There isn’t much about 3xD online—and EST’s one of the most unjustifiably overlooked rappers of any era—so I had to get this one out there. For those that don’t know, “The Unusual Fellow” was a one-man slang wave long before E-40, coining terms like “Acknickulous” and “The Giddy Up” with a smooth delivery reminiscent, but not derivative, of Big Daddy Kane. Originally working as part of Steady B’s Hilltop Hustlers camp under the name “3-D,” Three Times Dope released their 1989 Arista debut LP Original Stylin’, before dropping Live From Acknickulous Land in ‘90. They seemed to disappear at this point, but actually released the little-known The Sequel EP in ‘94 and an identically named LP in ‘98. I only recently learned of these, but, as it turns out, they’re quite good. More recently, EST has penned tracks for Britney Spears, Destiny’s Child and others under his gov’t name, Robert Waller.


JS: How did you first get on? Did Three Times Dope exist before you met up with Steady B and the Hilltop Hustlers?

EST: This is what happened. Me and a group of fellas by the name of Duerwood Beale—DJ Woody Wood—and Walter C. Griggs—that’s Chuck Nice—from the Hunting Park section of Philadelphia were, as all of us were, enthused by this music. Chuck was blessed enough to know how to work the beats and Wood was a well-respected neighborhood DJ known for tricks like cutting with a saw or spinning behind his back, and having the Transformer scratch down real good. I was going with a girl in that neighborhood and that neighborhood had opened its arms to me. We was at a house party one night, and I got on with them because their resident MCs weren’t there. I did my thing and they stepped to me later and said, “Would you be down to sit down and work with us on some stuff?” They could tell I was more focused and happier to be rapping then the dudes they were with at that time.
We started what later became Three Times Dope on our own. We felt we had a little chemistry. They were already trying to pursue something with Lawrence Goodman from Pop Art Records at the time. He had liked what they was doing but they didn’t have the last component, an MC that was gonna complement them. When they stepped to him with me, he was like, “I’ll mess with y’all now.” He was dealing with Steady B at the time and Cool C was Steady’s man and he was thinking of cultivating him. With me attached to the other boys as Three Times Dope, I guess Lawrence got the idea to do the Hilltop Hustlers after an area where Steady grew up in West Philly. It was named after some original street gangsters who used to be called the Hilltop Hustlers.

JS: So the Hilltop Hustlers was all Lawrence Goodman’s idea?

EST: It was a collective idea of Lawrence and Steady B., I believe.

JS: Were the real Hilltop Hustlers were around then?

EST: They were ‘70s, ‘80s, dudes that had made a name. Just like Schoolly D had done with the Parkside area and a known group of dudes who used to permeate the area, the Parkside Killers. In the process of growing up in the hood and urban folklore we just ran with the name.

JS: Were they still active at the time you guys took the name?

EST: It was just a homage to them. Even with Steady B. being from there, the Three Times Dope faction was all North Philly-based. We just had blended and seemed to creatively work well with these dudes from West Philly. They were the ones giving a homage to the people they knew and held down their neighborhood before they got a chance to hold it down through music. It was a name people could reflect to, and it seemed like a good name to say where we was coming from at the time.

(originally published at www.jesseserwer.com)