It can be said that for women in hip-hop, rap can be a sisterhood since there are so few of them in a business dominated by men. But that sisterhood is especially strong between an even smaller number of female rappers who shared the mic as part of a group. That number includes the late Gangsta Boo and fellow Memphis rapper La Chat, who were the female components of the pioneering group Three 6 Mafia before departing for solo careers in 2001. They reunited in 2014 for a joint project, the Witch EP, proving that their bond went past just their Mafia membership.
So understandably, La Chat was one of the former Three 6 members to pay tribute to her fallen friend, who she called her sister, on Instagram, posting a long, heartfelt tribute to Boo addressing the loss. “This is not easy 4 me,” she wrote. “is not easy 4 me, Wake up in Tears, Doze Off in tears, the Tears won’t stop falling, my eyes burning. It’s gone take Sum Time but with GOD INVOLVED I KNO IMA BE OK sooner than I thank.”
“I been wit Boo all my WholeLife,” she continued. “She was a STRONG INDEPENDENT BLACK WOMAN, Dat didn’t take no shit lol. y’all couldn’t imagine All the things We have done, All the convos We Have Had ErrDay, Literally ALL the time We have Spent, All The Money We Have Made 2Gether, We both was our Mothers Only Daughters We was raised with nun but men & was Blessed 2 Rap with THE BEST GROUP EVER WHICH WAS ALL MEN WHICH MADE US SISTERS!!!”
Before her passing, Gangsta Boo — who died on Sunday (January 1) at the age of 43 — passed the torch of that sisterhood with “FTCU,” a raucous collaboration with Latto and fellow Memphian GloRilla that sampled her work with Three 6.