Serge Fleury
What happens when you cross an Academy Award-winning Hip-Hop group with the mind state of a hustler? That’s easy; you’ll come up with Memphis’ own Three 6 Mafia, and more notably, Jordan “Juicy J” Houston.
The one half of the duo that helped introduce the world to “syrup” on his way to snagging an Oscar, and then to finagling a reality show on MTV has taken a little time off from hobnobbing with socialites in Hollywood to return with his second solo album in seven years, appropriately titled Hustle Till I Die.
Proving that lightening can strike on more than just one occasion over and over again throughout his career, the always-energetic and charismatic Juicy J takes a little time out of his hectic music and television schedule to explain the machine that is Three 6 Mafia, and why no matter how wealthy you become, the grind will always be on-going…
iHipHop.com: Right now you got Hustle Till I Die coming up. So what can people expect to hear from it?
Juicy J: It’s just a solo album that I did, and it’s wangin’ off the frame! I put a lot of concentration into it, and it has some of that old Three 6 Mafia stuff that people want to hear… It’s hard man…
iHipHop.com: Who did you work with this time around?
Juicy J: I worked with Gucci Mane, I did a song with Webbie, I did a song with Gorilla Zoe [Click for review], and I worked with a new artist from Memphis named V-Slash; she’s real hot in the streets right now… That’s pretty much it, and I got Project Pat on the album…
iHipHop.com: How would you say this record differs from Chronicles Of The Juice Man?
Juicy J: This album is just more about hustling man, and I wouldn’t say so that it’s much different… But it’s straight street, and straight gangsta sh*t, you know what I’m saying?
I can’t really say that it’s different, because I’ve been talking about gangsta stuff on pretty much all of my CD’s… It’s just “Juicy J,” and it is what it is… Plus it’s wangin’ off the frame!
iHipHop.com: Any reason why you took a 7-year layoff between projects?
Juicy J: I mean, we always had put out underground projects, and this right here is straight independent… This isn’t a major release, it’s just straight independent, and this is just something that I’m doing on the side… This is an extra check in the mailbox, and an extra check in the mailbox NEVER hurts!
We always put out independent music, and we never stopped putting out independent music, since we first started… So this is just a little something on the side, and it’s like an appetizer to keep the fans hungry for this new Three 6 Mafia album…
iHipHop.com: When can people expect the new Three 6 [Mafia]?
Juicy J: Hopefully by the end of the year man… Hopefully we’ll be able to release it by the end of the year, but we’re still working on it… That’s off the frame too, and it’s jamming…
iHipHop.com: Everyone knows you as a producer and an artist, but do you love one more than the other?
Juicy J: I like producing more… I like to go into the studio and create music, especially with new artists, so I can help try to build them up and help them out… I like doing that… Like creating the sound, writing the hooks, and just all the other parts of the song… That’s my first love man, music…
iHipHop.com: You’ve always handled 100 percent of your own production whether it was for Three 6 Mafia or your own projects, but have you ever been open to the thought of collaborating with other producers as well?
Juicy J: Yeah, of course… Me and [DJ] Paul produce all of Three 6 Mafia’s albums, but we’ve worked with other producers like Akon, we worked with Good Charlotte, and JD [Jermaine Dupri]… We’re working with new producer on the new Three 6 Mafia album… I want to keep my ears open man, I don’t want to close my ears up because you never know; something might be a hit…
I’m always going to work with other people… Back in the days we used to produce everything ourselves, but the more that we put out albums, we have to work with some of these young people… I’m always keeping my ears open, because there’s so much talent out there, and I don’t want to miss out on NOTHING!
iHipHop.com: So with both production and rapping falling on you whether its a solo project, or group project, do you never feel like you’re getting burned out?
Juicy J: Not really man, because we usually have to get a vibe… I’ll book studio time, and if I’m not feeling it, and the vibe is not right, I’ll just walk out of the studio… You got to have that vibe, because when you walk into the studio and try to pressure yourself to do something, it’s not going to come out right…
A lot of times when you’re dealing with another producer, you can get a vibe from the other producer, because they might have some good ideas…
Then your ideas come together, and BOOM you got a hit… So sometimes I have a vibe, and sometimes I don’t… But I don’t think I ever get bored with it, because I like music a lot…
iHipHop.com: Also, you and DJ Paul have produced songs for people like Ludacris, Lil Scrappy, Lil Flip, Paul Wall, and Pastor Troy. So do you ever have difficulty separating what you want to sell versus what you want to keep?
Juicy J: Nah man… If I got a song, and it’s banging, I’m going to give it to the person who wants it… I feel like if we can make a beat that’s hard, we can make one that’s even harder… So don’t have no problem—I ain’t sitting on no music man… If I’m sitting on some music, that means I’m sitting on some money… I got to let them beats go…
If they’re some good beats, and an artist wants to get them, they can get them… I ain’t saving NOTHING! Everybody is going to eat; we’re all going to eat… Especially if we produce a song for an artist, it has my name on it, so I want it to be jamming…
I don’t want people be like, “That beat is okay,” I’m going to give you something that’s jamming… That ain’t going to do nothing but help me get more money, because the next artist is going to say, “Hey, I want a beat from that guy.”
iHipHop.com: So what’s managed to keep Three 6 Mafia together over the years, when many groups these days don’t have a long shelf life?
Juicy J: You have to be loyal man, and you have to keep it real… If you do that, everything will work out on its own… We’ve always worked together, and we always had the same visions, and the same dreams…
Everybody has to be on the same page too… We’re on the same page with the same vision, and that’s why we’ve done so well… We’re still grinding, and we’re still hustling… We got some money, but we’re still going to hustle…
iHipHop.com Speaking of hustling, whatever happened to the Adventures In Hollyhood show you guys had on MTV? You guys didn’t want to do it anymore?
Juicy J: We were working on our album, so we had to take some time off… But we have this new show that we just produced and it’s called Cooking Ain’t Easy… It’s a comedy show, and we’re cooking all different types of food like Asian, Indian, and a lot of others…
It’s all kinds of different types of food that you thought we couldn’t cook, and it’s a straight funny comedy… I think people are going to love it… We got Big Triece on the show, and that dude is super funny… You remember Big Triece from Hollyhood?
iHipHop.com: Yeah… [Laughing]…
Juicy J: He’s one of the main cooks on the show…
iHipHop.com: What network is it going to air on?
Juicy J: We have a producer who’s going to finish editing the show, and then he’s going to shop the show around… Right now there are a lot of networks interested, but we’re going to take it to the highest bidder; you know what I mean?
