Underground Vol. I

the take

Early Three 6 Mafia will always have my heart for helping me develop my own individual music taste as I know it today. With that being said, this compilation is a mixed bag for me. As a whole, it's still as amazing as fuck like it was when I first gave it a listen all the way back in 2009. One thing I'll definitely give DJ Paul and Juicy J credit for is how ahead of its time their eerie and dark atmospheric production was, as it's still influential in modern hip-hop today. However, there's no denying that there are some duds sprinkled throughout this that doesn't sound as good to me as it once did. The worst offender is "Don't Be Scared". I appreciate the pro-condom safe sex message Juicy J preaches (if you want to call it that, I guess?), but the execution of the track was unsuccessful to me. "Fuck All Dem Hoes" and "Niggaz Ain't Barin' Dat" are also tracks that are tolerable while listening to the album from top to bottom, but I wouldn't miss them if they were removed. On the flipside, there are numerous highlights that perfectly capture the 666 Mafia sound they were looking for, such as "Playa Hataz", "Ridin' n' tha Chevy Pt. 2", and "Where's da Bud", all of which are considered underground Three 6 classics among fans. While this compilation grew off of me in recent years, I can definitely see why people would rate this higher than I would. It's kind of hard to say this is terrible, anyway, considering how many songs on here were sampled and reused in future Three 6 Mafia songs and in the industry as a whole.