$6.4 Million Later, the $uicideboy$ Finally Pay the Price for Worshipping Three 6 Mafia
There’s homage, and then there’s a $6.4 million invoice. Scrim and Ruby da Cherry of $uicideboy$, the goth rap duo from New Orleans known for flipping suicide ideation and horrorcore aesthetics into SoundCloud stardom, just settled a copyright suit that’s been shadowing their catalog like a haunted sample.
The plaintiffs? None other than DJ Paul and Juicy J of Three 6 Mafia, Memphis rap titans and frequent reference point in $uicideboy$’s musical lineage. The charge? Allegedly lifting from 35 different Three 6 tracks without clearance. The suit, originally filed in 2020, marked a rare but unsurprising turn for a duo whose sound owes a sizable debt to the low-end paranoia and soul-drenched sleaze that Three 6 popularized decades earlier, a legacy cemented across their most essential albums and genre-defining tracks.
Despite the duo’s prior collaborations with Juicy J, who once co-signed their work and tapped them for contributions to his own mixtapes, the legal alliance within Three 6 didn’t hold. The suit called into question not just sampling ethics but ownership itself. $uicideboy$ responded with their own counter-claim: that Juicy J had verbally agreed to let them sample Three 6’s material in exchange for unpaid labor on his tapes. The message? Studio sessions aren’t currency. Paperwork is.
As of late 2025, that five-year legal freeze has thawed. Court filings reveal a full settlement between the plaintiffs and Ivan Ramirez (Scrim), with all claims resolved “to their mutual satisfaction.” What’s not clarified is whether the settlement included future licensing agreements or if this marks a formal break in artistic relations.
This isn’t just about uncleared loops. The story cuts deeper, into hip-hop’s long-standing tradition of reinvention, homage, and regional lineage. The eerie underbellies and chopped vocal tics that $uicideboy$ use like texture swatches are direct descendants of Willie Hutch samples and VHS-era drum machines that Three 6 Mafia elevated into canon.
Call it restitution. Call it a ceasefire. Either way, it’s a new chapter for both parties. For Three 6 Mafia, it’s another moment asserting their foundational place in rap’s digital present. For $uicideboy$, it’s a reminder that ghosts you borrow may one day return with receipts.
