retarded. It’s not playing into some racist construct, it’s not detrimental to anyone but themselves, it just is. And that should be okay. But…

All the white kids, all the spring breakers, all the MTV viewers who don’t know shit about Three Six, who don’t know the history, who don’t know that they worked their asses off to get to a point where they could be lighthearted at every public appearance, basically everyone who’s about to get to know, or who’s just getting to know, Three Six off the Oscar and the new MTV show are just gonna think they’re a bunch of ignorant ass black folks. And they’re going to be laughing AT them, not with them. And it is/can be problematic. And that’s why Dave Chappelle quit.

Back 2 the Basics:
I went to California with my man, D. Scott, and stopped by Flight Club, my dude Damany’s great sneaker shop on Fairfax. Shouts to the team (below) for taking care of us. Look for the accompanying piece in our June issue. It’s ridiculous.

Rich Boy’s album has some shit on it. I love this record cause he raps like the mic just told him he’s not fresh.
"Hustla Ball Gangsta Mack":

Listen to the Boss Hogg Outlawz Serve & Collect and get familiar with Killa Kyleon. Some highlights.
Killa Kyleon, "Badge on my Neck":

Boss Hogg Outlawz, "Wood Wheel":

Boss Hogg Outlawz, "I'm Fresh":

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