An MTV reality show starring the group, Adventures in Hollyhood, ran for eight episodes in 2007, though the oddest byproduct of fame occurred four years later when DJ Paul beat out cast members from The Sopranos, The Hills, and The Real Housewives of New Jersey to win the VH1 restaurant competition, Famous Food. Three 6 Mafia followed their historic achievement with a 2008 American Music Award for favorite rap group. Even more notable, they were the first African American rap act to win an Academy Award, an honor that unites Three 6 Mafia in the history books with fellow Memphian Isaac Hayes, who was the first black musical artist to win an Oscar in 1972 for “Theme from Shaft.” Watch the acceptance speech on YouTube » Not only did it make Three 6 Mafia the first rap group to win an Academy Award (solo artist Eminem had previously won), they became the first rap act to perform at the Oscars. The Oscar was groundbreaking on a number of levels. Mainstream awareness – and acceptance – culminated in 2006 at the 78th annual Academy Awards, when they won Best Original Song for “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” their soundtrack contribution with then-Hypnotize Minds artist Frayser Boy (Cedric Coleman) to the Craig Brewer film Hustle & Flow. Most Known Unknown Hits Stay Fly Roll Wit It Dont Violate Swervin Knock Tha Black Off Yo Ass - Knock Tha Black Off Yo Poppin My Collar. Three 6 Mafia, in fact, rarely get credit for the role women played in the development of their distinctive look and sound. Tracklist of Most Known Unknown of Three 6 Mafia by. 2000 for a solo career, another female rapper, La Chat (Chastity Daniels) briefly stepped in. Coming out of a Bluff City underground rap scene that gave MC Hammer his Gangsta Walk and made Atlanta the crossroads of “crunk,” Three 6 Mafia plied an intense, lyrically and musically dark “horrorcore” style that quickly set them apart from other Dirty South gangsta rappers including the hardest of the hardcore to emerge from Memphis such as Al Kapone, 8Ball & MJG, Gangsta Pat, Kingpin Skinny Pimp, and DJ Squeeky.īy their first album under the Three 6 Mafia moniker, 1995’s Mystic Stylez, founding members DJ Paul (Paul Beauregard), Lord Infamous (Paul’s half-brother Ricky Dunigan), and Juicy J (Jordan Houston), had added three more members: Crunchy Black (Darnell Carlton), Koopsta Knicca (Robert Cooper), and Gangsta Boo (Lola Mitchell). Success, however, has been two decades in the making for the group, who formed in the early 1990s as the Backyard Posse.