Drake Interview: Drizzy And Three-Six Mafia? Recalls His Memphis Roots

Drake and Three-Six Mafia? During a recent interview, Drizzy expounds on his Memphis, Tennessee, connections in the music industry. And, he’s a big fan of DJ Paul and Juicy J.

As you know, Drake often recalls his time in Memphis, Tennessee where he spent his summers with his father, Dennis. Given the music culture of the area, some of it was bound to rub off on Drake, right?

According to a recent interview with Nardwuar, Drake told the host that some of his influence came from Three-Six Mafia and the like, including industry names such as La Chat and Gangsta Boo.

“I was a huge Three-Six fan. Again, a group of guys who were from somewhere, and they didn’t have a sound…and they created a sound.”

This is definitely one thing Drake admired about Three-Six Mafia. Similar to the way this Memphis group created their own sound and represented for their city, Drake did the same for Toronto.

Although Drake was a long-time fan of the group, he states that he didn’t get to meet them until “later on in life.” Nevertheless, Drake is a “huge Paul fan…a huge Juicy fan.”

“Three-Six just had a whole movement. They had a bunch of artists just popping up. They were just doing something that had never been seen in Memphis, you know? Making money that had never been seen off rap in Memphis.”

In accordance with Drake’s comments about the Memphis group, they were the ones to help get an urban, Memphis dance onto the national scene. It’s called Jookin’. It can be seen in the video below.

Three-Six Mafia – Side to Side

Yet, to digress to the interview, it was revealed that Drake sampled a section of La Chat’s “Peanut Butter” track. Particularly, Drake sampled her vinyl scratch at the song’s starting marker. However, when applied to “Furthest Thing,” Drizzy kept the sample going throughout the entire song. You can listen to the aforementioned tracks below if you need a reference.

[Disclaimer: The following videos contain explicit language. Viewer discretion is advised.]

Drake – Furthest Thing

La Chat – Peanut Butter

As the interview progressed, Drake noted that he also appreciated 8Ball and MJG — another Memphis powerhouse in the rap industry. Drake mentions that one of his favorite moments from that particular group was when they teamed up with Three-Six Mafia in a collaboration.

“8Ball and MJG, another incredible group. One of my favorite songs was when they actually linked up with Three-Six…the album with ‘You Don’t Want Drama’ and all the stuff they were doing with Puff at the time. That was probably one of the biggest, most-influential rap albums of my life, because I had just never seen a collection of music that hit that hard at that time. They just had, like, real smashes coming out of a place…[when] the sound was usually so dark.”

8Ball and MJG – You Don’t Want Drama

https://youtu.be/5NISlLNk5d0

Also, during the interview, Drake talked about meeting another Memphis legend, Yo Gotti. Drake stated that his cousin’s boyfriend was managing Gotti at the time, and he was only 15-years-old. Drake recalls going to the house where they recorded some of their mixtapes.

Moreover, Drake expressed that his experience with Yo Gotti at that age really helped to enforce the idea that “this rap stuff really works.” He mentioned that he used to go to clubs with Gotti as well.

“They looked like the richest guys in the world to me. I had never seen so many cars, so much jewelry, so much…everything. They had the whole city just locked down. I think that was at the time they were butting heads with Three-Six, but it was just an amazing time to be there. I got to witness all of it.”

Speaking of Three-Six’s DJ Paul, according to Hip Hop DX, he just announced that he’s releasing a new studio album on June 6, called Year of the Six.

All in all, what do you think about Drake’s Memphis influences? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

[Image via Instagram]