Released on April 11, 2000, the infantile chorus to Three 6 Mafia’s “I’m So Hi,” from their fourth full-length album When The Smoke Clears… Sixty 6 Sixty 1,
is proof that the Hypnotize Minds camp will never challenge the likes of NAS or Jay-Z for lyrical dexterity. However, when the beat drops, all you can do is feel it. What’s the point? Platinum producers DJ Paul and Juicy J can’t (I repeat) cannot make a wack beat. What they can make is anybody sound good, but is it possible for a 5’9”, 160-pound white boy from Memphis, Tennessee to tear the club up?
“People still don’t believe I’m white,” says 22-year-old Lil Wyte who will drop his sophomore release Phinally Phamous on October 19th through Asylum/Atlantic Records. “They think I’m just using the name Lil’ Wyte, but I’m really a black dude. One time I was at a sneaker shop [up north] and [a fan] was like, “Damn, I thought you was black. I guess it’s different with the type of music I’m making. With Eminem, you can actually tell he’s white. To me, I sound white, but a lot of people can’t tell because of the type of music I make. ”
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First impressions aside, there’s one thing that’s not in question: An audience exists for this type of music. Lil’ Wyte’s 2003 solo debut, Doubt Me Now, sold over 126,000 units and is still selling 1,200 pieces a week. While those numbers might not boggle the mind, they come without the benefit of radio or video airplay. Unlike its predecessor, Phinally Phamous won’t arrive in stores unannounced. There’s already a testosterone-packed music video circulating for the album’s first single, the hyperactive club banger “I Sho Will.” [click here]
“Vanilla Ice screwed us. Eminem showed America white boys can rap… and rap good. I’m showing that white people can be crunk,” says Lil’ Wyte when asked what his contribution to the rap game would be. But what exactly is crunk?
“Crunk is life,” says the rapper. “Crunk is having a good time… getting high. Anything can be crunk. P***y can be crunk.”
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Regardless of how you define it, Lil’ Wyte is not the only white boy making noise in the genre. There’s also former No Limit Soldier T-Bo, Georgia’s Bubba Sparxx, Nashville’s Haystack and Louisville, KY’s Bukshot just to name a few of those leading the “white crunk” revolution down South.
“For 5 years I have been saying that DJ Paul and Juicy J need a white rapper,” says Lil’ Wyte. “I had no idea that I would be [that rapper].” Still, even with the backing of two of crunk music’s pioneers (Many would argue quite effectively that 1995’s “Tear Da Club Up” by Triple Six spearheaded the sound.), Lil Wyte is still fighting to convert non-believers in the legendary chocolate city nestled on the banks of the Mississippi River.
“Memphis has seasonal haters,” he quips. “They come in the spring and leave in the winter.”
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With the promotional push behind Phinally Phamous, chances are pretty good those snowbird haters from M-town will be hearing Lil’ Wyte throughout the Midwest and as far North as Washington, DC; a place where many of the fans who bought Doubt Me Now still think the rapper is African-American. To hear Lil’ Wyte tell it, Phinally Phamous will sell “basically anywhere people smoke weed.”
“This album is God driven so it can’t be stopped. God got a big ole sticker on the back that says ‘Made in Heaven.’”
It’s that type of belief in destiny and parental responsibility — Wyte is the father of a 3-year-old and 3-month-old daughter — that keeps the rapper focused on work.
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“I take life more seriously now,” says the two-time high school dropout. “I stopped getting in trouble, but it’s not like I was getting in trouble much in the first place. I don’t do sh*t. All I do is stay home and get high. Females know where to find me. That’s where I be… waiting on Paul and Juicy to call me to make some music.“
So, it seems the city that gave the world Elvis Presley has once again produced a white boy with rhythm, and we’re not talking about Justin.
“Yeah [we] claim Timberlake,” Lil’ Wyte says when asked if a town as ghetto as Memphis shows love for its homegrown pop idol. “He be throwing parties for his friends and stuff, but we’ve never met. When we do we gonna set it off [together].”
