Juicy J has been an important figure in hip-hop history, and his work with Three 6 Mafia has gone on to prove more influential than ever before. In fact, there are few veterans who seem to appreciate the new generation as much as Juicy J does; the rapper's most recent mixtape Highly Intoxicated featured guest appearances from Smokepurpp, Cardi B, XXXTentacion, and Slim Jxmmi. Clearly Juicy J is in tune with the current sound, and seems intent on evolving with the times. On Highly Intoxicated, Juicy J worked closely with New Orleans duo $uicideBoy$, who have often been compared to Three 6 Mafia. And now, the Academy Award winning rapper has teased yet another step in their creative partnership.
Today, Juicy J spoke with XXL about a variety of topics, most notably his upcoming Rubba Band Business album and his new $uicideboy$ produced mixtape. As far as the album is concerned, Juicy describes the upcoming Rubba Band Business as "a mixture of old Three 6 Mafia with Lex Lugor beats, Metro Boomin beats, with Murda beats...It's like a mixture of the old and the new." Not only is the production lineup stacked, but Juicy J has secured some big guest appearances from Offset, A$AP Rocky, Travis Scott, Denzel Curry, Tory Lanez ("the ladies gonna love that") and more.
The conversation eventually turns to Highly Intoxicated, specifically the involvement of $uicideboy$. "$uicideBoy$, they're the truth, man," says Juicy J. "I'm executive producing their new album. Them guys are like family members, man. I was on Twitter and everybody was hitting me [like], "Yo, yo yo, you gotta check out these guys, man. $uicideBoy$, their music sound like y'all. It sound like old Three 6 Mafia." He goes on to announce that he will be executive producing the $uicideBoy$ upcoming album, and describes the studio sessions: "I'm doing some producing, but they doing most of the beats, too. I'm doing some of the beats with them, but I'm executive producing the whole project."
And when will we be hearing the project? Juicy J isn't in a rush. "Right now we're still working. They're on tour. I've been doing shows myself so we've been kinda missing each other on shows, but we talk to ’em every day," he explains. "They sending me music. I got the whole album right now. I've been playing the album but they're still cooking up more songs. They pushed it back. I feel like let's go back in and keep working. Ain't nothing wrong with keep on working, get it to where you feel it's right and then drop it; it's no rush.
By the way, if you've been sleeping on Highly Intoxicated, don't. It might very well be one of the year's hardest projects.
