“Out of that 8Ball and MJG was born, Three 6 Mafia was born. “The Civil Rights Movement and the racism and the blues and soul music … all of that shaped what Memphis hip-hop is,” explained 8Ball. The album, which was written and produced by Ball and G, served as both an ode to their hometown and a continuation of the city’s musical and historical legacy. It also marked the biggest break a Memphis hip-hop act had ever had up to that point, kicking the door open for fellow Bluff City rappers to make their own move for national acclaim. In 1993, the duo released their seminal debut album Comin’ Out Hard on Houston-based Suave House Records, an album that is now viewed as a landmark work in the history of Southern rap. “We hung out there so much, when they’d walk away, they’d let us get on the mic and start beat-boxing, rapping and stuff… so that’s how we started doing talent shows.”īy the early ‘90s, the duo began to be featured on mixtapes from Memphis rap veteran DJ Squeeky, making them an early and important presence in the burgeoning Memphis scene. “We started hanging out at this little spot shooting pool, at this hole-in-the-wall club near MJG’s house that did blues, like live blues shows and made blues records,” said 8Ball. Like many artists before them, 8Ball and MJG began their careers in the small clubs and talent shows around Memphis, taking gigs wherever they could find them. It’s the unalikeness that makes us so alike.”
“It’s the Studney of it that makes it special. “Like we say all the time, we like the Studney Twins,” MJG once said, referencing the starkly different “twins” from a famous Godfathers Pizza ad. While the heavier 8Ball specialized in a smooth and laid-back style of rapping, his lanky counterpart perfected a much more aggressive, staccato flow. Every high school has cliques, and we ran with the weed-smoking, class-cutting damn near misfits.” Despite their instantaneous bond, the duo was (and remains) a study in contrasts. “We took classes together, and we were two of the same.
“It was seventh grade at Ridgeway High,” MJG recalled in 2010. Hailing from the historical Orange Mound neighborhood of Memphis, 8Ball and MJG first joined forces as young teens in the 1980s.
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