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"There wasn't no black people here when Elvis lived down here" ...
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Dog abuse, dry rub and milky handcuffs ...
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Page 3
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"What does Memphis stand for? Makin' easy money, pimpin' hoes in style." ...
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 Bands Main
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8Ball and MJG are enjoying their home cooking as well — literally. Although the duo were born and raised in Memphis, they didn't get their big break until they moved from Memphis to Houston and signed with Tony Draper's Suave House Records. For the past year, though, they've been back living in Memphis, and today are enjoying one of the best aspects of the town: the barbecue.
Ball and MJG are holding court in their favorite restaurant, Interstate BBQ, which has a wall of fame that features photos of the likes of New Edition's Ralph Tresvant; the WWE's Jerry "The King" Lawler, Kamala the Ugandan Headhunter and the Giant Gonzalez; and Penny Hardaway.
"We really know how to kill a hog," MJG says of his city's barbecuing secrets. "We really about our hog-killing."
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"People don't like 8Ball and MJG for the same reason that they like everybody from the South."
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"It's just homegrown, man," 8Ball interjects. "Nobody do it like Memphis do it. It's the sauce, it's the slaw. You know how some places put slaw on the side? Memphis like to put the slaw right on [top of the food].
"And you know how some people do the dry rub, and the clear seasoning?" he continues. "We all about that sauce and the slaw over here."
A little after the duo moved back to Memphis in 2004, Ball and MJG signed with P. Diddy's Bad Boy label and released their gold Living Legends LP. Although the album was critically acclaimed and accepted by their core, the two were unable to parlay their affiliation with Diddy into a platinum plaque.
"People don't like 8Ball and MJG for the same reason that they like everybody from the South," Ball offers. "I mean, we got certain kinds of fans like Outkast or UGK or something. We got fans that love us for being us. We just never wanna change, no matter where we go. We always gotta stay 8Ball and MJG, give it to 'em gritty, raw. You know, they expect you to change when you get to a certain place. People gonna learn about us, about us being us and not us trying to be nobody else."
In the end, what may place the most eyes on Memphis this summer is not the barbecue or the homegrown talent, but a fictional depiction of it all. The city's rich sound serves as the backbone for the upcoming movie "Hustle & Flow," in which Terrence Howard plays a Memphis pimp, DJay, who's inspired to become a rapper after he sees the ascension of a local MC named Skinny Black. A crackhead offers DJay a stolen Casio keyboard in exchange for some drugs, and Howard's character goes on to find his own rapping talent with the help of two people who work in the church.
While working on the movie, Howard said he learned an important lesson about M-Town after meeting with such artists as Yo Gotti, Three 6 and Frayser Boy.
"They all had that dream," Howard says. "And they didn't tell any lies. They have a term called 'cat sh--.' You can't sell no cat sh-- nowhere. And they'll call you on it. I felt bad for portraying Memphis as a pimp, and a woman came up to me with her two daughters and she said to me in a strong voice, 'Baby, don't feel like that. Look around you.' And she asked her two daughters, who was like 20 years old, 'What does Memphis stand for?' They said, 'Makin' easy money, pimpin' hoes in style.'
"And that's not all of Memphis, and that's not talking about prostitution," Howard clarifies. "It's talking about how you've got to pimp the system. You've gotta have some hustle and some flow about you. You gotta have some game [in this town]."
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Photo: Bad Boy
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