Did drugs destroy Three Six Mafia? Former member Crunchy Black was asked about the group's demise and the role that substance abuse played in that demise. In a VladTV interview, Black responded to recent remarks by Three Six co-founder Juicy J.

“It could have been for Juicy,” he explained. “I can’t say that was for me. Or that was for Paul. Or that was for Lord Infamous. Or Gangsta Boo. I can only say that’s how Juicy felt, like it was drugs that made him feel like, ‘Hey, I don’t wanna be around these guys anymore,’ to the extent of every day being around them and they gettin’ high or whatever, whatever.

“But in real life, if you’re not setting people in a position to see better then they always gonna do what they already been doing … It could have been the drugs, but I did drugs, and I was always on time … But we wasn’t showing up, wasn’t respectful to the person who we was calling the boss.”

In a recent interview with Nas and the 50 Years Of Hip-Hop podcast, Juicy blamed drugs for the deterioration of the Oscar-winning group.

“It’s the drugs, I can’t think of nothing else,” he said. “That was the main thing that was really fucking everything up. You know, people weren’t showing up at the studio, people weren’t handling the business, the business was crazy and everything was folding. It’s just the drugs.”

“Back then, the drug of choice for all of us — well, I ain’t gonna say all of us — most of the guys hanging with us — we did coke, sipped syrup and popped pills," Black said. He went on to bemoan his abuse of cocaine.

“I just think the business that we’re in cocaine is good for, could be or might be, when you partying and not actually doing business. In this game that we’re in, when you’re on coke sometimes if you don’t have a Leland Jones or my manager Don, them type of people, you’ll head down the road. You don’t want to talk to people sometimes when you’re high and that’s most of the time your business come through.

“You don’t wanna be around people ’cause you thinkin’ they judgin’ you because they see you doing it or know you’re doing it. That is the worst thing that I will say — cocaine is bad for you in music or entertainment, you need to be focused.”