Memphis hip-hop group Three 6 Mafia tore up the Reverb Stage at Louder Than Life on Saturday, September 28, 2024 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Photographer Jake Miller captured these photos from their performance:
Photographer Austin Cooper captured these photos from their performance:
Photographer Daniel Rojas captured these photos from their performance:
It’s hard to imagine what music would sound like today without Three 6 Mafia.
Their blood-curdling, progressive proto-trap and machine-gun flows have soaked into and defined the contemporary consciousness of hip-hop and pop. Their story as a collective traces back to 1991, when Memphis-based brothers DJ Paul and Lord Infamous formed the Backyard Posse with Juicy J.
But like supervillains, each of the six Mafia members has an origin story worth its own book.
The throughline among them?
A dedication to the art and science of rap music. Even before the Backyard Posse linked up with Koopsta Knicca, Gangsta Boo, and Crunchy Black, they all were already dynamic MCs, producers, and DJs with a deep catalogue of locally distributed cassettes.
As the group entered the new millennium, the murky, horror-inspired sound that began with their 1995 underground classic, Mystic Stylez, would reach a global audience. They became progenitors of hip-hop’s blinged-out crunk phase, defined by the trunk-rattling When the Smoke Clears: Sixty 6, Sixty 1. A string of party-starting, genre-defining singles would follow, as well as arguably their biggest legacy: the rise of trap music, which would spread from the Deep South across the country.
“Hard Out Here For a Pimp” earned them an Academy Award (!!!) for Best Original Song in 2006, as the world woke up to their impact.
Follow the group on Instagram, here.