Hip-hop, probably more so than any other genre, has experienced unfortunate early losses of life. The evidence is there in the newspapers, in the shout-outs to deceased buddies on albums. Hip-hop takes care to honor its fallen, and therefore it's sensible that Da Mafia 6ix (formerly Three 6 Mafia) would move to honor recently departed member Lord Infamous when it goes on its "Triple 6ix Sinners" tour. The group may have crossed the line between respectful and horrifying however. Member DJ Paul revealed that the group was bringing his brother's casket on tour with them.
"Gangsta Boo is going to be there, so will Crunchy Black, Koopsta Kniccaa, and a special appearance by Lord Infamous," Paul said, listing the surviving members of Mafia 6ix before diving into the morbid. "We're bringing his casket out; we're bringing it to every show. I wanted him to be there. I'm that kind of guy-a weird, kinda creepy kind of guy. I had to pay a lot of money to get an extended tour trailer that would fit his casket and all of the merch."
It should be enough to say that featuring a dead dude onstage is a bizarre, bizarre thing, regardless of his tastes in life (Infamous was a strong proponent of the horrorcore subgenre that Three 6 Mafia worked with during its early days). The immediate thought that comes to mind is, "why wasn't he buried when he died in December?" Then, after reading Paul's quote, we realize that his body will be stored with all of the T-shirts, etc.
If you go to a show and buy a T-shirt, you'll know that piece of clothing has spent weeks and thousands of miles in the company of a dead man.
We can only hope at this point, out of respect for the dead, that the casket wheeled onstage won't actually have anything in it. But there are few minds in hip-hop quite as eccentric as those of DJ Paul and his brother Lord Infamous, so if anyone were to pull this off, it'd be them.
