8Ball (rapper)

Eightball (Premro Smith) and MJG (Marlon Jermaine Goodwin) grew up in the rough Orange Mound area of Memphis and met at Ridgeway Junior High in 1984. They shared a passion for hip-hop, which hadn't yet made a strong impact in the South, and soon formed a partnership.

Eightball & MJG may have never made a significant impact nationally during their rise to fame in the 1990s, yet they indeed made an incredible impact throughout the South, where the Memphis-bred duo pioneered what countless Dirty South rappers would emulate years later. The two began on the Southern underground circuit, where they peddled tapes in Memphis, Houston, and Atlanta. After a few years of this, Eightball & MJG helped to launch Suave House Records in 1993 and attracted a pair of national distribution deals. The label released Eightball & MJG's debut full-length, Comin' Out Hard (1993), a cult classic produced entirely by the duo and popularized by the song "Armed Robbery." By the end of the '90s, just as the Dirty South movement broke nationally, the duo issued their final Suave House album, In Our Lifetime, Vol. 1 (1999), and declared themselves Southern rap pioneers. Few argued, as the two, and particularly Eightball, made countless cameo appearances for an array of fellow Southern rappers, earning the duo respect for their work ethic and diplomacy as well as their mature perspective and street-smart wits. In later years, Eightball & MJG finally began flirting with crossover success, ultimately signing to P Diddy's Bad Boy label in 2002.

8 Ball is currently located in Memphis, TN, where he has started his own imprint, called 8 Ways Entertainment. MJG has followed suite and started up MJG Music. Both are home to a bevy of up and comers from the Memphis area.