Its the Skinny Skinny Skinny...

Kingpin Skinny Pimp feat. 3-6 Mafia-"One Life to Live"



WOW. Up until 5 minutes ago, I never knew they had a video for this song. Kingpin Skinny Pimp's King of the Playas Ball album was one of the many soundtracks of my teenaged life in 1996. It came out in the Sping of 96, perhaps my favorite year ever. I was in 10th grade, had my own money, was buying my own shit, was feeling more confident about myself, girls was calling me cute and shit. I landed a cool job at the Olympics that year too. Yeah, I really enjoyed those times.

I still own this CD, its one of the few that I never let out of my sight. I had always knew about Skinny through some of my older homeboys and a classmate who transferred to my school down from Memphis. One thing about those old school 3-6 Mafia/Underground Memphis rap fans is that they owned EVERYTHING. I rememember niggas coming to school with a bookbag full of Maxell tapes with niggas named DJ Paul, Juicy J and Da Scarecrow rapping on them. Some of that shit was tight, not all of it though.

But, one thing I always liked about those underground tapes was how Paul and J would flip a sample and throw their trademarked high hats and bass on it. Cats on the East Coast was all up on RZA's nuts for his sampling abilities like he was the only one capable of doing it. Niggas Down South was doing it too, and better sometimes, don't get it twisted brah.

Anyways, "One Life To Live" is one of my favorite songs on the King of the Playas Ball CD. Its also the first track and does a good job in setting the tone for the rest of the album. To me this was easily Skinny's best album, mainly because DJ Paul and Juicy J handled all of the production. I mean, he had some other alright albums, but Skinny always dissapointed me because he'd use the same verses on different albums, as if he figured niggas wasn't buying his shit and wouldn't know. Thats wack, but what's funny is that rappers nowadays will spit a verse on Rap City, then on a DVD, then on mixtape, then on a feature and just might still put the shit on their album...without thinking twice about it. I guess Skinny was ahead of his time.

About this video, um, isssaaight. The fact that I never saw it before is what's got me amped. As the homie Noz just told me, this shit is grimey as hell. It kinda reminds me of Snoop's "Murder Was the Case" video, but this shit is way more slummer. The edited version of the song kinda takes away from the overall feel and story in the song too.

I'm laughing at DJ Paul's perm and Juicy J's herringbone necklace. That's some Memphis shit for real. Those dudes don't even look the same anymore.

Anyways, if you been a Triple Six fan (notice I didn't say "three six mafia") for a minute, you'll probably appreciate this find. If you kinda got onto them post-"Sippin On Syrup" eh, you prolly won't understand.