6 Feet Deep (also titled Niggamortis in some regions) is the debut album of the American hip hop supergroup Gravediggaz. Formed by former Tommy Boy Records artists Prince Paul, RZA, Frukwan and Poetic, the group utilized horror-themed imagery and lyrics combined with black comedy and satire to vent their frustrations with the hip hop record industry. The album's concept satirizes the hardcore hip hop and gangsta rap of the early 1990s. Released on August 9, 1994, by Gee Street Records, the album helped usher in horrorcore.
Production
The conception of the Gravediggaz group came at a low point in the careers of each of the group's members, each of which had at one point or another been signed to Tommy Boy Records and had not had good experiences with the label. Prince Paul had also contributed drums to the RZA's early single "Ooh We Love You Rakeem". According to Paul, the RZA was trying to get signed to Doo Dew Man Records, Paul's vanity label distributed by Def Jam Records, but Paul had failed to launch the label, and Def Jam put Resident Alien's It Takes a Nation of Suckers to Hold Us In, the label's lone album, on hold. Additionally, Paul and rapper Frukwan had both recently left Stetsasonic, and while Paul had received much praise for his instrumentals for De La Soul's acclaimed debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising, the group's follow-up album De La Soul is Dead was not well received, and De La Soul were beginning to handle more of their own production, alienating Paul from the group and leaving him in a "dark [and] depressed" mood, which was reflected in the instrumentals he was creating at this time. Paul called rappers RZA, Frukwan, and Poetic separately, inviting them to listen to these new instrumentals in his home, and RZA suggested that they form a group together and proposed they name it Gravediggaz, which met with the approval of the four, who each took on "grave-themed" aliases - the Undertaker (Prince Paul), the Grym Reaper (Poetic), the Gatekeeper (Frukwan) and the RZArector - and recorded the demo "The House That Hatred Built". The formation of the Gravediggaz made the group one of hip hop's first supergroups.
The demo was shopped to Def Jam and Jive Records, who both passed on the group. Subsequently, Poetic began working at a bagel factory, Frukwan got a job making clothes, and the RZA co-founded the Wu-Tang Clan, which Paul later observed had been influenced by the Gravediggaz' conceptualization as a concept-oriented rap supergroup. Eazy-E offered the Gravediggaz a contract with Ruthless Records, but Paul turned it down due to Jerry Heller's contract, which Paul described as "one of the worst [contracts] I’ve ever seen in my life." Several years after the demo was recorded, Gee Street Records offered a better contract, and subsequently signed the group. "Constant Elevation" was the first song recorded by the group after signing with Gee Street. Poetic rewrote his intro verse after some bad takes, establishing the energy that would carry over to the rest of the album's vocal sessions. RZA intended to record "Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide" as a solo track, but Prince Paul recorded additional verses from Frukwan and Poetic.