Juicy J didn’t appreciate how Will Smith reacted to Three 6 Mafia’s 2006 Oscar win for Best Original Song. The multi-platinum selling rapper/producer discussed Will Smith’s alleged disrespect at the 78th Academy Awards on the Allison Interviews podcast.
“[Will Smith] ran up, he was like, ‘Man, I’m just mad ‘cause y’all got one before me,’” Juicy J told host Allison Kugel. “It could’ve been a joke, but I don’t know him. First of all, when I seen him, I was like, ‘I grew up listening to your music, man. It’s an honor to meet you.’ And he shook my hand, but he was like, ‘Man, what the hell? Y’all got one before me?’ And like I said, he could have been joking. He’s a comedian too. But I didn’t take it like that because I’m thinking people are gonna be like, ‘Congratulations.’ But he didn’t say that.”
Juicy J believed he got dissed by Will Smith since several A-listers congratulated Three 6 Mafia. The Memphis native named a few of the stars who commended the group, but he mainly remembered how Black Hollywood seemed to ignore Three 6 Mafia.
“John Travolta walked up to me, he said, ‘Congratulations,’” Juicy J told Kugel. “Steven Spielberg said, ‘Congratulations.’ George Clooney, which he had won one, he said, ‘Congratulations.’ A lot of those actors was like, ‘Congratulations.’ Nobody Black walked up to me and said, ‘Congratulations,’ that I can remember … But a lot of that stuff was kinda weird that night.”
He continued, “I was like, ‘Damn, this is weird. Maybe this is what Hollywood is all about.’ But I don’t let things get me down because Three 6 Mafia as a group, we always been against all odds. We always had doors slammed in our faces. We always had people say, ‘Don’t mess with those guys, they’re devil worshipers,’ and all that stuff. I was used to it.”
Juicy J tells more stories from his legendary career in the new memoir Chronicles of the Juice Man, which dropped on Tuesday (September 5). Purchase the book here.