{ "slug": "memphis-rap", "name": "Memphis Rap", "aliases": [ "memphis horrorcore", "three 6 mafia", "phonk" ], "description": "Memphis in the early nineties, on cassettes sold hand to hand: murky four-track tapes, horror-film samples, triplet hi-hats and a chanted hook — the blueprint for trap, made a decade before anyone in Atlanta used the word.", "origin": { "place": "Memphis, Tennessee", "year": 1993 }, "lineage": [ { "genre": "golden-age-hip-hop", "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/golden-age-hip-hop/", "inherited": "The form, received and immediately degraded. Memphis kept the verse and the sampler and threw out the crispness — these tapes are deliberately muddy, and the murk is the aesthetic rather than a budget problem." }, { "genre": "g-funk", "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/g-funk/", "inherited": "The tempo relationship and the local-tape economy. The West Coast showed that a region could build an industry outside New York, and Memphis inverted its sunlit tone into something closer to a horror film." } ], "bpm": { "min": 130, "max": 150 }, "updated": "2026-08-31", "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/memphis-rap/", "trackCount": 7, "curatedBy": [], "playlists": {}, "tracks": [ { "rank": 1, "trackKey": "tear-da-club-up-thugs--slob-on-my-knob", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/tear-da-club-up-thugs--slob-on-my-knob/", "title": "Slob on My Knob", "artist": "Tear Da Club Up Thugs", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/tear-da-club-up-thugs/", "year": 1999, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Originally a 1992 Juicy J tape track, and one of the most quoted verses in Southern rap. The triplet flow here is what Migos was doing twenty years later.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Tear%20Da%20Club%20Up%20Thugs%20Slob%20on%20My%20Knob", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=zI9VSvxY3Ho", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 2, "trackKey": "three-6-mafia--mystic-stylez", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/three-6-mafia--mystic-stylez/", "title": "Mystic Stylez", "artist": "Three 6 Mafia", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/three-6-mafia/", "year": 1995, "label": "Prophet", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "The album that made the sound a scene, and it sounds like it was recorded in a basement because it was. Occult imagery played completely straight.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Three%206%20Mafia%20Mystic%20Stylez", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=E00IhxUsK3k", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 3, "trackKey": "dj-squeeky--sweet-robbery", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/dj-squeeky--sweet-robbery/", "title": "Sweet Robbery", "artist": "DJ Squeeky", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/dj-squeeky/", "year": 1994, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Squeeky's tapes are where the slowed, chopped, hi-hat-driven Memphis beat is first fully formed. The most influential producer almost nobody outside the city can name.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/DJ%20Squeeky%20Sweet%20Robbery", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ttf9Kd_MbhQ", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 4, "trackKey": "tommy-wright-iii--playa-hataz", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/tommy-wright-iii--playa-hataz/", "title": "Playa Hataz", "artist": "Tommy Wright III", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/tommy-wright-iii/", "year": 1996, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Self-released, self-produced, self-distributed. The tape underground's purest practitioner, and rediscovered wholesale by the phonk producers of the 2010s.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Tommy%20Wright%20III%20Playa%20Hataz", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=fd3MuK6-W5k", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 5, "trackKey": "gangsta-boo--where-dem-dollas-at", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/gangsta-boo--where-dem-dollas-at/", "title": "Where Dem Dollas At", "artist": "Gangsta Boo", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/gangsta-boo/", "year": 1998, "label": "Relativity", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "The First Lady of Three 6, and the hardest voice on the roster. She held her own in a crew that gave her no room to.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Gangsta%20Boo%20Where%20Dem%20Dollas%20At", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=J1vxn1ica14", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 6, "trackKey": "three-6-mafia--late-nite-tip", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/three-6-mafia--late-nite-tip/", "title": "Late Nite Tip", "artist": "Three 6 Mafia", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/three-6-mafia/", "year": 1997, "label": "Relativity", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "The melodic side, and evidence the crew could write a hook when it suited them. They won an Academy Award nine years later, which nobody predicted.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Three%206%20Mafia%20Late%20Nite%20Tip", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi22dVn-B14", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 7, "trackKey": "dj-paul--north-memphis-area", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/dj-paul--north-memphis-area/", "title": "North Memphis Area", "artist": "DJ Paul", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/dj-paul/", "year": 1994, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Before the group consolidated, when the tapes were still local geography set to a beat. Paul's production is already unmistakable.", "alsoOn": [ { "kind": "curator", "slug": "nineteen-ninety-four", "name": "1994", "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/nineteen-ninety-four/" } ], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/DJ%20Paul%20North%20Memphis%20Area", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=cpzmsHB0INE", "exact": true } } } ] }