{"id":47353,"date":"2023-08-07T22:24:24","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T02:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=47353"},"modified":"2023-08-07T22:37:10","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T02:37:10","slug":"happy-birthday-gangsta-boo-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2023\/08\/happy-birthday-gangsta-boo-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday, Gangsta Boo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My irrepressible and irreplaceable friend Lola Mitchell<\/a> <\/a>\u2014 aka Gangsta Boo of the trailblazing rap group Three 6 Mafia<\/a> \u2014 would have turned 44 today. But, tragically, Lola died on January 1 in her hometown of Memphis.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Lola wearing silver \u201cBOO\u201d rings I made her to perform at a Run the Jewels show in NYC in 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As I said in my previous blog post<\/a>, I started writing a tribute to Lola the day I got the news, but I couldn\u2019t finish it then. It all seemed unreal. A lot of people close to Lola had died much too young, including DJs Speakerfoxxx<\/a> (35 years old) and Furoche<\/a> (27, victim of an unsolved hit-and-run<\/a>), as well as two of her Three 6 Mafia bandmates, Lord Infamous<\/a> (40) and Koopsta Knicca<\/a> (40). A few years earlier, her father\u2019s death had hit her hard too. Lola and I had discussed those losses, but Lola herself dying? It never crossed my mind. She was such a life force. She\u2019d overcome so much. She had so much passion and ambition still. Did she like to party? Sure, but not so much that she felt compelled to do it around me.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Boo and Furoche in 2013.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Unfortunately, the dangerous opioid fentanyl now taints a wide variety of party (and other) drugs<\/a>, and it proved fatal for Lola on New Year\u2019s Eve. If you have ever<\/em> taken a drug from an unregulated or unknown source and\/or might do so \u2014 and this includes pills, even a single Xanax or Adderall<\/a> that your friend got online \u2014 keep some over-the-counter Narcan<\/a> spray around to reverse a fentanyl overdose. I\u2019ve been meaning to get some myself in case I ever come across someone who needs it. In fact, in honor of Lola, I just put an end to my Narcan procrastination in the midst of writing this sentence and ordered it. (You can get it free in New York State<\/a>.) Harm reduction is the name of the game, not judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Speakerfoxxx died from an overdose in 2018. She was sober when Boo introduced me to her. The photos show them having fun with my jewelry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Lola and I bonded over what an endless slog it can be to get anywhere in a creative field. Even though I design fine jewelry and she rapped, we understood each others\u2019 frustrations, and how it felt to achieve a certain level of respect in an industry without become a household name or feeling financially secure. We\u2019d joke about both of us being a \u201cmost-known unknown,\u201d riffing off the title of a Three 6 Mafia album (one that Boo wasn\u2019t on).<\/a> That said, real rap aficionados knew of Lola, who had shot to fame as a teenager in the 1990s as the first of two female members of Three 6 Mafia. To those fans, she was such a legend that folks couldn\u2019t believe their eyes when they saw her on the street or in a bar or waiting in line for the Ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier. <\/p>\n\n\n

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She sincerely loved the Ferris wheel!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Her Instagram display name<\/a> was \u201cThee Gangsta Boo\u201d because that was what the fans always asked: \u201cAre you THEE Gangsta Boo?!\u201d In Memphis, she was such a hometown hero that, in 2012, when she arrived at the Memphis airport without any ID (or luggage!) on her, she still got on the plane because all the security people knew who she was. After all, one of her nicknames was “Queen of Memphis.”<\/p>\n\n\n

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Lola on that first night in NYC. She’s wearing silver NYC rings I gave her and my sunglasses, which she tried to persuade me to give her. We went to H&M to get the mint outfit she is wearing here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

But that didn’t mean she was where she wanted to be professionally. Even last year, as Lola started getting name-checked by new rap stars like Latto<\/a> and Glorilla<\/a>, she and I still said to each other that people would appreciate us most \u201csome day\u201d \u2014 meaning when we were no longer around to enjoy it. Just weeks before her death, in an interview with Billboard<\/a>, she reflected on this status:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWell, right now, just still getting my recognition and my newfound accolades and when other ladies pop out, it\u2019s always like, \u2018Wow, this person sound like Gangsta Boo,\u201d or, \u201cWhy is Boo\u2019s name not mentioned enough?\u2019 But at the same time, I still have so much work to do.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As predicted, in the wake of her death, tributes poured in from fans, music-industry giants like Missy Elliot and Drake<\/a>, and the media. The Washington Post<\/a> said, \u201cGangsta Boo\u2019s Southern hip-hop influenced a nation of female rappers.\u201d She was covered by the New York Times<\/a>, the L.A. Times<\/a>, USA Today<\/a>, Rolling Stone<\/a>, Variety<\/a>, NPR<\/a>, the Source<\/a>, Complex<\/a>, the Guardian<\/a>, People magazine<\/a>, Billboard<\/a>, and Memphis\u2019s Commercial Appeal<\/a>. This piece from Stereogum<\/a> is one of my favorites. In the midst of all this, I kept expecting her to call \u2014 she preferred calling to texting \u2014 and say to me, \u201cMaaaaane<\/a>, can you believe this?!\u201d (The only major institution that didn\u2019t pay respect to Lola was the consistently racist and sexist Recording Academy<\/a>, which left her out of the Grammys\u2019 tribute section a month after her death.)<\/p>\n\n\n

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Lola wearing my sunglasses in 2014.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Many of the articles included photos of her wearing my jewelry \u2014 which I knew she would have been thrilled to point out to me. Over the years, I had enjoyed giving her gifts of silver jewelry, and she was always so diligent about \u201cproduct placement.\u201d She thought about it way more than I did! Meeting 50 Cent? Here\u2019s Wendy\u2019s jewelry.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Boo and 50 Cent. I\u2019m pretty sure those are my sunglasses. She was an incorrigible borrower of shades.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Billy Bob Thornton? Let\u2019s make sure the borrowed gold necklace is in the shot<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Me, Billy Bob, and Lola wearing my whistle necklace in 2014. She\u2019s wearing her own shades!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

And she certainly came up with an unforgettable publicity shot featuring the nameplate necklace I made for her.<\/p>\n\n\n

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If you even notice a necklace here \u2026 well, I made that.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Lola\u2019s policy was that if she was going somewhere \u2014 whether that was figuratively, career-wise, or literally, to the stage \u2014 I was going with her. I would have been happy to be the quiet, supportive entourage member, but that wasn\u2019t always an option. If Lola was going live on Shade 45, satellite radio\u2019s big hip-hop station, she was going to borrow a pile of gold jewelry, take me with her to the studio, mention me on air, and coax me to squeak an embarrassed \u201chi\u201d into the mic. Complex called her \u201cMemphis\u2019 Grand Connector<\/a>\u201d and many of the people who eulogized her at her funeral \u2014 and at the massive tribute party the night before the funeral \u2014 spoke of her passion for collecting and connecting people. If you grabbed her attention and met her approval, you were officially part of her network.<\/p>\n\n\n

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This was an exceptionally fun day. She had a great radio voice.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

That\u2019s how I met her in 2011-2012. I had heard her on a track called \u201cThrow It Up<\/a>\u201d with Yelawolf and Eminem, and I started following her on Twitter. I thought she was so funny and provocative there that I slid into her DMs to offer her some silver rings as a no-strings-attached gift. She insisted on a phone conversation first \u2014 one that I tried to escape because I was like, \u201cWhat is she going to want with some 12-years-older white woman from New York.\u201d Next thing I knew , she was BFFs not just with me but with MrB (even though he thought her compliment of OG meant \u201cOld Guy\u201d instead of \u201cOriginal Gangsta”). When she came to New York, I put her up in my parents\u2019 vacant Manhattan apartment, because, I thought, why not? Even though I was meeting her for the first time ever! She never stopped telling people about that.<\/p>\n\n\n

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This birthday greeting from Lola mentions the apartment arrangement. But we did meet on Twitter, not MySpace.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In return, Lola always said that when she could afford it, she\u2019d buy gold jewelry from me. And last year, after she appeared in a reality show wearing gold pieces she borrowed from me, she bought two of them \u2014 my Eleanor lion pendant<\/a> because she was a Leo, and my Borgia poison ring<\/a> \u2014 as soon as the money hit her bank account. (For anyone who watched that show, her worry about her jewelry box was legit. I had sent her a lot of pieces!) She\u2019d always been casual with the silver jewelry \u2014 she knew if she lost it, I\u2019d replace it \u2014 and she alternated the silver with her collection of big costume jewelry, especially for performances. So, when she told me the hinge of the now-purchased poison ring needed a tune-up, I said, \u201cSend it to me and I\u2019ll fix it,\u201d figuring she had plenty of other stuff to wear. She didn\u2019t reply for a few days. When I reminded her, she said she couldn\u2019t be without the ring that long. No, not even if we used FedEx and I promised to get the ring back to her in a week. I was bemused by that until I saw her 2022 holiday photos in a slideshow at the pre-funeral party. She was wearing the Leo necklace and poison ring in every picture. Whether she was performing or in her pyjamas at home. There was something about that that floored me. With the exception of engagement rings, it\u2019s unusual to see someone wearing the same statement pieces daily for such a long stretch. Maybe I\u2019m reaching for solace or meaning, but I feel like she wore those pieces not because of their aesthetics or value, but because they were a symbol of our friendship, as well as a long-awaited moment of shared success.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I couldn\u2019t stop taking pictures of the pictures. I felt like she was speaking to me. She\u2019s wearing the necklace and the ring here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

That whole night, I couldn\u2019t stop thinking, \u201cOh, I can\u2019t wait to ask her about this.\u201d It wasn\u2019t until her coffin was carried past me at her funeral the next day that I fully understood that she was gone<\/em>. You know, a lot of people say they don\u2019t \u201cdo\u201d funerals, even to offer condolences to the survivors. But I was glad I went, not just to show her family my support, but because it was the only way I achieved any acceptance of her loss. (The acceptance still wavers at times.) I also got to hear people describe her as a bright light, as the energy in the room, as a devoted friend and family member. I got some good inspiration too: Like Lola, I now want to make my grand exit from this world with people dancing to Gangsta Boo\u2019s big strip-club anthem, \u201cWhere Dem Dollas At<\/a>.\u201d Leave \u2019em laughing!<\/p>\n\n\n

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I still have this on my nightstand.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I’ll end with Lola’s own words from a 2012 interview with Jimmy Ness<\/a>, during which she was asked how she would want to be remembered. She said: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“I just want people to know that I\u2019m a really hard worker. I\u2019m human just like everybody else. I write all my own music. I\u2019ve helped other people come up with concepts. I\u2019ve helped put a lot of people on. I just want to be respected. When it\u2019s all said and done, I want to be remembered as Gangsta Boo from Three 6 Mafia. The first lady of Three 6 Mafia. The first lady of crunk music. The first lady who brought a platinum plaque back to Memphis. The first lady who brought a gold plaque back to Memphis. I\u2019m the only female rapper in Tennessee that has ever did that and probably I will be the only one that ever will. I just want to be known as someone that put her heart into her music and who really really appreciated her fans. Because if it wasn\u2019t for my fans, like I said, I definitely would not still be doing this. My fans are my motivation. I love my fans.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My irrepressible and irreplaceable friend Lola Mitchell \u2014 aka Gangsta Boo of the trailblazing rap group Three 6 Mafia \u2014 would have turned 44 today. But, tragically, Lola died on January 1 in her hometown of Memphis. As I said in my previous blog post, I started writing a tribute to Lola the day I…<\/p>\n

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