Fans of Memphis' Three 6 Mafia were undoubtedly excited back in 2013 when DJ Paul announced that five of the original six members would be reuniting for a series of new releases. Rebranded as Da Mafia 6ix, the group's mixtape 6IX Commandments--and the more recent Hear Some Evil--featured a return to their horrorcore roots. Despite this back to basics approach, many fans were disappointed to hear that Juicy J would no longer be appearing as an official member of the crew. In an interview with VladTV, Project Pat finally offered an explanation for his brother's absence.
"[DJ Paul's] trying to keep the Three 6 Mafia reunion situation hyped up or whatever but no, J not going to be part of it," he said. "He saying it's the old members. He just saying he forming a different clique. Kind of like how the Tear Da Club Up Thugs was Juicy, Paul and Lord Infamous."
Pat also addressed rumors that Crunchy Black was booted from the group a few years ago.
"Crunchy didn't get kicked out of the group," Pat said. "He was saying like [winning an] Oscar and all that stuff was too much pressure for him. Maybe he was going through something personal. I don't know the full scoop on it or why he did that because to me that was a bad decision... When they won the Oscar man it was unreal. I didn't think it was going to happen. We knew nothing about it."
[Update: DJ Paul Responds]
In a HHDX exclusive interview, Three 6 Mafia's DJ Paul addressed his colleague's claims regarding why Juicy is no longer working with the group.
"I got a lot of love for Pat and always will--we made a lot of hits together," DJ Paul began. "You know, [Pat’s] 'Don’t Save Her,' I wrote and produced it for him. It’s my voice on the hook. Me and Juicy produced Mista Don’t Play [Everythangs Workin] with him, every single project--all his albums. Every single Project Pat album cover, I physically hand-drew and designed myself. Every single one, from Ghetty Green to Layin Da Smack Down to Mista Don’t Play--all of them. I was the one on the phone with Pen & Pixel at my mother’s house, using the fax machine, faxing hand-drawn pictures to them. So, whatever. The whole thing’s just funny and I don’t know where none of it come from.”
That being said, he does go on to confirm that Juicy's stardom definitely has some influence in his decisions.
"I already knew there wasn’t gonna be no Three 6 Mafia reunion, so I hadn’t never even spoke about that,” he said. "On my Instagram, when fans be asking, 'Is there gon’ be a reunion,' I’ll just be like, 'Probably not.' I mean, probably not if you’re doing a song with some of these folks, like some of the people Juicy doing songs with. You know, he good, but you doing a song with Katy Perry or someone like that and you doing good, you ain’t gonna be in no rush to go to no studio full of those niggas doing cocaine and arguing and fighting. Well, it’s not like that anymore, but that’s kinda how crazy the group was as he might remember then, when we were all together 14 years ago.”
Despite their different paths, Paul maintains that he and Juicy remain good friends.
