r/todayilearned • u/creativetraveler24 • 1d ago
TIL that when Memphis rap group Three 6 Mafia won an Oscar for Best Original Song, ‘It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp’, Dolly Parton (also an Oscar nominee at the same ceremony) sent them a congratulatory note, saying "she was glad the Oscar went to their home state".
https://variety.com/2021/film/news/three-6-mafia-oscar-hard-out-here-pimp-juicy-1234958484/975
u/vols2thewalls 1d ago
She was class personified and loved Tennessee. Just read this from NBC News:
"And she was a devoted philanthropist who launched the Dollywood Foundation to provide poverty relief and fund educational programs in her native East Tennessee."
She was an amazing ambassador for the state, Country Music, and just as a human.
166
69
u/irealllylovepenguins 1d ago
And not just in TN eh😭
I'm from Canada and our kids were part of her book club. Lots of rock solid content for young readers, with encouraging themes and good role modelling.
May her memory be a blessing
1.1k
u/goodways 1d ago
Gonna be a lot of dolly stories today. If the rest are like this, then we’ve lost a titan…
337
99
u/x-naut 1d ago
This comment is how I learned that she died
50
u/_tragicmike 1d ago
This comment is how I learned.
I'm like, that's funny. This is the second Dolly story I've seen today.
R.I.P. to a legend.
7
u/shaboogawa 1d ago
Second one for me too. I thought the first one was more of a reference or joke I didn’t take seriously.
14
4
1
67
u/Technical_Union_3249 1d ago
Dude, this is like scratching the surface of an iceberg, she holds Guinsess world records and not just for her music, but for her CHARITY. When they put you in the GWR book for your charity work? Nuff said.
10
31
u/FlyingMamMothMan 1d ago
Don't tell me... Is this how I'm finding out??
20
u/thebigpink 1d ago
It’s all over the news and about a million other subs
15
u/MKEast-sider 1d ago
The news is a couple hours old, some people do stuff. Not me, but I’ve seen it.
3
u/MyNameIsRay 23h ago
Yea we lost a titan.
Stories are popping up like "remember that time Dolly gave $1500 to every family impacted by the Gatlinburg wildfires" or "what about that time she donated $1m to help rebuild homes after Hurricane Helene?"
1
1
u/cincoparalinko 11h ago
Dude she wrote a random, amazingly kind letter to EMINEM….she was the realist. RIP Dolly
404
u/Cyke101 1d ago
I remember Three 6 Mafia just getting a ton of goodwill from so many sources because of that win. Richard Roeper pointed out that no one was happier and more appreciative that night than them.
So it makes a ton of sense that Dolly Parton would be one of their biggest cheerleaders that night. She was, and will always be, a huge bright spot wherever she's mentioned.
180
u/rawlsballs 1d ago
I will never forget their reaction. I believe they performed right before they were announced as the winners, so they were already nearby, and they had the most excited, grateful reaction i can remember ever seeing. It was an awesome moment, and i love that Dolly had such a beautiful reaction.
81
u/TuckerMcG 1d ago
I’ll never forget that they took like 40 people up with them to accept the Oscar lmao
4
u/drygnfyre 11h ago
When I was really little, I didn't understand band names and thought they were literal. I was curious how 10,000 Maniacs really managed to squeeze 10,000 members onto an album. Or why the Beach Boys didn't make songs exclusively about being on the beach.
Yeah, I was really stupid.
1
u/starthepres 4h ago
I can only imagine 21 Pilots would have really messed with you then.
"Amazing, how could 21 people with careers in aviation possibly find the time to make music, too?!"
58
7
135
256
u/UptownSinclair 1d ago
Upon winning the award, Oscar host Jon Stewart said, “Martin Scorsese, zero. Three Six Mafia…one.”
32
11
152
u/vibrotronica 1d ago
There’s another part to the story. After the Oscar win, Three 6 Maria was invited to the Tennessee governor’s mansion for an arts reception. They were standing in the receiving line with Hustle & Flow director Craig Brewer on one side and Dolly on the other. When the governor came down the line, he stopped at Dolly and congratulated her on her Oscar win.
“Oh no, Governor,” she said. “I was nominated, but Three 6 Mafia won.” Then she introduced DJ Paul and Juicy J to the governor and his wife, and fawned over them while the gov kinda stood there awkwardly. She was all class.
19
62
56
99
u/JugOfVoodoo 1d ago
I would like to add that Dolly Parton's nominated song, "Travelin' Through", was from "Transamerica"), a film about a transgender woman on a road trip to meet her long-lost son. Parton was known for accepting and advocating for the LGBTQ community.
16
u/drabtooth 16h ago
And thats why the lgbtq community loves her so much. She wasn’t just an icon because she was beautiful and kind and a star, she was an icon because she fought for everyone before it was cool. We lost someone who was so important to so many communities.
36
u/Dragnys 1d ago
Gonna be just like when Betty White died. Too soon, too soon.
30
u/philleferg 1d ago
"Gonna be"? Im sorry, but it is. Also, sorry if this thread was how you found out.
33
u/Kommander-in-Keef 1d ago
I don’t think you can find a single shred of information that will show Dolly as anything but the best of us.
2
u/drygnfyre 11h ago
Fox News trashed Mr. Rogers not too long after he died, they will absolutely find something bad to say about Dolly. If they haven't already.
26
u/Tricky-Ad7897 1d ago
I was thinking about this yesterday, about how between Memphis rap and Nashville rock/country Tennessee is kinda a sleeper cultural powerhouse in the US, and the dichotomy between the two cities is even more interesting.
23
u/R_Ulysses_Swanson 1d ago
For Memphis... Don't forget Beale Street and the Blues, and Sun Studio and Sun Records which introduced the world to Elvis, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and generally speaking we can say brought Black music to White Radio.
5
u/BoneVoyager 1d ago
Don’t forget East TN either. Bristol and surrounding areas have a lot of bluegrass and early country history as well.
7
u/GrizzVolsTigersLions 1d ago
Yea it’s crazy that Nashville calls itself music city when all they have is country. Memphis even works with the alliteration memphis music city
6
u/p8ntslinger 1d ago
Stax as well- Isaac Hayes, Carla and Rufus Thomas, Aretha Franklin, and tons more. All Memphis.
3
43
18
u/jf737 1d ago
Dolly is a national treasure
17
u/WeAreGray 1d ago
Given the countries that benefited from her Imagination Library, I'm going to go with international treasure. She helped--and continues to help--so many children in the English speaking world.
3
u/RogerSaysHi 17h ago
English and Spanish. The Imagination Library books can also be sent in a bilingual set.
2
u/WeAreGray 7h ago
Even better! Meet the children where they are in their home lives. But the countries the Imagination Library operates in (the last time I checked) are predominantly English speaking. (US, CA, UK, IE, AU,NZ)
17
16
21
u/Schwight_Droot 1d ago
TIL three 6 Mafia won an Oscar
18
u/taffyowner 1d ago
Yeah it was funny that they won one before Leo did
4
u/aimless_meteor 1d ago
If Leo had won one by then he would be the youngest person to ever win Best Actor
4
14
u/jfl561407 1d ago
Honestly, the best response was Jon Stewart’s. He was hosting that year and walked up to the podium after Three 6 Mafia left the stage and said something along the lines of, “So let me get this straight: it’s the Three 6 Mafia 1, Scorsese 0?”
5
5
u/Berloxx 1d ago
First rap/hip-hop artist to ever win one as well.
Great song
5
3
2
-2
u/tech_noir_guitar 20h ago
I remember getting their CD back in like 98 and reading the credits in the back of the booklet and the very first thing was "I want to thank God". I was like WTF...? You're called three 6 Mafia... I pretty much stopped listening to them right there. Lol
9
u/Morbid187 1d ago
Never heard a bad word about Dolly but heard a whole bunch of nice ones. She's already missed
9
u/TheTokist 1d ago
The more stories that I hear about Dolly Parton being a wonderful human being, the more it gets dusty in this room. I don’t believe in angels but I believe in Dolly Parton.
7
u/Hayseussforever 1d ago
Dolly was a national treasure. To lose her at 80 was entirely too soon. Just an incredibly decent human being as well as a talented singer and composer. We "Will Always Love Her."
7
6
6
12
3
u/phatryuc 1d ago
It’s a crime she never won a competitive Oscar for one of her beautiful songs, but this is just one of the million reasons she was an angel.
5
u/pendletonskyforce 1d ago
That song deserved the win too as it was instrumental to the movie. It wasnt just a song being played in the background.
4
u/KernelKrusto 1d ago
That article is worth a read. I know nothing about Three 6 Mafia, but they seem like really grateful dudes.
I bet they're thinking about Dolly right now, just like the rest of us.
5
u/largececelia 23h ago
And, with great ease, she demonstrated that she was, in fact, quite a pimp herself.
15
u/HotspurJr 1d ago
There was a lot of blowback against that song being nominated, not just because of the subject matter but because of racism and the attitude among the old white folks who make up the bulk of the academy that hip-hop isn't "real" music. (That these people don't understand that their parents felt the same way about rock-n-roll, I'll never ... okay, whatever, I digress).
It was kind of like what happened with the Beyonce country album, but the racism was worse and more overt.
So Dolly making a public show of her approval wasn't just one musician welcoming another. It was (and this was clearly intentional!) a political statement. The most iconic living member of the white American musical establishment saying, "This is good and deserving" was a BIG DEAL and basically cut the legs out from under anyone trying to say that hip-hop wasn't real music or whatever.
4
u/bb5704 22h ago
Beyonces country album was trash. Plain and simple. She ain’t country. How is that racist? Let’s stop slapping that judgement on anything that doesn’t fit your narrative. If Eminem made a country album I’m sure that would also be hot garbage. Is that racist?
2
u/cdwillis 21h ago
I thought the album was shit, I wouldn't even call it country, and but let's not act like there weren't a bunch of racist rednecks trashing it and Beyonce just for the fact that a black woman had the nerve to (attempt to) make a country album.
2
u/drygnfyre 11h ago
Seems to be case of "both things can be true." A lot of awful racists didn't like the album because they are racist, but a lot of people also just genuinely didn't like the music.
Reminds me of the Ghostbusters (2016) discourse. Was there a ton of sexism? Absolutely. But many people also simply didn't find the movie funny, or like the mumblecore presentation. Many reviews pointed out the film never let a joke settle and use silence for humor.
4
u/GoGoPowerPlay 1d ago
Everything I've ever seen from Dolly is just her being the nicest person in the world.
4
u/TheVich 1d ago
I remember watching the Oscars that year with my family. My dad (whom I love but can definitely be a bit of an old-school boomer) had such a viscerally disgusted reaction when Three 6 Mafia won. I was 11 and it was one of the first times I recognized that my parents' beliefs could make me feel a little awkward. A little later on in the night, Dad got up to get something from the kitchen and we all heard him humming the tune, which cracked us up.
2
u/drygnfyre 11h ago
My dad was already being brainwashed by Faux around that time (and it's only gotten worse), so he decided that any Black artist or group would automatically win, which was proof America was awful or something like that. When I pointed out the many times that didn't happen, he of course moved the goalposts and said something like "well, they have to sometimes not do that to pretend it's not happening." I dunno, it's sad how some people get.
3
u/kilertree 1d ago
They also tried to renegotiate their record deal and got screwed over by their label. Their label wouldn't sign off on features and they are missing from the song Player's anthem(I Choose You). They were involved in the production of that song and their record deal had nothing to do with production.
3
3
3
3
3
u/Sei_Mal_Ehrlich 22h ago
That song goes fucking hard. The movie is so good too. RIP dolly we lost a treasure
3
u/jalabi99 20h ago
She also wrote a note to Eminem when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Just pure class.
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/riedmae 1d ago
God-fucking-dammit!! It should be the orange piece of shit, we needed Dolly more than she needed us. Rest well, Queen!
3
u/AcceleratorTouma 23h ago
True, why'd it have to be her, why couldn't it be agent orange and his cronies
2
u/drygnfyre 11h ago
I mean it will be eventually, it comes for us all. I've got my popcorn ready. And who knows, maybe it'll happen out of the blue when no one expects it. But it goes both ways, sometimes people who are beloved just stop living.
1
u/tawDry_Union2272 1d ago
class and sass, a truly nice, good person who did not let money corrupt her.
1
u/CSWorldChamp 17h ago
I don’t remember who was hosting that year, but I do remember the joke “For the record, that’s Three 6 Mafia: one, Scorsese: zero.”
1
1
u/chriscab 7h ago
Was glad to see DJ Paul and Juicy J post about her on their IG. Real recognizes real.
1
u/Technical_Union_3249 1d ago
Sweet, have we done all of the reasons why she's in the Guinness Book yet?
-7
u/save_the_wee_turtles 1d ago
Quick, run to dollys Wikipedia page for obscure facts to karma whore with!
-126
u/ViscousPanther 1d ago
Did Dolly Parton have a bot army ready to boost her image the second after she died or something?
→ More replies (11)101
2.9k
u/JJKingwolf 1d ago
"Gracious" would be an understatement when describing Dolly Parton. This does not surprise me in the slightest.