Juicy J has boldly claimed that he makes money from the vast majority of modern rap songs.
Sitting down for an interview with Wiz Khalifa for LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill channel, the Three 6 Mafia legend spoke about how the group’s enduring influence has become a healthy revenue stream for him.
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“I feel like the new trends is the old trends because everybody’s sampling Three 6 Mafia, so I’m already in. ‘Cause we started the trends,” he said when asked about Hip Hop’s current evolution.
“On some real shit, [I receive clearance requests for] five to six samples a day. I get paid off of pretty much every song, like 90 percent of the songs that’s out right now.”
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Juicy went on to say that he was thankful for the love he gets shown by younger artists: “It’s a blessing. I love when people sample. I just approve, approve. Everytime I get that email, I approve.
“So I feel like I don’t really have to adapt to the trends ’cause all the music sounds like and has the flows of old Three 6 Mafia days, which I love. So I just keep doing what I’ve been doing.”
While it’s possible that Juicy J was exaggerating slightly with his figures, Three 6 Mafia have heavily influenced generations of younger Hip Hop acts, including some of today’s biggest stars.
Metro Boomin, who has long cited the Memphis rap pioneers as one of his biggest inspirations, essentially reworked Three 6’s “Gotta Touch ‘Em” for his and Future‘s “Like That,” which not only topped the Billboard Hot 100 but ignited the long-simmering beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake.
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Drake, Cardi B, Travis Scott, Offset, Big Sean, A$AP Rocky, ScHoolboy Q and many more have also sampled Three 6 Mafia in recent years, while Migos‘ signature triplet flow could also be traced back to the Oscar-winning group.
Juicy has previously argued that Three 6 Mafia should be considered one of the greatest rap groups of all time because of how newer artists continue to sample them.
“Peace & love to Three6Mafia great to witness our Music still going strong like it never lef , people across the world sampling & remaking the songs we are grateful thank you All #greatestgroupofalltime,” he wrote on social media last year.
He previously opened up about what led to the end of the group in 2021, putting the blame on drugs.
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“From heroin to meth to cocaine, all kinds of pills,” he said during an episode of Spotify’s The Bridge: 50 Years of Hip Hop podcast. “A lot of drugs were consumed during the times we were together. When everybody was sober and shit, everybody’s on the same page. But when cocaine’s involved, you know things change. But I’m not pointing a figure at nobody, it happened.”
He added: “It’s the drugs, I can’t think of nothing else. That was the main thing that was really fucking everything up. You know, people weren’t showing up at the studio, people weren’t handling the business, the business was crazy and everything was folding. It’s just the drugs.”
