DJ Paul recently reflected on Three 6 Mafia’s alleged 1990s beef with Bone thugs-n-harmony. During a conversation on Blurred Culture’s Live With Steve Lobel, the Memphis-rapper explained that the conflict was a “misunderstanding” based off of each group having similar styles.
“It wasn’t a real beef,” DJ Paul says. “It was more of a misunderstanding because we was rapping about triple six, devil shit, and tongue twisting over slow beats. We had been doing that since 1989 and then all of a sudden when Bone came out—I think it was 1993… We didn’t know the Faces Of Death album because it was their underground stuff. Just like they probably didn’t know our underground stuff. When they came out with “Thuggish Ruggish Bone” and all of that stuff and we hear somebody kind of on our same style: Faces Of Death, redrum, muder, 6-6-6, tongue twisting. We were like, ‘Damn these dudes done stole our style!’ [Laughs] That’s why we got mad about it. We ran into each other a couple of times and there was a push or something. But there was never no fight or nothing like that.”
DJ Paul also explained that while the conflict stemmed from a misunderstanding, the two groups eventually squashed the alleged beef.
“After a while we became cool,” he says. “Our first song was with Krayzie Bone on Project Pat’s Ghetty Green album maybe in 1997 [or] 1998 or something like that. We’ve been cool ever since then. We’re actually talking about doing a tour together soon. We did some shows together. They was fun as fuck. We had a blast with Bone.”
Krazyzie Bone Explains Three 6 Mafia Beef
DX spoke with Krayzie Bone in 2013 about Bone Thugs’ conflict with Three 6 Mafia. During the conversation, Krayzie said that Bone first became aware of the tension through fan mail.
“The whole beef with Three 6, that was something I really never even understood,” Krayzie said. “What was the beef about? From what I hear, it all started when we was reading fan mail back in the day. We went to the office at Ruthless Records and opened up the fan mail… I had read it and some chick from Memphis was telling me, ‘There’s this group out here. They made an album that’s on the radio and they dissin’ y’all, saying that y’all stole they style… They call themselves Three 6 Mafia.’
“So we heard about it, and one time we had a show in Memphis. And we was getting ready to walk into the show and we heard somebody scream out, ‘Thuggish ruggish bustas!’ We turned around, and we was like ‘What?’ We ready to run down there. Our security was telling us, ‘Y’all getting ready to go on stage and do a show and get paid. They in the parking lot. Let’s keep going and get this money.’
“I really didn’t understand what the beef was until I talked to somebody on the phone one day. It was a conference call with Relativity Records or Live Records or something. And they was like, ‘We just want y’all know to know it ain’t no beef, it ain’t no nothing.’ All that stuff was stupid. We was young. Everybody was young… So when the opportunity came to work with Gangsta Boo, I was like, ‘Man, let’s make it happen. Let’s squash some of this beef that’s out there. Let’s do this. It’s about business, for real.’”
Watch the full interview with DJ Paul below:
For more on Krayzie Bone, view the DX Daily below:
MAFIAAAA!!!
how many times these niggas gonna explain this?
For real. They must get tired of talking about it. But that’s the media for you, always wanting to start shit.
Bone Thugs n Harmony was my favorite rap group of all time. They still are.
I remember being in Memphis from time to time when this was happening. Who would have thought they’d not only outlast them in the game but end up being much bigger then Bone.
What the hell are you talking about? I like both groups, but Three 6 were never as big as Bone Thugs. 3/6 only have two platinum albums, When the Smoke Clears and Most Known Unknown. Bone has sold 17 million albums in the U.S. alone… And what do you mean they “outlast” them. Bone have been back with all 5 members for a while now and never really broke up. They are still putting out albums. Three 6 have been loosing members over the past 15 years with each album. Now they’re known as “Da Mafia 6ix” because Juicy J is making watered down pop rap now.