Gangsta Boo: Three 6 Mafia member and Southern rap pioneer dies aged 43 | Rap

Gangsta Boo, a former member of Memphis rap group Three 6 Mafia, has died at the age of 43, his bandmate DJ Paul has confirmed. No cause of death has been shared.

The rapper, born Lola Chantrelle Mitchell, joined the group in 1995, after which he changed his name from Triple Six Mafia to Three 6 Mafia. That year she appeared on their debut album, Mystic Stylez, which became a cult classic, a Southern hip-hop record and – with lyrics delving into gore and the occult – a defining example of the Horrorcore genre. .

The album “paved the way for an entire subset of Memphis rap and would influence artists for decades to come,” Complex reviewer Justin Ivey wrote on the 20th anniversary of its release. The magazine described Gangsta Boo’s delivery as “commanding, taking over any lead when it arrives.”

This started a wave of mainstream success for the band. In 1996 they released Chapter 1: The End, and signed with Sony to release Chapter 2: World Domination a year later, which was certified gold with sales of over 800,000 in the United States.

The band’s own label, Hypnotize Minds, released Gangsta Boo’s debut solo album, Inquiring Minds, in 1998, which peaked at No. 15 on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and produced the enduring hit Where Dem. Dollars At.

Musicians including Missy ElliotQuestlove, GloRilla, Ty Dolla$ign, Flo Milli and Cut paid tribute to Gangsta Boo. “I don’t have the words yet,” the Run the Jewels rapper El-P wrote on Instagram. “I just know that we lost part of our family today. we love you Lola. Thank you my friend. our sister forever.

Gangsta Boo was born in Memphis on August 7, 1979 and started rapping as a teenager, having written poetry from an early age. “I come from a middle-class family that kind of moved to the neighborhood after my parents divorced, so I had the best of both worlds,” she told iD magazine in 2014. . “It’s just Memphis. It’s ratchet.

She caught the attention of her classmate DJ Paul when she rapped on a talent show at the age of 14. in 2012. “I was asked to be on more Three 6 Mafia songs and I just got into the band like that. People kept asking me. She was 15 when she recorded her verses for Mystic Stylez.

Now considered a pioneer of women’s rap, Gangsta Boo told iD that she is made aware on a daily basis of how women are treated differently in hip-hop. “Men are more chauvinistic than they even think, really. I’ve had to go through some things where I’ve had to push a boob or two to get things done, while a man doesn’t. He need only scratch their balls and shake hands with a CEO to get their deal signed.

Although isolated in her field, she declined the music industry’s game of pitting female rappers against each other. “Everyone is different, I don’t consider it a competitive sport. I prefer to compete with these guys. I don’t really watch these female dogs.

Three 6 Mafia’s 2000 album When the Smoke Clears: Sixty 6, Sixty 1 was certified Platinum. This would be Gangsta Boo’s last album with the band. She left to focus on her solo career, but around the release of her second album, Both Worlds*69, she took a break from the spotlight, finding Christianity to provide relief from issues such as depression, addiction and the feeling that she was “being sabotaged in my own camp”.

She would release another solo album, Inquiring Minds II: The Soap Opera, in 2003 – and a collaborative EP, Witch, with rapper Three 6 Mafia La Chat, in 2014.

In 2012, she told Passion of the Weiss that she dreamed of leaving rap to open a beauty shop or work as an executive in the music industry: “I’m just not going to waste my time and the rest of my years trying to detonate standing up, as they say.

Over the past two decades, Gangsta Boo has collaborated with Outkast, Lil Jon, TI, E-40, Run the Jewels, Blood Orange, Gucci Mane, Junglepussy, Yelawolf, and Latto.

She intended to release a new project in 2023, she told Billboard in December. “I have to respectfully and humbly admit that I’m the role model. I hear my cadence in a lot of rapping men and women,” Gangsta Boo told the magazine.

“I used to run away from him. Before, I didn’t even want to give myself flowers because I was so discreet and humble, but I’m on a fucking shit. It’s time to claim what’s mine. I’m one of the main bitches.