I’ll always say that T-Mixx production brings out the best of 8Ball & MJG. Lick ‘Em Up Shot, Crumbz 2 Brixx, Players Night Out, So What U Sayin and Anotha Day in the Hood are my other favorite tracks. Lay It Down garnered all the attention and deservedly so, this album had plenty of bangers on it. The track featured Crime Boss and Thorough and all four went all the way in on this track. If you’re from anywhere in the south, you know that Lay It Down was like our shit. The only features on the album is from MC Breed, Crime Boss and Thorough from South Circle. On Tha Outside Lookin In is one of those albums that get played from the beginning to end.

8Ball & MJG’s fourth and final album on Suave House, In My Lifetime came out 20 years ago. A few days ago, we celebrated another milestone album from 8Ball & MJG. Comin Out Hard was eye opening, but On Tha Outside Lookin In took it to another level. 8Ball & MJG's second Bad Boy album, Ridin High (2007), was less successful, though, despite debuting well at number eight and spawning a strong lead single, 'Relax and Take Notes.My favorite album from 8Ball & MJG was released 25 years ago today.

'You Don't Want Drama,' the lead single, became 8Ball & MJG's biggest hit ever, reaching number 30 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart, while Living Legends itself likewise became the duo's best-selling, debuting at number three on the Top 200 album chart and topping 500,000 in sales. In 2001, JCOR released a pair of 8Ball albums - The Slab, a various-artists compilation, and Almost Famous, a proper solo album - but the label then ran into trouble and went out of business, leaving 8Ball & MJG without a recording contract.Īfter a couple years in limbo, Bad Boy Records, helmed by Diddy, picked up 8Ball & MJG and released Living Legends (2004), the duo's most star-studded album to date. The album spawned a pair of minor hits, 'Pimp Hard' and 'Buck Bounce,' the duo's first to first to get national, opposed to regional, airplay. The album, which notably featured production by Swizz Beatz and DJ Quik, was a departure for 8Ball & MJG, who heretofore had worked more or less exclusively with regional producers. In 2000, 8Ball & MJG left Suave and switched to JCOR Entertainment, a short-lived rap label founded by Jay Faires, for the release of Space Age 4 Eva. Plus, 8Ball and MJG each branched out for solo projects, Lost (1998) and No More Glory (1997), respectively, both released by Suave. 1 (1999) - and did much to foster the growth of Suave, regularly being featured as guests on the label's other releases. Now considered a milestone, Comin' Out Hard was among the first Southern rap albums to get widespread recognition, opening the door for other pioneers such as Three 6 Mafia, Master P, and Cash Money Records.ĨBall & MJG recorded a few additional albums for Tony Draper throughout the remainder of the decade - On the Outside Looking In (1994), On Top of the World (1995), In Our Lifetime, Vol. 8Ball & MJG's debut full-length, Comin' Out Hard (1993), produced partly by MJG, was the inaugural release by Suave, which would grow to become one of the premier Southern rap labels of the decade. (These early recordings for On the Strength would later be reissued in 1997 as Lyrics of a Pimp and also in 2000 as Memphis Under World.) 8Ball & MJG subsequently signed a deal with Suave Records (aka Suave House), a Houston, TX-based label run by Tony Draper. They made their recording debut in 1991 with a three-track single, Listen to the Lyrics, released on cassette and 12' vinyl by On the Strength Records, an independent label. The two shared a passion for hip-hop, which hadn't yet made a strong impact in the South, and formed their own rap duo, 8Ball & MJG. Born Marlon Jermaine Goodwin, MJG grew up in the Orange Mound area of Memphis, TN, where he met 8Ball at Ridgeway Junior High School in 1984. MJG, half of the pioneering Southern rap duo 8Ball & MJG, rarely branched out for solo albums (e.g., No More Glory, 1997), yet his work with 8Ball proved influential, earning him a reputation as a living legend.

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