Sampling the Legends—Or Stealing? Three Six Mafia Sues $uicideboy$ Again

Three Six Mafia sues rap duo $uicideboy$ a second time for copyright infringement.

With one quick listen of any song by $uicideboy$, a rap duo from New Orleans, it is hard to imagine that they are influenced by anyone but Three Six Mafia, known for pioneering Memphis-style Southern hip-hop in the nineties. With their horror-themed lyrics and samples from many classic Three Six Mafia songs (37 as alleged in the complaint).

But let’s be honest, Three Six Mafia is one of the most sampled artists when it comes to phonk and southern hip-hop. I could list dozens of other artists who have used the same samples–an homage to pioneers of the “Memphis legends” as proclaimed by $uicideboy$’ co-defendant Ramirez.

So why $uicideboy$? I think it strategic. I am a huge fan of $uicideboy$ and cannot imagine an album by them that does not sample Three Six Mafia–it is kind of their brand. Their top track streaming on Spotify, “And to Those I Love, Thanks for Sticking Around” presently has 802,973,133 streams (Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” for comparison has roughly the same number).

I imagine this lawsuit will be settled, with Three Six providing a license to sample their music on $uicideboy$’ near-certain future 1 billion streamed songs as their career inevitably progresses and the hunger for nostalgic sounds by nineties kids like me continues.