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[narrator] By the late '90s,<
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the South was beginning to assert itself
as hip-hop's new power center.
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OutKast and the Dungeon Family
gave the region shape
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and brought it props,
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and No Limit and Ca$h Money
gave it bounce,
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and brought in dollars.
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Their success was obvious,
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and their impact immediate,
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but simultaneously,
just beneath the mainstream,
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maverick hip-hoppers across the South
were experimenting with new sounds
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that were so unique, it would take years
for their impact to be understood.
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This is their story.
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This is the Southern Lab.
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[police siren]
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[hip-hop beat playing]
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Ask any Houston hip-hop head
about their history,
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and they'll tell you that H-Town
was making hip-hop from the get-go.
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♪I'm up early 'cause my nigga
don't sell dope after night time ♪
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[narrator] At the time,
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Houston was known as the home
of hardcore and horrorcore hip-hop,
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popularized by the now infamous Geto Boys.
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There was a movement building
on the south side of town,
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a slowed-down sound
that took hip-hop records
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and dialed the speed way back.
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The locals called it
"chopped and screwed."
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♪Pimp C, bitch
Holla at yo' bitch ♪
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♪Now on my team ♪
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[Bun B] If you put out a rap record
in Houston after '95,
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nine times out of nine,
there's some kind of reference
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to the "slowed-down, screwed-up" sound.
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♪Slowed down screw tapes that knock ♪
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♪Blowin private stock ♪
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[David Banner] Because it was so slow,
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I didn't know what to think
when I first heard Screw.
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I was really high at the time,
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so, it was a little bit
more acceptable for me,
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because I was high as shit.
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♪Fifth wheel and grill
Candy Seville ♪
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♪My, my, pill, pill
Workin', workin', wheel, wheel ♪
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[Paul Wall] It's so hot down here, man.
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You can't move too fast, man.
You're gonna crash out, you know?
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You gotta move at a slow pace.
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The music go hand in hand with that.
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Also, Houston's real spread out.
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So, our culture is a car culture
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where you drive
from one place to the next.
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You've got to cruise slow
when you're riding them big Cadillacs.
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[interviewer] Is there something
about the city of Houston
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that made them embrace that sound?
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It was ours.
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The city was having its own rappers.
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It got its own style,
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and you can ride to it, man.
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So, it just took over, man.
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Everybody was on that.
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♪We ghetto, ghetto boys
That's why we act this way ♪
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♪Tryin' to see a million dollars
Hoppin' these niggas don't blast today ♪
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[narrator] Chopped and screwed's origins
were hidden right in its name.
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The "chopped" was a nod
to the records being cut up,
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but the 'screwed,'
that came from its pioneer,
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a soft-spoken turntable maestro
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who promoted the sound
through his mixtape empire: DJ Screw.
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♪Court is, court is civil ♪
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♪In the middle of reality ♪
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♪Unsolved mysteries riddle ♪
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♪Knockin' over fat cats ♪
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♪And gettin' my bits
My bits and kibbles ♪
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[narrator] Decades after Screw
made his first tape,
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there's still a shop in Houston
dedicated to this music,
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and its caretaker is this man:
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Screw's cousin, Big Bubb.
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[music slowing down]
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[Shad] How did Screw get started
developing the sound
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that he's known for today?
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[Big Bub] As far as I can remember,
Screw had always been a DJ.
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[rap beats playing]
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When we were young,
we used to make mixtapes
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and sell them at school for lunch money.
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And my sister had one of them
little record players,
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the little plastic kind
that you can adjust the speed to,
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and I think we had Mantronix,
"Fresh Is The Word."
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♪Mantronix is the crew that you must hear
But please don't get concerned ♪
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[Big Bubb] And that's the first time
that I, myself,
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experienced him actually
slowing something down.
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[speed of music oscillates]
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But Screw got to a point.
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He was like,
"I'm gonna make a whole tape slow."
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And I'm like, "A whole tape?
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Well, that's on you
if you wanna do it, then."
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["Fresh is the Word" playing slowly]
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♪Mantronix is the crew that you must hear
But please don't get concerned ♪
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[Big Budd] It was, like,
kind of overwhelming.
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And then, you know,
you gotta catch on to it and you're like,
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"Man, that's kind of nice."
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♪Fresh is the word
That's how I'm described ♪
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♪And so sweet is the rap
And what I prescribe ♪
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[Big Budd] And then, on top of that,
Screw started chopping.
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The chopping came from, like,
taking a handclap,
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scratching it with another track,
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and you get, like, the after effect.
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[mimicking rap beat]
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Like that.
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♪I got 25 lighters on my dresser,
Yessir ♪
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♪I gotsta get paid ♪
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[Big Budd] Some of the stuff that he did
on the mixes that he made,
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it'd just have us tripping now, you know?
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♪Twenty five lighters on my dresser,
dresser ♪
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♪I gots to get paid, paid ♪
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[Big Budd] For me it was more the mixing,
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and the blends
that he would put together, you know.
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Who would think
to put these two songs together
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in the way that he do.
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It would probably be a song
that you never heard before,
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and Screw would make it
your favorite song.
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The thoughts of what's in this man's head
while he doing this,
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it's, like, phenomenal, man.
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It can't be explained.
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[chopped and screwed music playing]
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[Bun B] The first Screw tapes,
before there was rapping, was just music.
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You would go to Screw's house,
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and, say, for 10 dollars
you could buy a tape.
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For 12 dollars,
he would shout you out on a tape,
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and I think for, like,
maybe 15 to 20 dollars
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you could actually get on the mic
and shout your hood out.
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And eventually, it turned
into some tapes being just all freestyle.
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♪I got 25 lighters for my 25 foes ♪
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♪Bout to break the mic
Then break 25 mo' ♪
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♪Bout to rip the track
Wit 'bout 25 flows ♪
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♪And I'm pimpim' like a mac
Wit' 'bout 25 hoes ♪
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[Walker] He had people freestyle
on the tapes.
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That gave them an opportunity to shine.
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That gave them an opportunity
to talk about who they were,
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where they were from,
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the streets that they drove down.
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All these different things came alive
on their tapes.
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Some of the first ones were Fat Pat,
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ESG,
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C-Note, Big Pokey.
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[Big Pokey] Before you know it,
we were kinda just that Screwed Up Click.
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We were just a bunch of cats
from the south side,
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and see, we'd just all be
at Screw's house.
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And we were in there
pretty much freestyling this stuff
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off the top of the head,
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but we were just talking about stuff
that we do on the regular, every day,
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and everybody in the city
could relate to it.
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♪'Bout 25 yellowbones home ♪
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♪Do 'em bad and make 'em
25 phone home ♪
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♪Call daddy ♪
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[Lil Keke] The whole screw culture
was based upon the life
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that we were looking at outside.
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The cars, the parks,
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the slab kings.
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[Michael Watts] A slab is a car
that you built from the ground up.
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You get a car,
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no motor, no nothing.
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You resurrect the car from the dead.
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♪Pop my trunk and yep yep yep ♪
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[E.S.G.] Different hoods rode
different colors.
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Botany Boys rode candy black.
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Yellowstone rode candy gold.
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My partners rode candy blue.
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♪I'm shootin' spiders off my rims ♪
'Cause I'm ridin' on fours ♪
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[Paul Wall] The rims, we call them
'swangas,'
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"pokas" or "fo-fos," "eighty-fos."
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Being hood, we don't say "fours,"
we say "fos."
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We don't ride on "swingers,"
we ride on "swangas."
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[C-Note] We were rapping about
having money, having those cars, you know.
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When the lean came,
we were rapping about drank.
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♪And niggas don't understand
That we be drinkin' the norm ♪
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[Matt Sonzala] Here in Houston,
they call it "lean," "drank," "sizzurp."
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It's basically a mixture
of codeine cough syrup with promethazine.
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It's a downer, it slows you down,
mellows you out.
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They mix it with sodas,
they mix it with candies
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to kind of get the flavor better,
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and it becomes almost, like,
the drink of choice.
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♪I'm throwed in the game
Southside playas, screwed up click mayne ♪
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[Paul Wall] The syrup and the music, man,
it's like when you eat a steak.
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The wine brings out the flavors
in the meat.
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It's kind of how the syrup do.
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The syrup brings out the flavors
in the screw music.
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And vice versa.
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The screw definitely brings out the flavor
of the drink.
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Then you get to enjoy both.
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When Houston came
with its signature sound,
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with the screwed up, slowed down,
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the lean kind of just fit right into it.
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You got to sip lean, smoke some weed
and listen to screw,
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and then you'll be like,
"Yeah, I get it now."
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♪Comin' down the boulevard
Can you see me ♪
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[Paul Wall] As people start to understand
the culture,
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the music clicked to them,
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and they're not just looking at it
like we're saying some country bullshit.
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We're actually talking about something
that has meaning.
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You know, we're real lyricists here.
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We just got a Southern accent,
you know what I'm saying?
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We're talking in a language
that a lot of people don't understand,
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but we're really saying some shit.
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♪Every day, all day with Poly and Silk ♪
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♪Pints of lean in two liters
With a fat ass grip ♪
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[interviewer] Very few people were really
there in the house making music.
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Could you describe for us
what that was like?
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It was like you were coming
into a fortress
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or some kind of compound
or something, you know.
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The whole front part
was surrounded with burglar bars.
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So, you couldn't just walk up
to the door and knock on the door.
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Once that gate opened then, you know,
you were allowed to walk in there
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and knock on the side door,
which was burglar-barred also.
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You'd get to the Screw house about 6 PM.
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Come through the burglar bar
on the side.
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You're going to see crates of records
everywhere on the floor.
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Bunch of big speakers everywhere.
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Now, the fun begins.
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♪H-town, H-town
Watch me go ahead, clown ♪
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♪Don't order their vocabulary
Or ledger write down ♪
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♪Pimp the man in a minute,
Writin' platinum shit ♪
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♪Witness this large conglomerate
Called the Screwed Up Click ♪
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You get your cups... boom, boom, boom.
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Now, the talking, after all these cups,
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the talking is a little more slurred
by now.
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♪You feelin' me, the intensity
on this M-I-C ♪
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...and, chop!
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Right, Big Hawk.
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I'm on fire, man!
You better leave me alone!
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We don't record the music slow!
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The freestyles in the music are fast,
just like you hear it in the club.
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When Screw gets through with it,
he slows it down,
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and then you hear it.
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♪Pimp the man in a minute,
Writin' platinum shit ♪
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♪Witness this large conglomerate
Called the Screwed Up Click ♪
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[Big Pokey] The tapes, man,
they'd take a long time.
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Maybe we got to Screw house
by nine, ten 'o clock at night,
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and we'd come up out of that bitch
at ten 'o clock in the morning.
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Screw used to sleep on the turntable,
just like this.
234
00:10:49,796 --> 00:10:51,548
-"Screw!"
-"Back up."
235
00:10:54,009 --> 00:10:57,179
[narrator] Screw's sound spread across
Houston at an analog pace,
236
00:10:57,471 --> 00:10:59,431
tape to tape and hand to hand,
237
00:10:59,848 --> 00:11:02,309
but the reaction of virgin ears
always followed a script.
238
00:11:03,310 --> 00:11:05,604
First, confusion about
what they were hearing,
239
00:11:05,937 --> 00:11:07,939
which made way
for head-nodding appreciation
240
00:11:08,023 --> 00:11:09,816
of Screw's molasses-like mixes.
241
00:11:10,609 --> 00:11:12,569
And what began
as a South Houston curiosity
242
00:11:13,361 --> 00:11:14,196
was about to blow up.
243
00:11:14,738 --> 00:11:17,657
Do you have any particular tapes
or any particular freestyles
244
00:11:17,741 --> 00:11:19,826
that you were a part of
or that you listened to that--
245
00:11:19,910 --> 00:11:22,370
Well, "3 'N The Mornin'."
We broke the barrier with that.
246
00:11:23,038 --> 00:11:25,957
Me and Screw were the first ones
to put a chopped up song
247
00:11:26,082 --> 00:11:28,210
in full rotation here, "Pimp Tha Pen."
248
00:11:28,293 --> 00:11:31,838
♪I'm draped up and dripped out
Know what I'm talkin' 'bout ♪
249
00:11:31,922 --> 00:11:35,383
♪Three in the mornin'
Gettin the gat out the stash spot ♪
250
00:11:35,467 --> 00:11:37,052
This became a phenomenon, man,
251
00:11:37,385 --> 00:11:39,346
and everybody wanted to be a part of this.
252
00:11:39,429 --> 00:11:43,099
I was 17 years old,
getting $2000 to sing that one song.
253
00:11:43,809 --> 00:11:46,561
[C-Note] Screw sold a lot of records
off that album, independently.
254
00:11:47,020 --> 00:11:48,855
Big units, a hundred thousand copies.
255
00:11:49,606 --> 00:11:53,360
That kind of established us
in the music industry.
256
00:11:53,443 --> 00:11:55,862
People were starting
to open their eyes and look, like,
257
00:11:55,987 --> 00:11:58,365
"Yeah, those guys down there
are making some noise."
258
00:11:58,448 --> 00:12:01,827
Next thing you know,
these tapes became law.
259
00:12:02,202 --> 00:12:03,078
They're everywhere.
260
00:12:03,161 --> 00:12:06,498
And it started to be a Texas thing,
not just a Houston thing.
261
00:12:06,581 --> 00:12:08,291
Then it started to be a Southern thing.
262
00:12:08,625 --> 00:12:11,586
Screw used to literally open up his gate
at seven 'o clock,
263
00:12:11,670 --> 00:12:17,217
literally doing 1500, 2000 cassettes
at $10, in two hours' time.
264
00:12:17,551 --> 00:12:19,302
It got to a point where he had
265
00:12:19,386 --> 00:12:21,096
to set a certain time,
you know what I mean?
266
00:12:21,179 --> 00:12:24,015
Like, "Hey, nobody come over here
'til seven 'o clock."
267
00:12:24,641 --> 00:12:27,310
There were lines around the corner, man,
like a block party.
268
00:12:27,394 --> 00:12:29,729
Like, people everywhere, cars everywhere.
269
00:12:29,813 --> 00:12:34,526
The police was on his road,
they thought Screw was a big dope dealer.
270
00:12:34,943 --> 00:12:37,529
With that, he was forced to open a store.
271
00:12:37,654 --> 00:12:41,116
♪Showin' naked ass
In the great state of Texas ♪
272
00:12:41,575 --> 00:12:44,369
♪Home of the players,
So they'll never be no flexin' ♪
273
00:12:44,452 --> 00:12:46,621
[Big Bubb]
That's when it really jumped off, man.
274
00:12:46,705 --> 00:12:50,000
People had a tangible place
that they could come to,
275
00:12:50,083 --> 00:12:52,836
with set store hours and everything.
276
00:12:52,919 --> 00:12:55,589
♪So 1996 you hoes better duck ♪
277
00:12:55,672 --> 00:12:59,301
♪Because the world gon drip candy
and be all screwed up ♪
278
00:12:59,384 --> 00:13:01,261
[narrator] After a decade
of hustling tapes,
279
00:13:01,344 --> 00:13:04,514
Screw and Screwed Up Click
had become legends in the South.
280
00:13:04,764 --> 00:13:05,932
They now had their own home,
281
00:13:06,391 --> 00:13:07,559
a devoted following,
282
00:13:07,767 --> 00:13:09,102
and huge ambitions.
283
00:13:10,478 --> 00:13:14,274
Unfortunately, the relentless lifestyle
of all-night work and lean sessions
284
00:13:14,566 --> 00:13:15,942
was about to exact its toll.
285
00:13:21,656 --> 00:13:23,992
[Big Pokey] It was crazy, 'cause
I remember, that night,
286
00:13:24,075 --> 00:13:26,578
I got that call, like, early morning,
287
00:13:26,661 --> 00:13:30,457
and it was like, Screw dead? What?
288
00:13:31,708 --> 00:13:34,127
[C-Note] It's a very touchy subject
for a lot of people.
289
00:13:34,210 --> 00:13:38,256
They really don't like to accept the way
that my guy passed.
290
00:13:38,340 --> 00:13:40,717
I really don't know the actual cause.
291
00:13:40,800 --> 00:13:43,595
You know, I heard he may
have had heart problems in the past
292
00:13:43,678 --> 00:13:44,512
and stuff like that,
293
00:13:44,596 --> 00:13:48,808
but, of course they're going
to swing it more towards the lean.
294
00:13:49,517 --> 00:13:52,687
[Bun B] Screw never intended that you had
to be high to listen to screw music.
295
00:13:52,771 --> 00:13:54,606
That was always a big misconception,
296
00:13:54,689 --> 00:13:57,400
that you had to be sipping on syrup
and smoking weed,
297
00:13:57,734 --> 00:14:00,403
or smoking fry or something,
to get into screw music,
298
00:14:00,487 --> 00:14:01,863
and that was never the case.
299
00:14:01,947 --> 00:14:03,990
It didn't spread through drug use,
you know.
300
00:14:04,074 --> 00:14:05,533
It spread because the sound was good.
301
00:14:06,409 --> 00:14:09,162
You know, we grew up from toddlers, man,
302
00:14:09,663 --> 00:14:13,124
and to see all the things
that he had been through,
303
00:14:13,708 --> 00:14:16,628
from then 'til now, you know,
304
00:14:17,337 --> 00:14:19,589
I couldn't let it just go.
305
00:14:19,673 --> 00:14:22,968
When Screw called me in
later on in life for the store,
306
00:14:23,259 --> 00:14:25,220
he needed somebody he could count on.
307
00:14:25,303 --> 00:14:27,555
He needed somebody that he could trust.
308
00:14:28,098 --> 00:14:29,683
Screw asked me a question.
309
00:14:30,016 --> 00:14:33,478
He says, "Bubb, you here
'til you find you another job,
310
00:14:33,895 --> 00:14:35,605
or 'til you do something different,
311
00:14:35,897 --> 00:14:37,273
or are you here for life?"
312
00:14:39,192 --> 00:14:40,110
I'm still here.
313
00:14:40,235 --> 00:14:42,237
[screwed up beat playing]
314
00:14:53,790 --> 00:14:57,002
♪Twenty five lighters on my dresser
Yessir ♪
315
00:14:57,752 --> 00:14:59,462
♪I gotsta get paid, paid ♪
316
00:14:59,546 --> 00:15:01,256
[Walker]
You drive around Houston today
317
00:15:01,381 --> 00:15:05,010
and you'll see DJ Screw's face
painted on walls,
318
00:15:05,301 --> 00:15:06,761
you'll see people wearing his shirts,
319
00:15:06,845 --> 00:15:08,304
you'll hear his music in the streets.
320
00:15:08,805 --> 00:15:10,932
His legacy is very much alive,
321
00:15:11,016 --> 00:15:12,225
and the sound is global now.
322
00:15:12,308 --> 00:15:15,979
Really, so many people have adopted
and adapted Screw's sound.
323
00:15:16,646 --> 00:15:18,732
Anytime you hear hip-hop music,
that's slowed down,
324
00:15:19,274 --> 00:15:20,442
that influence comes from him.
325
00:15:20,942 --> 00:15:24,279
♪Twenty five carat diamonds in my ring ♪
326
00:15:24,779 --> 00:15:29,451
[Big Pokey] I just hate that he didn't get
a chance to see the love that he got
327
00:15:29,534 --> 00:15:32,704
from the whole hip-hop community.
328
00:15:32,787 --> 00:15:37,917
This shit evolved from a couple of cats
just hooking up, going to Screw house,
329
00:15:38,501 --> 00:15:40,170
and now, you got big artists,
330
00:15:40,253 --> 00:15:42,964
Future, Drake, all of them.
331
00:15:43,048 --> 00:15:44,758
They talking about our lifestyle.
332
00:15:45,216 --> 00:15:46,885
You know, it's actually beautiful.
333
00:15:46,968 --> 00:15:47,886
It's a beautiful thing.
334
00:15:50,555 --> 00:15:53,099
[narrator] The influence
of Screw's chopped and screwed sound
335
00:15:53,183 --> 00:15:55,226
would take years to be fully appreciated,
336
00:15:55,435 --> 00:15:56,394
but in hindsight,
337
00:15:56,895 --> 00:15:59,481
the Screwed Up Click changed the texture
of hip-hop forever.
338
00:16:00,565 --> 00:16:04,152
But, Houston wasn't the only Southern city
quietly crafting hip-hop's future.
339
00:16:09,449 --> 00:16:12,202
The same could be said for the city
on a Mississippi River bluff,
340
00:16:13,161 --> 00:16:15,163
a place that's been called "Soulsville,"
341
00:16:15,246 --> 00:16:17,040
a city steeped in musical tradition,
342
00:16:18,041 --> 00:16:19,584
but shrouded by a dark legacy:
343
00:16:20,293 --> 00:16:21,377
Memphis, Tennessee.
344
00:16:25,590 --> 00:16:28,051
[John Shaw] Memphis has always
had a little rough edge to it.
345
00:16:28,551 --> 00:16:30,220
This place can be very oppressive.
346
00:16:30,303 --> 00:16:31,638
It can feel oppressive.
347
00:16:31,971 --> 00:16:34,766
It's a place where nothing ever succeeds.
348
00:16:34,849 --> 00:16:39,437
[DJ Paul] Memphis was, at one point, like,
probably still is, the robbery capital,
349
00:16:40,105 --> 00:16:41,106
the unemployment capital...
350
00:16:41,189 --> 00:16:43,608
Which kind of go hand in hand
when you think about it.
351
00:16:45,026 --> 00:16:46,945
But, you know, it rains a lot
where we from
352
00:16:47,028 --> 00:16:49,114
and it's... It's gloomy a lot.
353
00:16:50,365 --> 00:16:51,616
[thunder clap]
354
00:16:51,699 --> 00:16:52,826
Whoa!
355
00:16:53,368 --> 00:16:54,619
Lightning, right behind you.
356
00:16:54,702 --> 00:16:56,704
[thunder clap]
357
00:16:56,913 --> 00:17:00,542
How would you explain the energy,
the history,
358
00:17:00,625 --> 00:17:02,709
to someone that doesn't know anything
about Memphis?
359
00:17:03,128 --> 00:17:05,338
Well, you know,
Martin Luther King got killed in Memphis
360
00:17:05,420 --> 00:17:08,091
and, you know, they make sure
they let us know
361
00:17:08,174 --> 00:17:11,302
that Dr. Martin Luther King was killed
right here in Memphis, Tennessee
362
00:17:11,386 --> 00:17:13,304
at the Lorraine Motel.
363
00:17:13,388 --> 00:17:18,016
["We Can Fly Away " plays]
♪We can fly ♪
364
00:17:20,770 --> 00:17:22,564
♪Fly away ♪
365
00:17:23,648 --> 00:17:26,401
[Zandria Robinson] We all grew up
with those stories from our parents.
366
00:17:26,860 --> 00:17:32,365
And so, that led to a tremendous amount
of guilt and shame
367
00:17:32,448 --> 00:17:34,325
that we were that city that killed King.
368
00:17:34,576 --> 00:17:36,995
Whereas, Atlanta is the birthplace,
369
00:17:37,120 --> 00:17:39,831
but Memphis is the assassination place.
370
00:17:40,790 --> 00:17:43,251
Always behind in some ways,
371
00:17:43,376 --> 00:17:46,921
but also always innovating, sonically.
372
00:17:47,005 --> 00:17:49,716
We could throw a rock,
and we could hit a person
373
00:17:49,799 --> 00:17:54,304
who could sing
like we've never heard before in life.
374
00:17:54,387 --> 00:17:58,308
♪Take me
Take me down ♪
375
00:17:58,433 --> 00:18:02,061
[MJG] This is the home of blues,
rock 'n roll, Elvis Presley, of course.
376
00:18:02,395 --> 00:18:05,231
This is the home
of Stax Records, you know.
377
00:18:05,773 --> 00:18:09,611
You know, everybody's uncle or cousin,
daddy, momma,
378
00:18:09,944 --> 00:18:13,239
somebody used to sing or be in a band.
379
00:18:13,740 --> 00:18:15,116
We bleed music around here.
380
00:18:15,867 --> 00:18:18,953
[Gangsta Pat] Stax, it was just like
Isaac Hayes used to describe it.
381
00:18:19,037 --> 00:18:21,164
It was just more soulful
and more deep rooted.
382
00:18:21,581 --> 00:18:24,834
Memphis was a more, "You feel my pain"
type of soul, you know?
383
00:18:24,918 --> 00:18:27,629
And, you know, I can make it sexy
and gangster at the same time.
384
00:18:27,837 --> 00:18:31,424
The artists that were creating
and moulding the sound at the time
385
00:18:31,799 --> 00:18:35,220
were just expressing their pain
and what they were going through in music.
386
00:18:35,553 --> 00:18:36,721
People are sad,
387
00:18:37,180 --> 00:18:41,351
and that sound,
it's our city's sonic history book.
388
00:18:41,643 --> 00:18:43,394
And it's the blueprint for
389
00:18:43,478 --> 00:18:45,772
how we got this hip-hop culture
that we have.
390
00:18:50,276 --> 00:18:52,362
[narrator] Despite the city's
rich musical history,
391
00:18:52,654 --> 00:18:57,158
Memphis' transition from soul and blues
to hip-hop was far from a straight line,
392
00:18:57,492 --> 00:19:00,245
because, by the mid '80s,
the labels and musicians
393
00:19:00,328 --> 00:19:02,956
that had long made Memphis a music hub
were now gone.
394
00:19:03,081 --> 00:19:05,750
♪DJ Spanish Fly ♪
395
00:19:05,833 --> 00:19:09,128
♪A word ♪
396
00:19:09,921 --> 00:19:12,090
[narrator] Hip-hop would need to
chart its own path,
397
00:19:12,465 --> 00:19:16,386
and it would do that via an extensive
hand-to-hand, lo-fi tape scene
398
00:19:16,594 --> 00:19:21,349
that was led by a Jheri-curled DJ
obsessed with 808s and eerie sounds.
399
00:19:21,766 --> 00:19:27,480
[rap beats playing]
400
00:19:28,064 --> 00:19:29,274
[interviewer] Yes, sir.
401
00:19:29,565 --> 00:19:30,483
What's up, man?
402
00:19:30,566 --> 00:19:32,485
Hey, what's happening, baby?
403
00:19:32,568 --> 00:19:33,695
Thanks for doing this.
404
00:19:34,153 --> 00:19:36,239
[Interviewer] So, why did you start
making mixtapes?
405
00:19:36,364 --> 00:19:38,199
[DJ Spanish Fly]
Well, I got kicked off the radio
406
00:19:38,283 --> 00:19:40,868
for playing 2 Live Crew, "Throw the 'D.'"
407
00:19:40,952 --> 00:19:43,162
-That'll do it.
-Yep.
408
00:19:43,246 --> 00:19:47,750
So, I started DJing
at this club called Club No Name.
409
00:19:47,875 --> 00:19:50,336
I was playing those underground songs
410
00:19:50,420 --> 00:19:52,255
that the radio would not play.
411
00:19:52,338 --> 00:19:55,091
And if it didn't have that 808 beat,
412
00:19:56,342 --> 00:19:57,552
leave it over there.
413
00:19:57,927 --> 00:20:00,263
The guy's son, who owned the club
when I was DJing,
414
00:20:00,513 --> 00:20:04,642
he started showing me how to pretty much
do a radio show on cassette.
415
00:20:04,892 --> 00:20:07,603
Looping, cutting, all that,
to create your stuff.
416
00:20:07,687 --> 00:20:09,314
So, I said, from then on,
417
00:20:09,397 --> 00:20:12,442
what I'm gonna do
is put these songs on the cassette.
418
00:20:12,650 --> 00:20:14,569
So I put them on the cassette
and let it roll.
419
00:20:14,944 --> 00:20:16,946
That's what I did, and it rolled.
420
00:20:17,363 --> 00:20:19,741
[808 beat playing]
421
00:20:19,866 --> 00:20:22,160
[Kingpin Skinny Pimp]
When I first got onto Spanish Fly,
422
00:20:22,243 --> 00:20:23,494
it was through tapes.
423
00:20:23,703 --> 00:20:26,998
The real Memphis fans were listening
to nothing but Memphis music only.
424
00:20:28,082 --> 00:20:30,335
[Gangsta Pat] Spanish Fly, man.
He was the blueprint.
425
00:20:30,460 --> 00:20:34,756
At that time, the DJs really had
the cassette market covered.
426
00:20:35,340 --> 00:20:36,799
In order to get your stuff out there,
427
00:20:36,883 --> 00:20:39,594
you had to go to somebody
like Spanish Fly or Squeeky,
428
00:20:39,719 --> 00:20:41,804
DJ BK, or Zirk.
429
00:20:42,013 --> 00:20:43,514
"Hey man, put this on your mixtape."
430
00:20:43,639 --> 00:20:45,224
Once they put it on that mixtape,
431
00:20:45,433 --> 00:20:46,851
everybody got a chance to hear it,
432
00:20:47,101 --> 00:20:48,728
and that's how they would break records.
433
00:20:48,811 --> 00:20:50,688
[La Chat] You know,
we had some local rappers.
434
00:20:50,772 --> 00:20:53,274
We had Gangsta Pat, Pretty Tony.
435
00:20:53,358 --> 00:20:54,609
We had Al Kapone.
436
00:20:54,692 --> 00:20:56,319
Scarface Al Kapone,
how did I forget him?
437
00:20:56,402 --> 00:20:57,737
He was one of the great lyricists.
438
00:20:58,196 --> 00:20:59,238
Memphis was on fire.
439
00:20:59,739 --> 00:21:02,408
We didn't really know nothing
about the mainstream artists,
440
00:21:02,492 --> 00:21:03,951
to be real, when we were growing up.
441
00:21:04,327 --> 00:21:07,372
We were bumping nothing
but Memphis underground tapes.
442
00:21:07,455 --> 00:21:09,624
Mixtapes back then were an epidemic thing.
443
00:21:09,707 --> 00:21:11,959
You know, people had it
in their beauty shops,
444
00:21:12,043 --> 00:21:15,171
they had it in their clothing stores,
gas stations.
445
00:21:15,254 --> 00:21:16,089
It was epidemic.
446
00:21:16,881 --> 00:21:20,093
Spanish Fly was, like,
my hero of the mixtape game.
447
00:21:20,426 --> 00:21:22,929
When I used to go to drop my tapes off
to the tape store, man,
448
00:21:23,012 --> 00:21:24,847
Spanish Fly would be in there, man.
449
00:21:24,972 --> 00:21:26,766
He'd be dropping off stacks of them.
450
00:21:26,849 --> 00:21:30,228
You know, that motherfucker,
probably had about five, ten bands.
451
00:21:30,561 --> 00:21:32,980
Going to every store,
picking up five, ten bands.
452
00:21:33,064 --> 00:21:34,816
I used to be like, "I wanna be like him."
453
00:21:34,899 --> 00:21:35,733
Crazy.
454
00:21:35,817 --> 00:21:38,945
That boy getting that money.
Goddamn. Shit.
455
00:21:39,362 --> 00:21:43,282
His mixtape used to be $25
at the club, man.
456
00:21:43,366 --> 00:21:45,284
That shit selling out everywhere.
457
00:21:45,368 --> 00:21:47,370
-Wow. $25?
-$25.
458
00:21:47,453 --> 00:21:51,666
I ain't met a DJ to this day
that has sold a mixtape for $25.
459
00:21:51,833 --> 00:21:53,167
You tell me where he at.
460
00:21:53,584 --> 00:21:55,086
Crazy. That's crazy.
461
00:21:55,586 --> 00:21:56,671
Shit.
462
00:21:56,921 --> 00:21:57,797
Shouts out to Fly.
463
00:21:57,880 --> 00:21:59,507
[Spanish Fly mixtape playing]
464
00:21:59,590 --> 00:22:01,592
♪Get your Spanish Fly most definitely ♪
465
00:22:01,676 --> 00:22:03,928
♪Coming out the street
Just for you people to see ♪
466
00:22:04,011 --> 00:22:06,556
♪The way I run my mouth
As I ran about ♪
467
00:22:06,639 --> 00:22:10,643
[DJ Spanish Fly] What eventually happened
was, I did a song called "Gangsta Walk,"
468
00:22:10,726 --> 00:22:12,353
just to fill up some space on the tape.
469
00:22:12,437 --> 00:22:14,147
These guys would come in the club,
470
00:22:14,230 --> 00:22:17,733
they started doing this little dance
to my mixing and scratching.
471
00:22:17,817 --> 00:22:21,821
[DJ Spanish Fly performing]
472
00:22:21,904 --> 00:22:25,783
Everybody just started going in a circle,
just like that.
473
00:22:25,908 --> 00:22:28,369
And when I'm up in the DJ booth,
you could feel the wind.
474
00:22:31,164 --> 00:22:32,999
So, I'm paying attention to
what they're doing.
475
00:22:33,082 --> 00:22:35,001
It's buck jumping. That's what it is.
476
00:22:35,126 --> 00:22:39,881
I pretty much stamped it "gangsta walk,"
and they just ran with it.
477
00:22:39,964 --> 00:22:44,260
♪What you can say for short talk
The real lean is called the Gangsta Walk ♪
478
00:22:44,969 --> 00:22:47,722
"Buck jump" is getting buck,
going in a circle like that.
479
00:22:47,805 --> 00:22:49,307
Like, you know?
When you just do that.
480
00:22:49,515 --> 00:22:51,309
And then, "gangsta walk"
would be more like,
481
00:22:51,392 --> 00:22:54,312
you just kind of throw your arms,
you know, just walking in a circle,
482
00:22:54,395 --> 00:22:55,771
but still, like, with a hop to it.
483
00:22:56,189 --> 00:22:59,984
Man, it would be a thousand kids
for three hours, nigga.
484
00:23:00,067 --> 00:23:01,152
Just this. That's it.
485
00:23:01,235 --> 00:23:02,778
["Buck Jump" playing]
486
00:23:03,863 --> 00:23:05,198
[DJ Spanish Fly]
I'll never forget the time
487
00:23:05,281 --> 00:23:07,575
when we were shooting a commercial
for the club,
488
00:23:07,658 --> 00:23:10,786
and LL Cool J and them,
they were here for that big concert.
489
00:23:11,204 --> 00:23:12,955
I'll be damned. [laughs]
490
00:23:13,039 --> 00:23:15,249
LL on the floor, going round in circles.
491
00:23:15,583 --> 00:23:17,710
He was like, "Cool. I kind of like this."
492
00:23:17,793 --> 00:23:18,961
And I was like, "Yeah."
493
00:23:19,045 --> 00:23:21,506
♪The Buck Jump is cool
It's hard as hell ♪
494
00:23:21,589 --> 00:23:24,091
♪DOC did it and so did LL ♪
495
00:23:24,175 --> 00:23:26,761
The whole club could be going round
in a circle, you throw a song on
496
00:23:26,969 --> 00:23:29,096
that ain't "gangsta walk" material,
they're going to stop.
497
00:23:29,430 --> 00:23:30,640
Instantly.
498
00:23:30,723 --> 00:23:32,725
If it wasn't that tempo
of the gangsta walk,
499
00:23:32,808 --> 00:23:35,478
if they couldn't gangsta walk
they didn't want to hear that shit.
500
00:23:35,853 --> 00:23:38,272
In Memphis, we've got a, like,
dark music vibe.
501
00:23:38,356 --> 00:23:40,608
That's sort of, like,
our gangsta music out here.
502
00:23:40,691 --> 00:23:43,611
That's our "gangsta walk" music.
You feel what I'm saying?
503
00:23:44,529 --> 00:23:47,740
[Gangsta Pat] Spanish Fly, he's one of the
fathers of the Memphis sound.
504
00:23:48,074 --> 00:23:49,909
That's the sound
that Three 6 blew up off of.
505
00:23:49,992 --> 00:23:52,620
It made it a lot more wicked
than it was, you know?
506
00:23:52,703 --> 00:23:55,414
It was already sinister,
but they made it way more sinister.
507
00:23:55,665 --> 00:23:59,502
♪Gangsta walk
Gangsta walk, yeah ♪
508
00:24:00,002 --> 00:24:02,630
[narrator] The Memphis mixtape scene
would set the city on a path
509
00:24:02,713 --> 00:24:04,298
that was defined by big bass,
510
00:24:04,966 --> 00:24:05,841
and dark notes.
511
00:24:08,094 --> 00:24:09,804
[hip-hop music playing]
512
00:24:10,721 --> 00:24:12,557
And in Elvis's Whitehaven neighborhood,
513
00:24:13,057 --> 00:24:15,643
two brothers with a penchant
for horror flicks and the macabre
514
00:24:16,227 --> 00:24:17,770
would push the sound to its limits.
515
00:24:22,858 --> 00:24:24,777
Thank you so much for doing this.
516
00:24:25,319 --> 00:24:27,989
So, we'd love to start with
what inspired you to start making music.
517
00:24:28,864 --> 00:24:30,741
[DJ Paul] DJ Spanish Fly was my guy.
518
00:24:30,825 --> 00:24:32,243
The thing about him,
519
00:24:32,326 --> 00:24:34,370
versus a lot of the other ones,
520
00:24:34,453 --> 00:24:35,788
is he rapped as well.
521
00:24:35,871 --> 00:24:38,082
He had a song called "The Gangsta Walk,"
522
00:24:38,541 --> 00:24:42,378
and you would see a hundred motherfuckers,
just Jheri curls,
523
00:24:43,296 --> 00:24:46,632
going in circles,
just gangsta walking, man, twisting.
524
00:24:47,925 --> 00:24:50,219
Man, the energy was amazing, man.
525
00:24:50,303 --> 00:24:52,930
I'd just started making up beats
and mixtapes.
526
00:24:53,431 --> 00:24:55,600
[interviewer] You came right away
with the dark style.
527
00:24:55,683 --> 00:24:56,809
What was influencing that?
528
00:24:57,059 --> 00:24:59,228
[DJ Paul] Lord Infamous,
which is my brother.
529
00:24:59,312 --> 00:25:01,939
We were always fans of horror movies.
530
00:25:02,023 --> 00:25:04,483
We'd fucking sit up
and watch Friday the 13th,
531
00:25:04,567 --> 00:25:08,946
and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
and Halloween all the time.
532
00:25:10,072 --> 00:25:13,826
I think that kind of
brought on the darkness of our sound.
533
00:25:25,588 --> 00:25:29,050
Juicy would come over my house
and get me to program beats with him,
534
00:25:29,133 --> 00:25:31,427
and we'd just,
kind of vibe with each other.
535
00:25:31,927 --> 00:25:35,306
When Three 6 Mafia was trying to come up,
selling mixtapes,
536
00:25:35,389 --> 00:25:37,642
I would tease in our records.
537
00:25:37,892 --> 00:25:40,144
So, like, I would play, like, some NWA.
538
00:25:40,519 --> 00:25:42,980
You know, some Ice Cube,
or some Public Enemy or whatever.
539
00:25:43,064 --> 00:25:44,982
Then I'd sneak in a Lord Infamous song.
540
00:25:45,399 --> 00:25:47,902
After a while,
by the time I got to my other volumes,
541
00:25:47,985 --> 00:25:49,278
it was all our songs.
542
00:25:49,695 --> 00:25:53,115
We were selling those cassette tapes
for $4 a tape.
543
00:25:53,616 --> 00:25:55,826
We were selling thousands of tapes,
544
00:25:56,369 --> 00:25:57,620
and I was still in high school.
545
00:25:57,703 --> 00:26:00,081
I was in high school
sitting on like, $200,000.
546
00:26:01,624 --> 00:26:02,458
For real.
547
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:05,252
I was just, like, savage with it.
548
00:26:05,336 --> 00:26:07,797
I would just go to school,
and I'd just pull up on the curb.
549
00:26:08,172 --> 00:26:09,465
Like, right there at the door.
550
00:26:09,757 --> 00:26:11,801
And they'd be like,
"Paul, you got to move your car."
551
00:26:11,884 --> 00:26:13,594
And I'd be like, "Fuck that car."
552
00:26:15,054 --> 00:26:16,055
Just crazy.
553
00:26:16,138 --> 00:26:18,683
And they eventually kicked my ass out.
I got in too many fights.
554
00:26:18,808 --> 00:26:21,102
Then, when I got kicked out of school,
my momma told me,
555
00:26:21,185 --> 00:26:23,145
she was like,
"You wanna use your Auntie's address
556
00:26:23,229 --> 00:26:25,189
and go to County,
or you wanna try this rap shit?"
557
00:26:25,272 --> 00:26:26,649
I said, "I wanna try the rap shit."
558
00:26:26,816 --> 00:26:29,819
Me and Juicy put together
$4500 and made Mystic Stylez.
559
00:26:29,902 --> 00:26:32,446
That $4500 turned into $45 million.
560
00:26:34,407 --> 00:26:37,284
And that was the best decision
I ever made in my fucking life.
561
00:26:38,327 --> 00:26:41,789
♪Bustaz get so dazed and amazed
As Lil' Fly's enchants ♪
562
00:26:41,872 --> 00:26:45,042
♪Memories of smoked out loced out
Puffed out as them demons dance ♪
563
00:26:45,126 --> 00:26:48,546
[Gangsta Boo] Three 6 Mafia wasn't, like,
a group until Mystic Stylez came out.
564
00:26:48,713 --> 00:26:49,964
It was more of a collective.
565
00:26:50,464 --> 00:26:52,049
So, everybody was just rapping together.
566
00:26:52,174 --> 00:26:53,592
Paul and Juicy brought the beats.
567
00:26:53,676 --> 00:26:54,677
They brought the ideas,
568
00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:56,387
and they was really fucking good at that.
569
00:26:56,470 --> 00:26:58,556
Like, our songs sounded like a movie.
570
00:26:58,639 --> 00:27:01,976
♪Mothasuckas often wonder
What to call this shit ♪
571
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:05,271
[Gangsta Boo] For me, the early sound
was "gangsta walk" music.
572
00:27:05,855 --> 00:27:08,065
We had the gangsta
mixed with the sinister,
573
00:27:08,274 --> 00:27:09,567
mixed with the Memphis sound.
574
00:27:09,817 --> 00:27:12,194
It was just, like,
we meshed everything together.
575
00:27:12,945 --> 00:27:15,865
I was rapping with fucking
five psychopaths.
576
00:27:16,031 --> 00:27:19,660
I wanted to be as sinister as possible,
so I bought a witchcraft book,
577
00:27:20,077 --> 00:27:22,288
and my momma kicked me out of the house
when she found it.
578
00:27:22,621 --> 00:27:23,497
[interviewer] Wow.
579
00:27:23,622 --> 00:27:25,666
Yeah, she put me out for about a week,
580
00:27:25,750 --> 00:27:27,501
and I had to... I had to burn the book.
581
00:27:28,961 --> 00:27:31,672
It spoke to a different generation
of Memphis.
582
00:27:31,756 --> 00:27:33,632
It was, like, this young,
583
00:27:33,758 --> 00:27:36,343
cocaine-snorting, gangsta-ass,
Memphis shit.
584
00:27:37,094 --> 00:27:37,928
There's no God.
585
00:27:38,012 --> 00:27:39,597
It's all debauchery.
586
00:27:39,972 --> 00:27:43,017
The rhyme patterns
on their tracks were different.
587
00:27:43,184 --> 00:27:44,226
What made it so great
588
00:27:44,310 --> 00:27:46,979
is it just didn't sound
like anybody else.
589
00:28:00,743 --> 00:28:03,704
I knew we had a style
that ain't nobody really can fuck with,
590
00:28:03,788 --> 00:28:05,247
because that shit was hard to me.
591
00:28:05,372 --> 00:28:07,374
Like, the horrorcore style.
592
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:11,128
The flow, the beats were stupid beats.
593
00:28:11,295 --> 00:28:12,671
So, when we all got together,
594
00:28:12,755 --> 00:28:14,799
we already knew we were going
to take over Memphis.
595
00:28:16,091 --> 00:28:19,136
There were people in Memphis
that wouldn't buy a CD player
596
00:28:19,220 --> 00:28:21,096
until Three 6 Mafia went on CD.
597
00:28:21,180 --> 00:28:22,014
They wouldn't buy it.
598
00:28:22,181 --> 00:28:24,183
They were like,
"I don't want a CD player in my car,
599
00:28:24,266 --> 00:28:26,143
I'll just keep on listening
to cassette tapes."
600
00:28:26,227 --> 00:28:29,355
And when Three 6 Mafia went on CD,
that's when they bought CD players.
601
00:28:29,438 --> 00:28:31,398
-Wow.
-And that's a real fact right there.
602
00:28:32,107 --> 00:28:37,696
♪Tear the club up,
Tear the club up ♪
603
00:28:37,780 --> 00:28:40,282
[DJ Paul] Back then, me and Juicy
both ran clubs,
604
00:28:40,366 --> 00:28:44,078
and we would test chants
that I would come up with in the club.
605
00:28:44,620 --> 00:28:46,831
And I was at the club one night,
packing up the equipment.
606
00:28:46,914 --> 00:28:48,666
I was like, "Man, that club was so crazy."
607
00:28:49,124 --> 00:28:50,167
And he was like, "Yeah."
608
00:28:50,251 --> 00:28:51,919
I was like,
"We tore that motherfucker up."
609
00:28:52,002 --> 00:28:54,380
And I was like,
"Man, that would be a good song, man,
610
00:28:54,463 --> 00:28:55,381
'Tear The Club Up.'"
611
00:28:55,464 --> 00:28:57,174
We went right back home that same night,
612
00:28:57,258 --> 00:28:59,635
three, four in the morning,
and made a song out of it.
613
00:28:59,927 --> 00:29:02,513
♪This for all you playa haters
Who be talkin' that ♪
614
00:29:02,596 --> 00:29:05,474
♪The Three Six show no love,
Put some hurt on a trick ♪
615
00:29:06,350 --> 00:29:08,477
[DJ Paul] That was, like,
the beginning of, like...
616
00:29:09,395 --> 00:29:10,646
crunk fight music.
617
00:29:11,438 --> 00:29:13,774
If you looked
at me and Juicy's production styles,
618
00:29:14,149 --> 00:29:16,318
he was more, like, laid back
and I was more, like,
619
00:29:16,777 --> 00:29:18,863
"Rock this motherfucker!
Private project, my nigga!
620
00:29:19,363 --> 00:29:21,448
You gonna fall when the stereo pumping."
621
00:29:21,532 --> 00:29:24,910
You're like--
It was, like, more, like, crazier.
622
00:29:24,994 --> 00:29:28,497
And I guess that was
'cause I did cocaine back then.
623
00:29:29,081 --> 00:29:30,583
That probably had a lot to do with it.
624
00:29:31,041 --> 00:29:32,251
[interviewer] That'll do it.
625
00:29:32,877 --> 00:29:35,421
♪Tear the club up,
Tear the club up ♪
626
00:29:35,504 --> 00:29:38,382
♪Tear the club up,
Tear the club up ♪
627
00:29:38,465 --> 00:29:41,218
♪Tear the club up,
Tear the club up ♪
628
00:29:41,594 --> 00:29:44,096
Tear da club up!
Tear da club up!
629
00:29:44,305 --> 00:29:47,141
The bass...
The boom in it, once it hit you,
630
00:29:47,224 --> 00:29:48,851
it just automatically make you, you know,
631
00:29:49,101 --> 00:29:50,686
you ain't got no choice but to get crunk.
632
00:29:51,186 --> 00:29:53,856
Crunk means let's get wild,
let's get buck.
633
00:29:54,356 --> 00:29:55,691
It was Memphis slang.
634
00:29:55,816 --> 00:29:58,819
It was a word that, you know,
that just came from Memphis.
635
00:29:59,403 --> 00:30:01,488
And Three 6 been tearing the clubs up.
636
00:30:01,572 --> 00:30:04,658
♪Tear the club up,
Tear the club up ♪
637
00:30:05,117 --> 00:30:06,452
They're giving us instructions.
638
00:30:07,786 --> 00:30:08,662
Tear the club up.
639
00:30:09,496 --> 00:30:13,250
People, girls, everybody emptying out
bottles and everything.
640
00:30:13,334 --> 00:30:15,794
They'd gangsta walk
with bottles in hand, upside down.
641
00:30:15,878 --> 00:30:16,712
Empty bottles.
642
00:30:17,171 --> 00:30:19,048
Like, it's the craziest thing
you ever wanna see.
643
00:30:19,673 --> 00:30:22,551
[Gangsta Boo]
"Tear Da Club Up" really broke boundaries
644
00:30:22,635 --> 00:30:26,221
because we were like the black rock group.
645
00:30:26,847 --> 00:30:30,100
Mosh pits, fights,
just all kinds of crazy shit.
646
00:30:30,184 --> 00:30:31,226
Everybody was behind us.
647
00:30:31,602 --> 00:30:32,770
We put Memphis on the map.
648
00:30:33,354 --> 00:30:37,566
Memphis, as a city, is just now
starting to get the credit.
649
00:30:38,192 --> 00:30:40,277
I hear a lot of music right now
650
00:30:40,778 --> 00:30:43,739
that's a direct derivative
of Three 6 Mafia.
651
00:30:44,406 --> 00:30:48,035
[DJ Paul] We were a huge influence
in music.
652
00:30:48,452 --> 00:30:51,163
I don't want to toot my own horn, man,
but to me,
653
00:30:51,872 --> 00:30:55,501
I think that Three 6 Mafia is probably
the best rap group of all time.
654
00:30:55,834 --> 00:30:59,380
♪Tear the club up,
Tear the club up ♪
655
00:30:59,546 --> 00:31:01,006
[narrator] Years after their debut,
656
00:31:01,090 --> 00:31:04,218
Three 6 Mafia would call themselves
"The Most Known Unknown."
657
00:31:04,927 --> 00:31:08,222
It was the perfect nickname
for this influential crew from Memphis.
658
00:31:08,806 --> 00:31:12,059
And, in a lot of ways, summed up the work
of all of the Southern innovators.
659
00:31:12,851 --> 00:31:14,895
Still, regardless of their recognition,
660
00:31:15,270 --> 00:31:17,982
the sounds they originated
were stealthily spreading through hip-hop,
661
00:31:18,399 --> 00:31:20,484
like an echo with no clear origin.
662
00:31:21,735 --> 00:31:25,864
♪East side players don't give a fuck
West side players don't give a fuck ♪
663
00:31:25,948 --> 00:31:27,574
[narrator] But, the South deserved
more than an echo.
664
00:31:28,367 --> 00:31:29,451
They needed someone to shout
665
00:31:29,535 --> 00:31:31,286
that they were changing
the sound of hip-hop,
666
00:31:31,829 --> 00:31:35,624
and they'd find it in a hard-partying,
megaphone-carrying DJ from Atlanta.
667
00:31:35,708 --> 00:31:39,044
♪Get crunk, get crunk
Get crunk, get crunk ♪
668
00:31:39,169 --> 00:31:40,295
[Lil Jon] Let me get a bottle of water.
669
00:31:40,379 --> 00:31:42,631
My voice gonna be cracking and shit.
I've been hollering.
670
00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:45,676
Thank you so much.
671
00:31:45,759 --> 00:31:46,719
It's all good.
672
00:31:46,802 --> 00:31:48,554
What did you listen to growing up?
673
00:31:48,637 --> 00:31:50,597
When I became a teenager,
I was skating and stuff.
674
00:31:50,681 --> 00:31:54,059
Skateboarding opened my mind up
to different types of music.
675
00:31:54,143 --> 00:31:56,770
When you go, like, hang out with some kids
and skate with them,
676
00:31:57,104 --> 00:31:58,439
somebody got a boom box,
677
00:31:58,647 --> 00:32:00,024
they might be playing Minor Threat,
678
00:32:00,399 --> 00:32:02,651
or somebody might be playing Bad Brains.
679
00:32:02,901 --> 00:32:04,570
So, that's how I got into reggae,
680
00:32:04,695 --> 00:32:07,114
punk music, rock music.
681
00:32:07,489 --> 00:32:09,283
I mean, I'd listen to everything, man.
682
00:32:09,742 --> 00:32:13,412
I started DJing because I used to
have house parties at my house.
683
00:32:13,662 --> 00:32:15,247
And one of my boys,
684
00:32:15,330 --> 00:32:18,876
he used to DJ all of the parties
in high school, and I was just, like...
685
00:32:19,626 --> 00:32:22,963
in awe of how he could control the people
with the music.
686
00:32:23,255 --> 00:32:25,174
And then he went away to the Navy,
687
00:32:25,924 --> 00:32:27,217
but I kept going.
688
00:32:27,634 --> 00:32:30,387
And by the time he came back,
I was the man in Atlanta.
689
00:32:31,805 --> 00:32:33,640
When I was hot in Atlanta, DJing,
690
00:32:33,891 --> 00:32:37,061
when I wasn't DJing,
I was just out all the time.
691
00:32:37,227 --> 00:32:39,438
He was always the most exciting person
in the club.
692
00:32:39,521 --> 00:32:41,982
He used to walk in the club
with a megaphone.
693
00:32:42,066 --> 00:32:44,985
His job was to make sure
that you heard him
694
00:32:45,069 --> 00:32:47,196
more so than you heard anybody else.
695
00:32:47,780 --> 00:32:50,282
[Lil' Jon] I'm living in my ma's basement,
DJing,
696
00:32:50,365 --> 00:32:52,034
basically getting drunk
and high every day,
697
00:32:52,117 --> 00:32:53,452
just living the fucking life.
698
00:32:54,828 --> 00:32:56,663
Me and Jermaine got cool
699
00:32:56,747 --> 00:32:58,665
because he came to me one day, was like,
700
00:32:58,749 --> 00:33:00,751
"Yo, I see you be out all the time.
701
00:33:00,876 --> 00:33:02,336
I see you know everybody.
702
00:33:02,419 --> 00:33:05,297
I want you to come and do Aandamp;R
and street promotions for me."
703
00:33:05,631 --> 00:33:07,257
I was like, "What the fuck is an Aandamp;R?"
704
00:33:07,674 --> 00:33:09,635
And I was like, "Alright, cool. Fuck it."
705
00:33:09,718 --> 00:33:12,763
I got to learn every aspect
of the music business,
706
00:33:12,846 --> 00:33:14,681
because we were such a small label.
707
00:33:14,765 --> 00:33:17,684
And while I was at So So Def,
I put out my first song
708
00:33:17,768 --> 00:33:19,019
with the East Side Boyz.
709
00:33:19,561 --> 00:33:21,105
Basically, we were in the club,
710
00:33:21,605 --> 00:33:23,273
and we used to roll, like, 20 deep.
711
00:33:24,525 --> 00:33:26,401
We just started chanting "Who u wit?"
712
00:33:26,693 --> 00:33:29,029
And I went and got on the mic
and started chanting it,
713
00:33:29,279 --> 00:33:31,281
and the whole club started chanting it.
714
00:33:31,990 --> 00:33:35,410
I was like, "Oh shit.
This shit made everybody go crazy.
715
00:33:35,953 --> 00:33:37,704
We need to make a record out of this."
716
00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:41,208
Two, three days later, Jon called me,
had the beat on the phone.
717
00:33:41,583 --> 00:33:43,836
A lot of bass, a lot of 808.
718
00:33:44,169 --> 00:33:46,630
They were like, "Do that chant again."
719
00:33:46,713 --> 00:33:48,340
I did the chant, everything went perfect,
720
00:33:48,423 --> 00:33:50,259
and from that, we just started recording.
721
00:33:51,176 --> 00:33:53,428
[Lil' Jon] We went in the studio wanting
to make something
722
00:33:53,512 --> 00:33:55,389
for Atlanta people to get turnt up to.
723
00:33:55,472 --> 00:33:58,725
Hella 808, but it was, like,
a monotone beat,
724
00:33:59,017 --> 00:34:00,477
and it wasn't no music.
725
00:34:00,853 --> 00:34:02,395
You know, it was no raps.
726
00:34:02,479 --> 00:34:03,814
It was just all chanting.
727
00:34:03,897 --> 00:34:06,692
But, it got motherfuckers hype as fuck.
728
00:34:06,775 --> 00:34:09,111
♪Who you wit',
Who you wit' ♪
729
00:34:09,194 --> 00:34:11,738
♪Who you wit', get crunk
Who you wit' ♪
730
00:34:12,239 --> 00:34:13,656
♪Who you wit'
Who you wit' ♪
731
00:34:13,739 --> 00:34:15,116
[Lil Jon] I took it to the 559.
732
00:34:15,534 --> 00:34:17,411
The 559, in its heyday,
733
00:34:17,493 --> 00:34:20,581
was the centrepiece for Atlanta clubs.
734
00:34:20,663 --> 00:34:23,584
If your record wasn't playing in the 559,
you weren't hot in Atlanta.
735
00:34:23,667 --> 00:34:25,335
I can't remember the DJ's name,
736
00:34:25,919 --> 00:34:27,921
but he was like, "I love this song.
737
00:34:28,005 --> 00:34:29,589
I'm gonna play this five times a night."
738
00:34:29,672 --> 00:34:31,967
♪Who you wit', get crunk
Who you wit' ♪
739
00:34:32,049 --> 00:34:34,386
♪Who you wit',
Who you wit' ♪
740
00:34:34,469 --> 00:34:37,014
♪Who you wit', get crunk
Who you wit' ♪
741
00:34:37,346 --> 00:34:40,976
♪Just, just drop
Just drop, just drop ♪
742
00:34:41,058 --> 00:34:42,728
[DJ Mars] When he came out with
"Who U Wit?"
743
00:34:42,810 --> 00:34:43,979
I was saying to myself,
744
00:34:44,062 --> 00:34:46,190
"That's the same shit
he used to do in the club."
745
00:34:46,899 --> 00:34:49,860
All he did was just take the flavor
that he was rocking in the club
746
00:34:50,110 --> 00:34:51,278
and put in on the record,
747
00:34:51,403 --> 00:34:55,032
and his entire thing was energy.
748
00:34:55,115 --> 00:34:58,035
♪Lil' lower now, lil' lower now ♪
749
00:34:58,118 --> 00:34:59,745
[Lil Scrappy] The chants and the beats
750
00:34:59,828 --> 00:35:02,247
and the way they were doing it,
751
00:35:02,331 --> 00:35:03,707
it's the vibe, man.
752
00:35:03,790 --> 00:35:06,168
It's feeling, it's anger, it's emotion.
753
00:35:06,251 --> 00:35:09,379
But I'm talking about extreme.
Like, out of your body.
754
00:35:09,463 --> 00:35:11,798
Like, the chants are taking me
somewhere else.
755
00:35:12,007 --> 00:35:16,220
Because chants are damn near ceremonial.
756
00:35:18,597 --> 00:35:22,517
[Lil Jon] When you hear somebody chanting,
we can take that back to Africa.
757
00:35:22,809 --> 00:35:24,519
You know, the whole village chants,
758
00:35:24,603 --> 00:35:26,647
and it gets the village riled up,
759
00:35:26,730 --> 00:35:29,358
getting you ready to go to battle
or whatever the fuck.
760
00:35:29,733 --> 00:35:32,819
So, the chanting got people amped up,
761
00:35:32,903 --> 00:35:34,571
and they couldn't control that energy.
762
00:35:34,655 --> 00:35:37,157
They had to...
You turnt up, you know what I mean?
763
00:35:37,241 --> 00:35:41,578
[Kaine chanting]
764
00:35:41,662 --> 00:35:43,956
Back then, like,
that was just getting crunk.
765
00:35:44,373 --> 00:35:46,667
[Kaine] And that's what you did
when you got into the club.
766
00:35:46,750 --> 00:35:48,543
[D-Roc]
This is what people don't understand.
767
00:35:48,627 --> 00:35:52,089
It's like, are you understanding the words
that are coming out of my mouth?
768
00:35:52,214 --> 00:35:53,423
This is how it started.
769
00:35:53,507 --> 00:35:59,596
Crunk ain't nothing but us getting hyped
to our favorite song in the club.
770
00:36:00,889 --> 00:36:03,433
[Lil' Jon] That's when we started
using the term "crunk music."
771
00:36:03,517 --> 00:36:04,726
Like, we make crunk music.
772
00:36:04,977 --> 00:36:05,894
We're not rappers.
773
00:36:06,103 --> 00:36:07,646
We ain't got no book of rhymes.
774
00:36:08,021 --> 00:36:09,731
We just come to get the club crunk.
775
00:36:10,232 --> 00:36:11,608
It just exploded.
776
00:36:11,775 --> 00:36:14,820
I mean, "Who U Wit?"
blew up so big for us, regionally.
777
00:36:14,903 --> 00:36:17,823
I think that definitely was
the change in Atlanta
778
00:36:17,948 --> 00:36:20,450
because nobody else
is doing records like that.
779
00:36:20,534 --> 00:36:23,078
♪Where you from?
Where you from? ♪
780
00:36:23,161 --> 00:36:26,290
♪Get crunk, get crunk
Where you from♪?
781
00:36:26,373 --> 00:36:28,834
♪Where you from?
Where you from? ♪
782
00:36:28,917 --> 00:36:32,629
♪Get crunk, get crunk
Where you from♪?
783
00:36:32,713 --> 00:36:35,632
Crunk music was almost an excuse
784
00:36:35,716 --> 00:36:38,093
to come through
and elbow a motherfucker in the mouth.
785
00:36:39,011 --> 00:36:41,096
But, the cool thing about it is,
786
00:36:41,179 --> 00:36:43,181
it is better to get that energy out
787
00:36:43,640 --> 00:36:46,977
in a microcosm that can be controlled,
788
00:36:47,519 --> 00:36:49,187
and then the energy can dissipate,
789
00:36:49,646 --> 00:36:51,231
than me actually going to do something.
790
00:36:51,815 --> 00:36:53,442
And, that was crunk music to me.
791
00:36:53,859 --> 00:36:57,195
[Lil' Jon] It's a release, man.
You had a hard week, you had a hard life,
792
00:36:57,279 --> 00:36:58,447
you had a hard whatever.
793
00:36:58,739 --> 00:37:00,115
You could go to the club,
794
00:37:00,782 --> 00:37:03,994
go and wild out
and release all your frustrations in life
795
00:37:04,202 --> 00:37:05,495
and have a good time.
796
00:37:05,996 --> 00:37:08,332
[Lil' Scrappy] We were doing
what regular hip-hop was doing,
797
00:37:08,415 --> 00:37:10,125
saying what the fuck you wanna say.
798
00:37:10,208 --> 00:37:12,336
So, crunk music gave you
an extra little...
799
00:37:12,878 --> 00:37:15,047
You know, a little lean on, like,
800
00:37:15,130 --> 00:37:17,966
I can say what the fuck I wanna say,
because I'm doing it like this.
801
00:37:18,091 --> 00:37:19,051
I mean, it's the energy.
802
00:37:19,134 --> 00:37:21,970
I don't know what the fuck I said.
What happened? Don't know. I was crunk.
803
00:37:22,054 --> 00:37:23,263
I don't know, I'm sorry.
804
00:37:23,388 --> 00:37:24,598
I just got crunk real quick.
805
00:37:25,515 --> 00:37:27,934
?析epresent your click,
Represent your click ♪
806
00:37:28,060 --> 00:37:30,854
♪Bia bia
Bia bia ♪
807
00:37:30,937 --> 00:37:34,775
[Lil' Jon] I was always smart enough
to understand America loves culture.
808
00:37:34,858 --> 00:37:37,402
They want to be a part of it
without being a part of it.
809
00:37:37,694 --> 00:37:40,113
I wanted to show people how we did it.
810
00:37:40,489 --> 00:37:43,492
And I think that's
what America gravitated toward.
811
00:37:43,617 --> 00:37:45,869
I didn't know it was gonna be
what the fuck it is now.
812
00:37:45,952 --> 00:37:49,498
[crunk music playing]
813
00:37:49,581 --> 00:37:53,418
Ay, ay, ay, ay!
All y'all strippers gots to go
814
00:37:53,710 --> 00:37:56,963
We taking over this club tonight.
Lil' Jon, East Side Boys
815
00:37:57,047 --> 00:37:58,965
Ay, ay, ay
Let's get this thing crunk
816
00:37:59,049 --> 00:38:01,093
At the time,
there was a lot of people making music
817
00:38:01,635 --> 00:38:03,804
that sounded like shit in the club.
818
00:38:04,096 --> 00:38:05,472
When my record came on,
819
00:38:05,555 --> 00:38:07,808
I wanted the record before that
to sound low,
820
00:38:07,891 --> 00:38:10,060
because my shit was mixed so good
821
00:38:10,143 --> 00:38:12,270
and the 808 was so big
822
00:38:12,354 --> 00:38:14,523
and the production just sounded crazy.
823
00:38:14,773 --> 00:38:15,816
All of my records,
824
00:38:16,441 --> 00:38:18,652
I would push them to the limit,
push them to the edge.
825
00:38:18,735 --> 00:38:19,653
I would mix them
826
00:38:20,153 --> 00:38:23,824
so they just sounded ginormous
in the club.
827
00:38:23,907 --> 00:38:25,909
♪3, 6, 9,
Damn she fine ♪
828
00:38:26,243 --> 00:38:28,245
♪Hoping she can sock it to me
One more time ♪
829
00:38:28,328 --> 00:38:31,915
♪Get low, get low
Get low, get low, get low ♪
830
00:38:31,998 --> 00:38:34,126
I started to get better
with my production.
831
00:38:34,209 --> 00:38:36,294
Whenever I would make an album
I'd just go to the store
832
00:38:36,378 --> 00:38:37,379
and buy some new gear.
833
00:38:37,712 --> 00:38:41,925
I hadn't really heard anybody use, like,
basically a techno kind of synth
834
00:38:42,008 --> 00:38:44,177
on a hardcore rap song.
835
00:38:44,261 --> 00:38:47,681
[crunk music playing]
836
00:38:47,764 --> 00:38:51,017
[Lil' Jon] The synth and the 808
matched so well together,
837
00:38:51,101 --> 00:38:53,311
and that definitely
became my signature sound.
838
00:38:53,395 --> 00:38:57,899
♪To the window, to the window
To the wall, to the wall ♪
839
00:38:57,983 --> 00:39:02,112
♪Till the sweat drop down my balls
Till all these bitches crawl ♪
840
00:39:02,195 --> 00:39:07,242
[DJ Smurf] "Get Low." That was
the personification of what crunk became.
841
00:39:07,742 --> 00:39:10,245
When you saw them crazy motherfuckers
in them videos,
842
00:39:10,328 --> 00:39:12,247
you saw what crunk was.
843
00:39:12,330 --> 00:39:16,334
It's almost like
if somebody could take the term "lit,"
844
00:39:16,751 --> 00:39:19,629
and make a whole life out of it.
845
00:39:19,713 --> 00:39:20,881
That's what Jon did.
846
00:39:21,256 --> 00:39:24,468
He took it and made a genre of music
out of it,
847
00:39:24,593 --> 00:39:26,094
and took it to the world.
848
00:39:26,470 --> 00:39:28,555
We were watching MTV,
and we were sitting at home.
849
00:39:28,638 --> 00:39:29,639
It came across the bottom,
850
00:39:29,723 --> 00:39:32,517
"Lil' Jon andamp; The East Side Boyz, Get Low,
number one song in the country."
851
00:39:32,601 --> 00:39:33,727
Pick that phone up,
852
00:39:34,019 --> 00:39:35,395
"Hey man, why we sitting at home?
853
00:39:35,479 --> 00:39:37,272
We got the number one song
in the country!"
854
00:39:37,439 --> 00:39:39,441
Then I knew we really made it
when we did a show
855
00:39:39,858 --> 00:39:41,443
and the white women started popping up,
856
00:39:41,526 --> 00:39:42,569
showing their titties.
857
00:39:43,278 --> 00:39:44,905
-Remember that?
-Yeah.
858
00:39:44,988 --> 00:39:46,740
White women popping up
showing their titties.
859
00:39:46,823 --> 00:39:48,950
-I said, "Hey, we made it."
-We there!
860
00:39:49,034 --> 00:39:50,702
-[Big Sam] Nigga, we made it!
-Yes!
861
00:39:52,287 --> 00:39:54,581
♪To all
Skeet, skeet, skeet ♪
862
00:39:54,664 --> 00:39:57,167
♪To all
Skeet, skeet, skeet ♪
863
00:39:57,250 --> 00:39:59,461
♪To all
Skeet, skeet, skeet ♪
864
00:39:59,544 --> 00:40:00,545
♪To all
Skeet, skeet ♪
865
00:40:00,629 --> 00:40:02,714
♪I got, I got what?
I got what? ♪
866
00:40:02,797 --> 00:40:04,132
♪Yeah ♪
867
00:40:04,216 --> 00:40:06,760
When you do crunk songs,
you have crunk ad libs
868
00:40:06,843 --> 00:40:09,304
to hype up the crunk vocals.
869
00:40:09,638 --> 00:40:11,640
Yeah!
870
00:40:11,890 --> 00:40:12,933
What?
871
00:40:13,016 --> 00:40:15,727
Because when you're turned up,
you go what?
872
00:40:15,894 --> 00:40:16,978
Okay!
873
00:40:17,395 --> 00:40:19,231
Dave Chappelle thought it was funny
874
00:40:19,439 --> 00:40:21,358
that I do these ad libs
on all these songs,
875
00:40:21,441 --> 00:40:24,319
and ran with it in a skit,
and that pushed it over the top.
876
00:40:24,402 --> 00:40:28,406
He made it where people are gonna be
screaming at me 'til I die, shit.
877
00:40:28,949 --> 00:40:31,952
Lil' Jon andamp; The East Side Boyz.
878
00:40:32,494 --> 00:40:34,496
[performing "Get Low"]
879
00:40:37,916 --> 00:40:39,918
♪3, 6, 9,
Damn she fine ♪
880
00:40:40,252 --> 00:40:42,254
♪Hoping she can sock it to me
One more time ♪
881
00:40:42,546 --> 00:40:44,881
[Ian Burke] Because that was
such a big crossover record.
882
00:40:44,965 --> 00:40:46,883
You had the Yin Yang Twins,
883
00:40:46,967 --> 00:40:49,761
had all the white people saying
"Skeet skeet,"
884
00:40:49,844 --> 00:40:50,971
not knowing what it meant.
885
00:40:51,513 --> 00:40:53,014
Everybody like, "Skeet, skeet."
886
00:40:53,098 --> 00:40:54,182
You'd hear it on the radio.
887
00:40:54,266 --> 00:40:57,018
It's like, they're talking
about ejaculating on people's faces.
888
00:40:57,102 --> 00:40:59,396
♪To all skeet, skeet,
Skeet, skeet, skeet ♪
889
00:41:00,272 --> 00:41:02,899
[Ian] And they're playing it
without bleeping it!
890
00:41:02,983 --> 00:41:05,735
That's when you're like,
sitting back, laughing to yourself, going,
891
00:41:05,819 --> 00:41:08,238
"Okay. There it is."
892
00:41:08,572 --> 00:41:11,700
You know what I'm saying?
We really changed the game here.
893
00:41:11,783 --> 00:41:13,285
Everywhere I went, it was,
894
00:41:13,368 --> 00:41:15,745
if you didn't have a drumbeat,
you ain't poppin'.
895
00:41:15,870 --> 00:41:18,164
You know what I'm saying?
Like, you had to have a drumbeat.
896
00:41:18,582 --> 00:41:20,333
Look at where it came to,
897
00:41:20,417 --> 00:41:25,297
to now, people can go up and sling dreads
and jump on the stage
898
00:41:25,380 --> 00:41:27,090
and the whole crowd
is gonna jump with them.
899
00:41:27,716 --> 00:41:31,011
[Fat Joe] You know, the energy
that Lil' Jon brought the hip-hop genre,
900
00:41:31,094 --> 00:41:32,178
is out of this world.
901
00:41:32,262 --> 00:41:33,722
It's like punk-rock rap.
902
00:41:34,055 --> 00:41:36,891
He was the original energy god.
903
00:41:36,975 --> 00:41:39,227
He was bringing them club bangers.
904
00:41:39,561 --> 00:41:40,729
You listen to the radio
905
00:41:40,812 --> 00:41:43,815
and every single song is an Atlanta song.
906
00:41:44,274 --> 00:41:46,276
You be like, "Yo, what the fuck happened?"
907
00:41:46,359 --> 00:41:51,531
[Lil' Jon] "Yeah" is definitely the peak
of the crunk sound going to another level.
908
00:41:51,615 --> 00:41:53,158
[imitates crunk melody]
909
00:41:53,241 --> 00:41:55,994
That shit was number one
in I don't know how many countries.
910
00:41:56,494 --> 00:41:58,830
Top five songs of the decade.
911
00:41:58,913 --> 00:42:01,333
Still gets played,
still gets people crazy.
912
00:42:02,083 --> 00:42:05,587
Crunk helped
to break Southern music majorly.
913
00:42:05,712 --> 00:42:06,838
Every Southern artist,
914
00:42:06,921 --> 00:42:09,049
we were making records
for our communities.
915
00:42:09,507 --> 00:42:12,761
We weren't trying to get onto the radio.
916
00:42:12,844 --> 00:42:14,346
We were just making records for us.
917
00:42:14,638 --> 00:42:16,306
This is why the South wins.
918
00:42:16,389 --> 00:42:19,100
Because we don't give a fuck
about trying to please nobody else.
919
00:42:19,184 --> 00:42:20,852
♪Get low
You scared, you scared ♪
920
00:42:20,935 --> 00:42:23,188
♪Turn your eyes to the floor
You scared, you scared ♪
921
00:42:23,271 --> 00:42:24,189
♪Let me see you get... ♪
922
00:42:24,272 --> 00:42:26,107
[narrator] Lil' Jon and his crunk
contemporaries
923
00:42:26,191 --> 00:42:28,151
brought an entirely new sound to hip-hop.
924
00:42:28,276 --> 00:42:29,819
One that smashed the charts,
925
00:42:30,111 --> 00:42:31,529
and penetrated pop culture.
926
00:42:32,364 --> 00:42:34,616
But, crunk's success
represented something bigger.
927
00:42:35,492 --> 00:42:37,577
Because while Lil' Jon's impact
was immediate,
928
00:42:37,994 --> 00:42:43,208
the work of Three 6 Mafia, Spanish Fly
and DJ Screw was just as instrumental
929
00:42:43,291 --> 00:42:45,502
in influencing
the next generations of hip-hop.
930
00:42:46,169 --> 00:42:47,128
And, more importantly,
931
00:42:47,545 --> 00:42:50,465
proved that the South was now
the center of innovation in hip-hop.
932
00:42:51,675 --> 00:42:53,593
But, as has always been in this culture,
933
00:42:54,052 --> 00:42:56,763
somewhere, someone else
is dreaming up a new sound.
934
00:42:58,014 --> 00:43:00,016
[hip-hop beat playing]