Three 6 Mafia ft. Project Pat - Poppin' My Collar (Initial Thoughts)

 Apparently a classic, since both Knox Hill and Anthony Ray recognized Hanumankind's Big Dawgs as a reference to this song.
A Finnish rapper Mikael Gabriel also has a song called Big Steppa and I think that might be a reference to this as well. I didn't get that song before.
So, seems like this is a classic song many rappers know but I don't, and I perhaps should...

(I'm working on several bigger blog posts and none of them are ready, and I want to keep up my pace of two posts + a Weekly Recap every week, and didn't have a finished second post for yesterday/today, so... Here we go. My initial thoughts on a hiphop classic I have never heard before.)

It's from 2006 and the music video on YT has 29 million views. They're from Memphis, Tennessee (USA) and looks like they did a comeback in 2019. They have two original members on board, DJ Paul and Juicy J, along with a long-time member Crunchy Black. In 2005 the lineup was them three as well.
The music video is a remix featuring Juicy J's big brother, rapper Project Pat.
Sources: Three 6 Mafia - Poppin' My Collar (Official Video) ft. Project Pat (youtube.com);
Three 6 Mafia - Wikipedia; Poppin' My Collar - Wikipedia

Music video and song

Yeah, I can even hear similarities in this and Hanumankind's flow! "Big stepaaaa", with that very monotone and long A-sound. Mikael Gabriel doesn't use that same flow, though, at all... Compared to his other songs, it has a similar vibe to this, though.

In the video, there are a bunch of kids being real hustlers, good salesmen, and selling a box of 25 candy bars for "a Benjamin". Had to google since I'm not American or a native English speaker for that matter, but that's 100 USD. There's sort of three layers in this interaction: they boys being good salesmen, the men in the car (Three 6 Mafia and Project Pat) being rich enough to buy 25 candy bars for 100$ and also, the boys are cute and that makes the men reminisce on their own childhood and pulls on their heartstrings.

And then they get inspired by those boys to write this song (or it's painted that way to us, at least). How they used to "hustle like that back in the day".

Ps. I like that they introduce which rapper is which. I wouldn't have known otherwise and now I don't have to google which is which.

Lyrics

The song's very much built around the hook, which goes

Now ever since I can remember, I've been poppin' my collar

Poppin'-poppin' my collar, poppin'-poppin' my collar

Now ever since I can remember, I've been workin' these hoes

And they better put my money in my hand (in my hand)

 I sort of know what "popping one's collar" means, but sort of don't. Urban Dictionary knows about as much as me - that it means you're being cool, you're "the guy with the popped collar", associated with pimps and Fonzie... And Fonzie is the coolest man ever, everyone knows that.
(If you're too young to know, he's a character from this old tv show called The Happy Days. He wears the classic greaser look, with jeans, white t-shirts, black leather jackers and perfect hair, he is smooth and chill all the time and all the girls swoon in his prescence. It's a nice, light-hearted comedy show, I do recommend.)

It's a very catchy hook, and it has that 90s/2000s hiphop flair to it. I do get why the song was as big of a hit as it was.

On the first listen, I thought the hook was very prominent (like I said, I feel like the song was built around the hook), but everyone did technically also have a verse...

I tried listening to the song while reading the lyrics, but I feel like a lot of the audio has been cutby YT.
-- Yup, when I play the song from Spotify, it has all the lyrics.

If I get the lyrics right, they're smootching off of the girls? They're not pimps, they're lowlifes. Reminds me of this Finnish hiphop song, Mutsin luona by Flegmaatikot, except Flegmaatikot were a trio living in their parents' houses because it's cheaper and then they can afford drinks and whatever a girl wants them to buy. Similar vibe, but these guys are like... like the girlfriends/boyfriends in Get A Job by The Offspring ("my friend's got a girlfriend and he hates that bitch"/"my friend's got a boyfriend and he hates that dick" because he/she just sits on their ass and consumes, but provides nothing). These are the boyfriends, we found them 😂
The Flegmaatikot song: Mutsin Luona (youtube.com)
My translation of the lyrics: Flegmaatikot - Mutsin Luona (At Their Mom's) (zinethatranslates.blogspot.com)
Get a Job by The Offspring: The Offspring - Why Don't You Get A Job? (Official Music Video) (youtube.com)

Ending thoughts

I was gonna compare them to the Hanumankind's song and Mikael Gabriel's song in more detail, but entered an Anthony Ray livestream, I'm preoccupied by the music and chat rn...
Will have to compare another day.

The song was alright. Apart from maybe the comparison I just mentioned, probs won't listen to it again. It's lowkey a banger, and it's funny when I compare it to the Flegmaatikot song, when I see it was a joke and not as a song about being a pimp.. So idk. I don't like Crunchy Black's verse as much. His flow, his voice... just ain't working for me. Otherwise I'd put it on my Rap & Hiphop playlist. The hook's a banger, the song's funny, I like the rest of the rappers (to a reasonable amount).
I get why it was a hit.