About Lord Infamous

Ricky Dunigan (November 17, 1973 - December 20, 2013), better known by his stage name Lord Infamous, was an American hip hop artist from Memphis, Tennessee, USA. He was co-founder of the Memphis rap group Three 6 Mafia, together with his half brother DJ Paul. Lord Infamous began his music career in 1991 with his younger half-brother Paul Beauregard, better known by his stage name DJ Paul. Later in 1993, Lord Infamous and DJ Paul met up with fellow north Memphis rapper and producer Juicy J. These three along with a number of other local rappers formed a group initially called "The Backyard Posse", which later went on the be known as "Triple 6 Mafia". The first record deal for the group was with Nick Scarfo and Prophet Posse. Under the label they released their first underground album, Smoked Out, Loced Out in 1994. At the same time, Lord Infamous released his first underground solo album, Lord Of Terror. Shortly after in 1995, the group changed its name to Three 6 Mafia and released their debut album, Mystic Stylez. At this time Three 6 Mafia members DJ Paul and Juicy J were creating their own record company, Hypnotize Minds, which Lord Infamous became a part of. The group went on to release 4 more mainstream albums and numerous solo projects through the mid-2000s, though during this time the group became smaller due to the departure of several artists for various reasons. In 2006, following jail time which lead to a breach of contract with Sony, Lord Infamous was forced to end work with Three 6 Mafia. Lord Infamous played a critical role in the underground success of the multi platinum-selling group. Best known for his ability to rap in many different styles, and his lyrics touching on occult subject matters such as satanism, mass murder, suicide, and torture, he was considered the darker member of the group. Following his departure from Three 6 Mafia in 2006, Lord Infamous together with long time friend and Memphis rapper II Tone partnered to create a new record company, "Black Rain Entertainment". Shortly thereafter several other Memphis rappers such as Mac Montese and T-Rock became involved with the company. They went on to release several group albums, solo albums and EP's, including several solo albums from Lord Infamous. Lord Infamous teamed up with DJ Paul for Paul's 2009 solo album, Scale-A-Ton (Skeleton), marking the first time they had worked together since the 2003 Three 6 Mafia release Da Unbreakables. In 2013, Lord Infamous together with four original members of Three 6 Mafia - DJ Paul, Crunchy Black, Koopsta Knicca and Gangsta Boo - formed the group Da Mafia 6ix. They released their debut mixtape 6ix Commandments on November 12, 2013 and were working on a studio album set to be released in 2014, when it was announced that Lord Infamous had died of a heart attack in his sleep on December 20, 2013.