New Orleans-based gangsta rapper Juvenile was born Terius Gray. After beginning his performing career while in his teens, he released a 1995 album on Warlock titled Being Myself. He eventually crossed paths with Cash Money label owners Ronald "Suga Slim" and Brian "Baby" Williams, who issued 1996's Solja Rags; the album became a major... [+] Read More

New Orleans-based gangsta rapper Juvenile was born Terius Gray. After beginning his performing career while in his teens, he released a 1995 album on Warlock titled Being Myself. He eventually crossed paths with Cash Money label owners Ronald "Suga Slim" and Brian "Baby" Williams, who issued 1996's Solja Rags; the album became a major underground hit, and set the stage for the release of 1998's 400 Degreez. In 1999, with Juvenile's popularity growing, Solja Rags was reissued nationally, and Warlock jumped on the bandwagon with a remixed version of Being Myself. The year ended with the release of a new studio effort, Tha G-Code, followed by Project English two years later in 2001. In 2002 he left Cash Money and formed his own collective, the UTP Playas (Uptown Project Playas), with whom he recorded a posse album, The Compilation. The album went nowhere and a year later he was back on Cash Money and releasing Juve the Great, which featured the chart-topping hit "Slow Motion." The 2005 "Noila Clap" single from the UTP Playas was another big track, and Juvenile was ready once again to shop for a new label. As he was signing a new contract with Asylum, his Slidell, LA, home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The hurricane and its grim aftermath were hot topics on his chart-topping 2006 album Reality Check. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Eightball & MJG may have never made a significant impact nationally during their rise to fame in the 1990s, yet they indeed made an incredible impact throughout the South, where the Memphis-bred duo pioneered what countless Dirty South rappers would emulate years later. The two began on the Southern underground circuit, where they peddled their... [+] Read More

Eightball & MJG may have never made a significant impact nationally during their rise to fame in the 1990s, yet they indeed made an incredible impact throughout the South, where the Memphis-bred duo pioneered what countless Dirty South rappers would emulate years later. The two began on the Southern underground circuit, where they peddled their tapes in such major markets as Memphis, Houston, and Atlanta. After a few years of this, Eightball & MJG helped launch Suave House Records in 1993 and attract a pair of national distribution deals soon afterward. By the end of the '90s, just as the Dirty South movement broke nationally, the duo issued their final Suave House album, the classic In Our Lifetime, Vol. 1 (1999), and declared themselves Southern rap pioneers. Few argued, as the two, and particularly Eightball, made countless cameo appearances for an array of fellow Southern rappers, earning the duo respect for their work ethic and diplomacy as well as their mature perspective and street-smart wits. In later years, Eightball & MJG finally began flirting with crossover success, ultimately signing to P Diddy's Bad Boy label in 2002.

Eightball (Premro Smith) and MJG (Marlon Jermaine Goodwin) grew up in the rough Orange Mound area of Memphis and met at Ridgeway Junior High in 1984. They shared a passion for hip-hop, which hadn't yet made a strong impact in the South, and soon formed a partnership. After years of mixtape work, later re-released on the Lyrics of a Pimp (1997) and Memphis Under World (2000) compilations, the two started Suave House Records with savvy 20-year-old CEO Tony Draper. The label released Eightball & MJG's debut full-length, Comin' Out Hard (1993), a cult classic produced entirely by the duo and popularized by the song "Armed Robbery."

Each successive year brought with it a new album: On the Outside Looking In (1994) and On Top of the World (1995), the latter distributed nationally by Relativity. These releases continued to expand the duo's reach throughout the South, so much so that Universal Records offered Draper a lucrative distribution deal in 1997 for Suave House. Eightball & MJG afterward released a pair of solo albums -- Lost (1997) and No More Glory (1998), respectively -- and went on to record their crowning achievement, In Our Lifetime, Vol. 1 (1999). The album elevated the duo to nationally recognized status and earned universal acclaim, ultimately standing as one of the definitive Dirty South albums of the era, alongside Goodie Mob's Soul Food (1995) and OutKast's late-'90s work.

Eightball & MJG parted ways with Suave House in 1999 and maintained a relatively low profile for a few years until they notably signed with P Diddy's Bad Bay label in 2002, recording an album for Jcor (Space Age 4 Eva [2000]) and scoring a widespread club hit ("Buck Bounce") in the meantime. A new track, "Don't Make", started to appear on mixtapes in 2003 and was followed by the duo's first album for Bad Boy, Living Legends, in May of 2004. The video Street Heat: Live and the album Ghettoville: The Soundtracks both landed in 2005. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Before Three 6 Mafia was Three 6 Mafia, they called themselves Triple Six Mafia, a slightly more blatant allusion to their dark themes. In the late '90s, once Three 6 Mafia had risen to superstar success in the South's rap scene, the Smoked Out label repackaged their early underground recordings into compilations and released them under the... [+] Read More

Before Three 6 Mafia was Three 6 Mafia, they called themselves Triple Six Mafia, a slightly more blatant allusion to their dark themes. In the late '90s, once Three 6 Mafia had risen to superstar success in the South's rap scene, the Smoked Out label repackaged their early underground recordings into compilations and released them under the Triple Six Mafia moniker. Titled Underground, Vol. 1, the first compilation features 15 tracks that date back to 1991-1994, before the group changed its name and debuted as Three 6 Mafia on Mystic Stylez in 1995. Further volumes followed in successive years. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide [-] Hide

OutKast's blend of gritty Southern soul, fluid raps, and the rolling G-funk of their Organized Noize production crew epitomized the Atlanta wing of hip-hop's rising force, the Dirty South, during the late '90s. Along with Goodie Mob, OutKast took Southern hip-hop in bold, innovative new directions: less reliance on aggression, more positivity... [+] Read More

OutKast's blend of gritty Southern soul, fluid raps, and the rolling G-funk of their Organized Noize production crew epitomized the Atlanta wing of hip-hop's rising force, the Dirty South, during the late '90s. Along with Goodie Mob, OutKast took Southern hip-hop in bold, innovative new directions: less reliance on aggression, more positivity and melody, thicker arrangements, and intricate lyrics. After Dré and Big Boi hit number one on the rap charts with their first single, "Player's Ball," the duo embarked on a run of platinum albums spiked with several hit singles, enjoying numerous critical accolades in addition to their commercial success.

André Benjamin (Dré) and Antwan Patton (Big Boi) attended the same high school in the Atlanta borough of East Point, and several lyrical battles made each gain respect for the other's skills. They formed OutKast and were pursued by Organized Noize Productions, hitmakers for TLC and Xscape. Signed to the local LaFace label just after high school, OutKast recorded and released "Player's Ball," then watched the single rise to number one on the rap charts. It slipped from the top spot only after six weeks, was certified gold, and created a buzz for a full-length release. That album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, hit the Top 20 in 1994 and was certified platinum by the end of the year. Dré and Big Boi also won Best New Rap Group of the Year at the 1995 Source Awards.

OutKast returned with a new album in 1996, releasing ATLiens that August; it hit number two and went platinum with help from the gold-selling single "Elevators (Me & You)" (number 12 pop, number one rap), as well as the Top 40 title track. Aquemini followed in 1998, also hitting number two and going double platinum. There were no huge hit singles this time around, but critics lavishly praised the album's unified, progressive vision, hailing it as a great leap forward and including it on many year-end polls. Unfortunately, in a somewhat bizarre turn of events, OutKast was sued over the album's lead single, "Rosa Parks," by none other than the civil rights pioneer herself, who claimed that the group had unlawfully appropriated her name to promote their music, also objecting to some of the song's language. The initial court decision dismissed the suit in late 1999.

Dré modified his name to André 3000 before the group issued its hotly anticipated fourth album, Stankonia, in late 2000. Riding the momentum of uniformly excellent reviews and the stellar singles "B.O.B." and "Ms. Jackson," Stankonia debuted at number two and went triple platinum in just a few months; meanwhile, "Ms. Jackson" became their first number one pop single the following February. 2003's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, a double album, debuted at number one and spawned a pair of number one singles: the Dré-fronted "Hey Ya" and the Big Boi-fronted "The Way You Move." Three years later, as breakup rumors continued to swirl, they returned with the feature film Idlewild and an accompanying soundtrack. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide [-] Hide

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Aging does not become most hip-hop artists, nor do reunions. However, there are always exceptions that prove the rule and, apparently, In Our Lifetime, Vol. 1 is one of those cases. Eightball & MJG went on hiatus in 1998, and they both released solo albums that weren't bad but weren't particularly noteworthy, either. Their reunion on In Our... [+] Read More

Aging does not become most hip-hop artists, nor do reunions. However, there are always exceptions that prove the rule and, apparently, In Our Lifetime, Vol. 1 is one of those cases. Eightball & MJG went on hiatus in 1998, and they both released solo albums that weren't bad but weren't particularly noteworthy, either. Their reunion on In Our Lifetime, Vol. 1 is another story altogether. Working with producers Organized Noize, T-Mix, and Black, the duo has found an appealing variation on the Dirty South sound -- a smooth groove that recalls classic late-'70s/early-'80s funk, while taking chances with its drum machine rhythms and the overall sonic texture. Even the hardest-hitting cuts, "Get It Crunk" and "We Started This," have a spacy feel to their production. It all holds together, and none of the guest artists -- including Cee-Lo, Big Duke, Nina Creque, and OutKast -- detracts from Eightball & MJG, who have written some of their finest lyrics yet. The entire album is designed as an oral history of their past, and since they have a loose narrative to follow, they've wound up creating their most coherent -- and arguably best -- album yet. Very few rappers could claim to get better with age, but it seems like Eightball & MJG may be doing just that. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Among the flurry of Cash Money releases during the late '90s, 400 Degreez certainly stands out, and not just as Juvenile's shining moment but also as the album that forced everyone to suddenly take this Dirty South collective very seriously. Before 400 Degreez, Cash Money had been operating relatively well, securing a distribution deal with... [+] Read More

Among the flurry of Cash Money releases during the late '90s, 400 Degreez certainly stands out, and not just as Juvenile's shining moment but also as the album that forced everyone to suddenly take this Dirty South collective very seriously. Before 400 Degreez, Cash Money had been operating relatively well, securing a distribution deal with Universal and broadening its audience with every successive release. But nothing prepared anyone for the success of 400 Degreez, particularly its two anthemic singles, the tongue-twisting "Ha" and the booty-calling "Back That Azz Up." These two songs alone make 400 Degreez noteworthy. They're absolutely two of the best songs to come out of the late-'90s Dirty South boom, and for years to come they established prototypes for countless subsequent hits. Moreover, two remixes of "Ha" come late on the album, one with the Hot Boys, the other with Jay-Z. These four highlights -- "Ha," "Back That Azz Up," and the "Ha" remixes -- break up the album, somewhat concealing the filler. And, yes, there is filler here, as with any Cash Money album, but even it is worthwhile, either because of Juvenile's carefully structured rhyming or producer Mannie Fresh's seemingly bottomless well of hot beats. Among the singles and the filler here, there are also a few great album tracks as well. In particular, "Flossin Season" features some incredibly brash boasts from the Big Tymers, and "Rich Niggaz" features an absolutely frantic beat that ricochets on for five breathtaking minutes. All of this, along with perfect timing, dropping just as the Dirty South broke into the mainstream, made 400 Degreez a phenomenal release for Cash Money, quite arguably the label's crowning achievement. This album, of course, made Juvenile a superstar and, in turn, towered over him for years as the achievement by which he would always be measured. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide [-] Hide

It is on OutKast's debut album that the fledgling production team Organized Noize began forging one of the most distinctive production sounds in popular music in the '90s: part hip-hop; part live, Southern-fried guitar licks and booty-thick bass runs; and part lazy, early-'70s soul. The album was not only artistically successful but also thrived... [+] Read More

It is on OutKast's debut album that the fledgling production team Organized Noize began forging one of the most distinctive production sounds in popular music in the '90s: part hip-hop; part live, Southern-fried guitar licks and booty-thick bass runs; and part lazy, early-'70s soul. The album was not only artistically successful but also thrived commercially, leaping into the Top 20 album chart on the back of the outstanding hit single "Player's Ball" and eventually going platinum. Although a little bit too dependent on overly simplistic and programmed snare beats, the music is unconditionally excellent, with languid, mellow melodies sliding atop rapid, mechanical drums. Organized Noize already had their distinguishing sound figured out, down to the last twanged, wah-wahed note. But what makes Southernplayalisticadillacmuzick such a wonderful album has even more to do with the presence of its rappers, Dre and Big Boi. No one sounded like OutKast in 1994 -- a mixture of lyrical acuity, goofball humor, Southern drawl, funky timing, and legitimate offbeat personalities. Few rappers of the '90s have displayed such an inventive sense of rhyme flow either, and few rap artists in general have ears as attuned to creating such catchy melodic and vocal hooks. Almost every song has some sort of tuneful chant or repetitive hook that marks it as instantly memorable. There are occasional dull and mediocre spots, such as "Call of Da Wild" and the overlong "Funky Ride," that can't even be elevated by a head-nodding bassline or a tricky rhyme. Such low points, however, are far outshined by the brilliant moments. Already an extremely strong showing, OutKast would continue to develop into one of the finest, most consistently challenging (not to mention booty-shaking) rap groups of the decade. ~ Stanton Swihart, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Though they were likely lost on casual hip-hop fans, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik was full of subtle indications that OutKast were a lot more inventive than your average Southern playas. Their idiosyncrasies bubbled to the surface on their sophomore effort, ATLiens, an album of spacy sci-fi funk performed on live instruments. Largely... [+] Read More

Though they were likely lost on casual hip-hop fans, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik was full of subtle indications that OutKast were a lot more inventive than your average Southern playas. Their idiosyncrasies bubbled to the surface on their sophomore effort, ATLiens, an album of spacy sci-fi funk performed on live instruments. Largely abandoning the hard-partying playa characters of their debut, Dre and Big Boi develop a startlingly fresh, original sound to go along with their futuristic new personas. George Clinton's space obsessions might seem to make P-Funk obvious musical source material, but ATLiens ignores the hard funk in favor of a smooth, laid-back vibe that perfectly suits the duo's sense of melody. The album's chief musical foundation is still soul, especially the early-'70s variety, but other influences begin to pop up as well. Some tracks have a spiritual, almost gospel feel (though only in tone, not lyrical content), and the Organized Noize production team frequently employs the spacious mixes and echo effects of dub reggae in creating the album's alien soundscapes. In addition to the striking musical leap forward, Dre and Big Boi continue to grow as rappers; their flows are getting more tongue-twistingly complex, and their lyrics more free-associative. Despite a couple of overly sleepy moments during the second half, ATLiens is overall a smashing success thanks to its highly distinctive style, and stands as probably OutKast's most focused work (though it isn't as wildly varied as subsequent efforts). The album may have alienated (pun recognized, but not intended) the more conservative wing of the group's fans, but it broke new ground for Southern hip-hop and marked OutKast as one of the most creatively restless and ambitious hip-hop groups of the '90s. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide [-] Hide