The only way Juicy J would have been on TV 20 years ago would have been as part of an obscenity trial. As a member of the darkly comic horrorcore rap group Triple Six Mafia (or Three 6 Mafia, as they would later be known), the Tennessean would routinely rap about murder, sex and marijuana on the underground mixtapes that circulated around the South. One of the tracks on their early releases is called “Squeeze On My Nuts” — and in case you weren’t sure, it’s not about cracking open a bag of pistachios.
Then, in 2006, Three 6 Mafia came out of nowhere to win an Oscar for their song, “It’s Hard Out There for a Pimp,” from the film “Hustle & Flow.” Last month, Juicy was beamed into living rooms the world over, as he guested with Katy Perry on the performance of “Dark Horse” at the 2014 Grammy ceremony. The Southern hip-hop-influenced track subsequently hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts. Longtime Juicy followers can hardly believe it, but the 38-year-old is happily soaking up the benefits of his fame. “I got my picture taken with Berry Gordy at the Grammys,” he excitedly tells The Post. “I got to see Smokey Robinson and Paul McCartney, too. It was a trip to be in the same room as so many legends — it was like seeing the history of music in person!”
This is how he and Perry hooked up to make “Dark Horse.”
The first contact
While recording Perry’s last album, “Prism,” in 2013, her producer Dr. Luke called Juicy out of the blue and invited him to contribute on a hip-hop-based track that was very different from anything she had ever done.
“I was totally shocked, but when I first heard the beat — I got goose bumps,” says Juicy. “Katy liked the verse I did on [producer] Mike Will Made It’s ‘23’ [with Miley Cyrus and Wiz Khalifa]. She keeps her ear to the street and keeps up with what’s going on. Katy’s smart like that.”
The writing
In keeping with Juicy’s horrorcore rap history, his verse mentions Jeffrey Dahmer — the serial sex offender, murderer, necrophiliac and cannibal who was sentenced to 15 terms of life imprisonment in 1992 before being beaten to death by a fellow inmate in 1994. Not the sort of name you’d expect to crop up in a Katy Perry song, but it seems to have flown under the radar. “Most people don’t even know who he is,” Juicy notes.
The recording
Having heard Juicy’s contribution, Perry invited him to the studio to tweak the verse. “I jumped in the car that same day,” he says. “She was impressed that I got there so quickly, but I was just so excited to do it.”
The reaction
After being released online last summer as a low-key preview for Perry’s album “Prism,” “Dark Horse” has slowly crept to the top of the charts and bought Juicy attention from the teeny-bopper crowd, many of whom will be in attendance when he plays Irving Plaza on March 12. “They scream like I’m Michael Jackson or something,” he says, laughing. “I have to tell these young ’uns to learn the history of Juicy J.”