Gangsta Boo / Still from "Kill Bitches"“Just google me!”That’s the slightly exasperated, though not unkind response I receive when I ask Gangsta Boo to recount her early 90s exploits with Three 6 Mafia. She’s got a point—simply put, Three 6 Mafia are among rap’s all time most influential groups, with echoes of their music in everything from Migos to A$AP Rocky. Gangsta Boo was involved from the early days; she joined before the 1995 release of the group’s seminal Mystic Stylez. Boo embraced their dark, supernatural themes, referring to herself as The Devil’s Daughter. After leaving the group after the release of When the Smoke Clears: Sixty 6, Sixty 1 in 2000 over financial disputes, she’s continued her solo career with a steady stream of mixtapes and albums. Her most recent release was 2014's Underground Cassette Tape Music, her collaboration with Houston rapper, producer, and Noisey favorite Beatking. It offered a thrilling blend of Houston bass weight with meditative Memphis trippiness.Last year also saw a whole new generation of fans discover Gangsta Boo after she delivered a scene-stealing verse on the Run the Jewels song "Love Again (Akinyele Back)." Now, after a year spent performing at huge festivals alongside Run The Jewels, Boo is gearing up for a new EP called Candy, Diamonds, and Pills. The video for the lead single, “Kill Bitches,” is premiering below. It's captivating, and the song takes no prisoners: "It's like an every day job not to kill bitches," Gangsta Boo spits. She may have an illustrious past, but Gangsta Boo is thinking about the future.In what ways do you think you’ve been an inspiration to the rap game?
I was before my time—the group Three 6 Mafia is pretty much what people are doing now. Its a particular sound, a particular cadence, flow pattern. I hear it a lot, not just in female rappers but in general. Its a Memphis thing. I think the city of Memphis inspired a lot of artists from crunk, to being buck, and ratchet.How did you develop the Gangsta Boo persona?
Just me being a tomboy. I've got three brothers, and the group I was in had five dudes, so it was pretty easy, pretty much a product of my environment. Memphis is a hard place to be. If you could survive Memphis you could pretty much survive anywhere.Can you tell me about when you very first started rapping?
Honestly, if people want to know more about me they just should google me, straight up. I would tell people, if they want to know the history just google me.I’m interested in your relationship with La Chat, with whom you released the Witch mixtape last year—
I just want to talk about my new project, Candy, Diamonds, And Pills. I don’t want to talk about no female rappers, at all. I don’t want my interview to be based on what female bitch I’m getting along with. I want to talk about me, my album, my future, and that’s it.Got you—can you tell me about your most recent mixtape, Underground Casette Tape Music?
Yeah, it was a project I did with my boy Beatking—it was some of my best work. That came about cause when I left the tour I was doing with [reunited Three 6 Mafia group] Da Mafia 6IX—I left the tour a little early, and I wanted to work on some new music, and people was telling me about Beatking. He wanted to work with me, and he sent me a song to get on. I liked the beat, and we just had good chemistry, and I was like, “Let’s just do a collaboration.” Female and male don’t often collaborate often as far as a duo, and he was just sending me hooks and shit. And I was like, “Damn, I like this dude.” He’s quick, he on it, he sending me shit that sounds like me. It was a perfect combo.Yeah I thought I was such an interesting mix of Houston and Memphis.
Yeah, I put it together, he came with the beats. It was a good concept, and that’s why we’re working together on Candy, Diamonds, and Pills. I work better with males.Why is that?
I don’t know, I just do. Most people don’t want to hear a bunch of females on a song. It could be cool, but sometimes female voices get annoying to me. My voice gets annoying to me, sometimes. So it’s good to have it balanced out with a guy sometimes.So tell me about the new mixtape.
It’s called Candy Diamond and Pills. It's an EP. I just wanted to drop some music 'cause I’ve been doing a lot of traveling with Run The Jewels—hella new fans, performed at Coachella—so I just wanted to drop some new music so my old and new fans can know what I’ve been doing. It’s going to be seven songs, and it’s got a good vibe. Beatking helping me with the production, so it’s going to be good.In what scenarios do you do your best writing?
I do write a lot of good music when i’m in the hood, when i’m in a poorer area, trap house type shit. I come up with a lot of good stuff either freestyling in a basic studio or writing in a project-type style house. I hardly come up with good material in the suburbs or a top-notch grade A studio. There has to be something hood about it that I can relate to.Where do you draw inspiration for the dark, paranormal themes in a lot of your work?
I’m kind of weird [laughs]. I like to watch a lot of crime stuff. I mean, I’m from the group Three 6 Mafia—I don’t worship the devil, but I’m interested with the dark side of things. I consider myself a horrorcore rapper sometimes, and I embrace it very well, because I’ve mastered it. I do a lot of research. I watch so much killer shit. I like to know why the human brain does what it does and makes people think a certain way.Who’s the most interesting serial killer to you?
I would say Charles Manson because he manipulated people to do what he wanted them to do without actually doing it himself. And that stuff recently, with the newscaster, was so creepy. This dude was crazy. The fact they didn’t even see it coming, that was so creepy. But that type of stuff doesn’t really inspire me to write, because I don’t write creepy music no more. I did a lot of that with Three 6. We were younger, we were talking about a lot of devil stuff, a lot of biblical stuff as well. I used to sit and read certain passages out of the Bible and turn it into raps. I did that on one of our songs “Throw Yo Setts In Da Air” at about 16 years old. I used to call myself the Devil’s Daughter. I don’t really do that as much as I used to 'cause most of my raps now are just on some reality rap type shit.How would you describe the sound of the new project?
For myself i just like to make smoking music that people can ride and vibe to. Not necessarily party to. Me and Three 6, we did a lot of that—“Tear The Club Up,” “Who Run It,” “Hit A Motherfucker”—you know what I mean. I don’t really do a lot of fight music. I want people to actually listen to it, smoke to it. People listen well when they’re high.How has your tour with Run The Jewels been?
It’s great. Huge crowds and festivals, very young, multiracial. It’s a blessing. And it’s a blessing to captivate the younger generation, 'cause a lot of the music they hear, they might think, “Oh, A$AP Rocky created that sound”—they don’t know. A lot of people don’t know Juicy J was in Three 6 Mafia. They thought he was a brand new dude. It’s cute when people think that, but it’s always cuter when they know the truth. That’s why I’m still around pushing my sound, letting people know there was a Gangsta Boo, and I still exist.Ezra Marcus reads the Bible and turns it into blog posts. Follow him on Twitter.
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I was before my time—the group Three 6 Mafia is pretty much what people are doing now. Its a particular sound, a particular cadence, flow pattern. I hear it a lot, not just in female rappers but in general. Its a Memphis thing. I think the city of Memphis inspired a lot of artists from crunk, to being buck, and ratchet.How did you develop the Gangsta Boo persona?
Just me being a tomboy. I've got three brothers, and the group I was in had five dudes, so it was pretty easy, pretty much a product of my environment. Memphis is a hard place to be. If you could survive Memphis you could pretty much survive anywhere.Can you tell me about when you very first started rapping?
Honestly, if people want to know more about me they just should google me, straight up. I would tell people, if they want to know the history just google me.
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I just want to talk about my new project, Candy, Diamonds, And Pills. I don’t want to talk about no female rappers, at all. I don’t want my interview to be based on what female bitch I’m getting along with. I want to talk about me, my album, my future, and that’s it.Got you—can you tell me about your most recent mixtape, Underground Casette Tape Music?
Yeah, it was a project I did with my boy Beatking—it was some of my best work. That came about cause when I left the tour I was doing with [reunited Three 6 Mafia group] Da Mafia 6IX—I left the tour a little early, and I wanted to work on some new music, and people was telling me about Beatking. He wanted to work with me, and he sent me a song to get on. I liked the beat, and we just had good chemistry, and I was like, “Let’s just do a collaboration.” Female and male don’t often collaborate often as far as a duo, and he was just sending me hooks and shit. And I was like, “Damn, I like this dude.” He’s quick, he on it, he sending me shit that sounds like me. It was a perfect combo.Yeah I thought I was such an interesting mix of Houston and Memphis.
Yeah, I put it together, he came with the beats. It was a good concept, and that’s why we’re working together on Candy, Diamonds, and Pills. I work better with males.Why is that?
I don’t know, I just do. Most people don’t want to hear a bunch of females on a song. It could be cool, but sometimes female voices get annoying to me. My voice gets annoying to me, sometimes. So it’s good to have it balanced out with a guy sometimes.
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It’s called Candy Diamond and Pills. It's an EP. I just wanted to drop some music 'cause I’ve been doing a lot of traveling with Run The Jewels—hella new fans, performed at Coachella—so I just wanted to drop some new music so my old and new fans can know what I’ve been doing. It’s going to be seven songs, and it’s got a good vibe. Beatking helping me with the production, so it’s going to be good.In what scenarios do you do your best writing?
I do write a lot of good music when i’m in the hood, when i’m in a poorer area, trap house type shit. I come up with a lot of good stuff either freestyling in a basic studio or writing in a project-type style house. I hardly come up with good material in the suburbs or a top-notch grade A studio. There has to be something hood about it that I can relate to.Where do you draw inspiration for the dark, paranormal themes in a lot of your work?
I’m kind of weird [laughs]. I like to watch a lot of crime stuff. I mean, I’m from the group Three 6 Mafia—I don’t worship the devil, but I’m interested with the dark side of things. I consider myself a horrorcore rapper sometimes, and I embrace it very well, because I’ve mastered it. I do a lot of research. I watch so much killer shit. I like to know why the human brain does what it does and makes people think a certain way.Who’s the most interesting serial killer to you?
I would say Charles Manson because he manipulated people to do what he wanted them to do without actually doing it himself. And that stuff recently, with the newscaster, was so creepy. This dude was crazy. The fact they didn’t even see it coming, that was so creepy. But that type of stuff doesn’t really inspire me to write, because I don’t write creepy music no more. I did a lot of that with Three 6. We were younger, we were talking about a lot of devil stuff, a lot of biblical stuff as well. I used to sit and read certain passages out of the Bible and turn it into raps. I did that on one of our songs “Throw Yo Setts In Da Air” at about 16 years old. I used to call myself the Devil’s Daughter. I don’t really do that as much as I used to 'cause most of my raps now are just on some reality rap type shit.How would you describe the sound of the new project?
For myself i just like to make smoking music that people can ride and vibe to. Not necessarily party to. Me and Three 6, we did a lot of that—“Tear The Club Up,” “Who Run It,” “Hit A Motherfucker”—you know what I mean. I don’t really do a lot of fight music. I want people to actually listen to it, smoke to it. People listen well when they’re high.How has your tour with Run The Jewels been?
It’s great. Huge crowds and festivals, very young, multiracial. It’s a blessing. And it’s a blessing to captivate the younger generation, 'cause a lot of the music they hear, they might think, “Oh, A$AP Rocky created that sound”—they don’t know. A lot of people don’t know Juicy J was in Three 6 Mafia. They thought he was a brand new dude. It’s cute when people think that, but it’s always cuter when they know the truth. That’s why I’m still around pushing my sound, letting people know there was a Gangsta Boo, and I still exist.Ezra Marcus reads the Bible and turns it into blog posts. Follow him on Twitter.