Now that Three 5 Mafia has reintroduced hip-hop heads to the Memphis music scene, their affiliate, Project Pat of Hypnotize Camp Posse, is set to further educate listeners on the Memphis sound that has taken rap fans by storm. His native North Memphis hometown, known for its indigenous slang, is the backdrop for all of Project Pat's songs on Mista Don't Play, his second album to be released on through Hypnotize Minds Entertainment/Loud Records.
Throughout Mista Don't Play, Project Pat displays the full range of his no-nonsense personality. But the title isn't something that Pat arbitrarily slapped on a collection of songs. Produced entirely by Juicy "J" and DJ Paul of Three 6 Mafia, Mista Don't Play fully represents the album's mission. Pat explains, "This album is my persona as a straight hustler. I came up with the title because when you're about that money, you don't play." He adds, "Don't Play is also a Memphis saying. We say that all the time." Whether discussing his relationship with women, the streets, money, drugs and punks, it's how Pat breaks down aspects of the game that makes Mista Don't Play such a powerful concoction. Keeping in the long-running tradition of Three 6 Mafia's male-female rhyming friction, "Chickenhead," the album's first single, features Pat trading lyrics with La Chat and members of Three 6 Mafia. While many acts tend to portray relationships only from a single-sex perspective, Pat feels females bring a much-needed bal
ance to hip-hop. "Having La Chat on there adds a woman's point of view to the song," Pat says. "I put her on the song because a lot of people are digging her sound and are feeling her.
It adds a little spice, a little extra cheese on your cheeseburger. We're trying to keep people looking our way." In fact, Pat got the idea for "Chickenhead" from a female: his girlfriend's little sister." "She's always saying, 'Baldhead scallywag,' which is how i start off my lyrics," he says. "Although his concept has been done before, I added the female perspective and added in the South's bounce flavor to create something different. As far as the hook, I was just riding and came up with it."
On the eerie "We Can Get Gangsta," Pat details a hairy exchange where he felt he was being set up. It's this type of experience that adds depth to "Mista Don't Play," and brings out Pat's venomous side. Needless to say, getting double-crossed doesn't sit well with Pat. On "Break The Law" a remake of an old DJ Paul song, Pat and Three 6 Mafia display their rowdy side. But the new song was also inspired by adulation as well as anger. "A young guy is Memphis was telling me, 'You need to redo it but with all of y'all rapping on it,'" Pat recalls. "I was like, 'You think that would be bumpin'? Then cool.' It was just a fan that I had met. I get a lot of ideas from people in the street. That old stuff is what's bumping. That's what people want to hear. It's the original Memphis."
Much of his music is built from Memphis vernacular. Take "If You Ain't From My Hood," for example. "Crunchy came up with the idea, but there was a guy we had heard who had been saying it in his neighborhood," Pat explains. "I thought it was kind of catchy. That's mostly how I do. I just try to keep it as Memphis as I can, from the words, to the lyrics and the streets." Memphis is also known for being a town full of pimps. Despite the superficial glamour associated with the profession, Pat knows how important it is to portray all sides of the game, as he does on the smoothed-out "Gorilla Pimp." "You've got to talk about reality," he says. "If you're coming off on some street stuff, you've got to talk about every aspect of the streets.
Pimping is just one aspect of it." Just like a well-versed pimp, Pat spends most of his rhyme time spinning captivating tales of the streets. This type of narrative presentation is modeled from one of Pat's musical idols. "When Scarface first came out, he was telling nothing but stories on his album," Pat recalls. "It was bumping and that's the era that I grew up on. I'm speaking to those fans. Since I grew up on that, I'm trying to bring it back."
Pat also grew up on the streets. When he was 8, he saw someone get shot and learned an important code of the street that remains with him today. "I knew when i was 8 that you never snitch on anybody," Pat says. "You never tell. Whatever you and someone else do, you leave that to your business." That lesson came from his neighbors who lived above Pat and his family. They were selling drugs and would buy Pat and brother Juicy "J" drinks and chips every now and then. The relationship ended when the dealers were killed after snitching on another dealer. As the local news documented, the killers put brinks on their feet and tossed them into the Mississippi River.
Project Pat was featured along with UGK on "Sippin' On Some Syrup" from Three 6 Mafia's platinum album, When The Smoke Clears: Sixty 6, Sixty 1, released June 2000. Pat also appeared on Tear Da Club Up Thugs and others before releasing his debut album, 1999's Ghetty Green. The album released on Relativity/Loud sold over 216,000 copies with a majority of the sales concentrated in the South. The well-received album was the most soulful release from the Three 6 Mafia umbrella.
Pat decided to make Mista Don't Play more intense, more in tune with the streets. "This is a more gangster album than my last one," Pat says. "I told myself that I was going to come more street on this one. I didn't come as hard as I wanted to on Ghetty Green. I felt as though I came tight, but could have come harder by hitting the subject more in-depth. I don't like to talk about things I've done, because I've matured and learned from them. This album is no holds barred." In addition to his new album, Pat co-wrote the forthcoming movie, CHOICES, with DJ Paul and Juicy "J".
With so much on his table, it's obvious that Pat has more than earned the title of Mista Don't Play. But it's the powerful music from this album, that will have fans saluting Pat as he helps make Three 6 Mafia one of hip-hop's strongest families. "We're trying to bring the company up," Pat says. "We're trying to keep hits rolling." On Mista Don't Play, Pat shows you the many aspects of hustling while presenting a thoroughly entertaining, hard-hitting hip-hop extravaganza.
