DJ Paul Reflects On Lord Infamous' Career & Founding Three 6 Mafia
DJ Paul said that Lord Infamous was pleased with the direction his life was taking. “He was happy about this new album, the new project, the new mixtape he was happy about that and how everything was going and we finally shot the 'Where's The Bud' video, and he was happy about all that and was in the process of getting his life together,” DJ Paul says during an exclusive interview with HipHopDX. "He was going [December 21] to get his new place, his new crib. He was going to get that [yesterday], and he was just happy about getting his life together. He told his mom and his girl last week he wanted to clear anything with anybody he made mad in his life and stuff like that, so I was kind of prepared for something like this, but when you get to talking about things like this you can talk things into existence. Tupac always rapped about death around the corner. You can talk things into existence, that why he started to talk about this and I was like, 'I don't want to hear this.' But the reason why he was talking like that was because he was saying that the doctor was telling him he probably had some more kidney problems that were coming back up from that last stroke, so he thought he was going to have kidney problems. I don't know if the doctors told him that or not, but that was what he was telling me. He was kind of looking forward to it, but he was kind of preparing for it just by the way he was talking about different stuff."
DJ Paul Talks About Lord Infamous' Part In Da Mafia Six's 6ix Commandments
DJ Paul said that Lord Infamous was instrumental in assembling Da Mafia 6ix and its new 6ix Commandments project.
"He had a major, major part in the album because once the group fell apart and everybody wasn't talking to each other, Lord was always the neutral person he always [was],” DJ Paul says. "Everyone always liked Lord. You've got some people that don't like me or don't like Juicy or don't like Koop or Boo or whatever, but people always liked Lord, so he was always neutral. So, of course he was my brother, so I've been doing stuff with him here and anyway. We did the Skeleton album together and so me and him had been talking and we were planning on bringing back a project, me and him, the Come With Me To Hell album. We was going to redo it though and I had said I was thinking about putting the group back together and he was like, 'Yeah we should do that.' I think I had talked to all of them and they, I don't know where their heads is at, but me and you, we're ready to roll, and he fought for me to bring out Da Mafia 6ix project first. He said, 'Of course I want to do the album with me and you and make more money but I want to do the group album real bad.' And like I said, he fought for everybody in the group. Everybody was like, 'Should this person be in here? Should this person be in here? Who should be involved in this?' And he was like, ‘Everybody.' He wanted everybody to be in the group and he looked out for everyone more than he did himself because he was like, 'I'm going to make less money, but I want to do it with the whole group.' So I was like, ‘Alright.' So we got everybody on the phone, him and Koop was still friends and then Crunchy got Boo on the phone and we started on the project."
DJ Paul Describes Lord Infamous' Role In Three 6 Mafia's Creation
DJ Paul and Lord Infamous began recording several years before they formed what would becomeThree 6 Mafia. “By the end of the ninth grade came we was bringing out an EP, Serious Killaz, in like 1990 or whatever,” DJ Paul says. “We brought that out and me and Lord Infamous were doing our thing and then we met Juicy met and we created a group, the Backyard Posse and it eventually became the Triple 6 Mafia. But how it became Triple 6 Mafia was because Lord Infamous had said that in a rap, and he said the Triple 6 Mafia, calling our crew a Triple 6 Mafia, but that wasn't out name. He was just calling us that, and then I liked it and then I started sampling it, 'Triple 6 Mafia, Mafia' and then we just started calling ourselves Triple 6 Mafia, so Lord kind of made up the name of the group. He kind of made up that name and that became the name of the group.
"It started off as me, Juicy and Lord was the creators of the whole thing,” DJ Paul continues. "Me and Juicy was making the beats and writing songs and Lord was making songs, and writing songs and, he didn't really make beats, but he knew how to play the guitar and he knew how to play baselines and so Lord Infamous came up with the baselines on 'Where's The Bud' and then I made the music around it–the piano, the drums and all that, so he was a big part of the group and that's what made us the Tear The Club Up Thugz side project, 'cause it was mostly us three that was creating and putting stuff together."
DJ Paul Remembers Lord Infamous' Tongue-Twisting Style And Early Influence In Memphis
Beyond the music, DJ Paul says that Lord Infamous brought a distinctive rap style to the Memphis group.
"He meant a lot because he was doing that tongue-twisting flow that started the whole beef, the stupid beef with us and Bone” thugs-n-harmony, DJ Paul says. "We thought they stole our sound because they tongue-twist over slow beats and talking about 6-6-6 like we did, which all of us were just young but Lord Infamous was the one. Me and Juicy wasn't tongue-twisting. We was doing a flow here, flow there, but Lord Infamous was the one doing the tongue-twisting and then later on, once I brought in Koop, Koop was doing the tongue-twisting as well, but Lord Infamous was the father of that tongue-twisting. I give Lord Infamous kind of the creator of that slow tongue-twisting because it's a different little style and a flow. So a lot of people in the rap game looked up to him. A lot of people were rapping like him and saw him as a legend, like a Bun B or something in the game.”
DJ Paul Says His Half-Brother’s Death Hasn’t Hit Him Yet
DJ Paul says that the death of Lord Infamous made yesterday is the saddest day of his life.
"Honestly, Lord's passing is super, super sad to me,” DJ Paul says. "It hasn't hit me yet. It's real sad. But I'm happy that he went peacefully because he was asleep and he wasn't hurt, because anyone who knew him, anyone who grew up with him know he escaped death a gazillion times. He's had situations where guys tried to harm him, but Lord was such a loved person. Even the couple of times he came in confrontation with death, he couldn't get they selves to hurt him. There were times when people would try to come up on him and take stuff from him or whatever in the hood, 'cause Lord Infamous still hung in the hood and then when he had money, Lord Infamous would be in the hood with $20,000 or $30,000 with him and anytime someone would try to harm him, he would always escape death. He never got hurt. Everybody had so much love for him, so I'm happy, not happy that he passed away because it's my saddest day ever, but I'm happy he passed away peacefully and not he was killed or died in a car crash or something 'cause everyone knows Lord Infamous wrecked every single car he had (laughs). He wrecked Mercedes, Porsches, all kinds of shit. Every car he ever had. He hit poles. Got out. Fought with the police. Went to jail. Came right back out and was like, ‘Fuck that shit.' Get a new car and do the same thing over again.
"I'm just happy he passed away peacefully,” DJ Paul continues. "He got a chance to see his fortieth birthday, got a chance to see the group back together and everything and he was just real happy. He was real happy when he passed away and that's the best thing in the world. It couldn't have came at a better time. I'm glad it came before all the crew came back together. It happened at the right time. He got a chance to see all of his dreams come true. Me and him and Boo and everybody back in the studio and he always wanted to see that 'cause all of us grew up together 'cause we was all like 14, 15 and he was happy to see that."