Juvenile
Juvenile
Rap musician
New Orleans-based rapper Juvenile stormed onto the national music scene with his wildly popular 1999 singles “Ha” and “Back That Azz Up,” both from his 1998 album 400 Degreez. The singer is one of the Cash Money Millionaires, a group of rap artists on the Cash Money label noted for their flamboyance and playboy lifestyle. Juvenile and Cash Money introduced Southern rap, or bounce music, into a scene largely dominated by East- and West-coast rivalry. Juvenile’s sixth solo album, Project English, was released in November of 2001.
Born Terius Gray in 1977 in New Orleans, Louisiana, Juvenile was raised in the Magnolia housing projects in the Uptown area of that city. His songs draw on his experiences there, incorporating Southern slang and referring often to life in Magnolia. The rapper has tattoos on his forearms, marking him forever as a “‘Nolia boy.” Juvenile started rapping when he was just ten years old, and in the early 1990s formed the local group 3Grand. When he was 16, this band released 3 Bad Brothers; his real success, though, would be based on his solo talents. Local record label Warlock released his first solo album, Being Myself, in 1995. The album sold locally and was part of the growing bounce music trend: heavy with steady, driving beats and Juvenile’s persistent patter. Perhaps most importantly, the album caught the attention of local underground label Cash Money Recordings.
Ronald “Suga Slim” and Brian “Baby” Williams run Cash Money, and have dedicated the label to producing Southern rap with a flamboyant streak. The label paired Juvenile with producer Mannie Fresh, who is known for his wild funk production—reviewer Jason Birchmeier of All Music Guide calls his style “dense electro-funk”—and for bringing bounce music into the national scene. Juvenile’s first release on Cash Money, 1996’s Solja Rags, included appearances by other Cash Money acts such as Big Moe, Magnolia Shorty, Big Tymer$, and the Hot Boy$ (B.G., Lil Wayne, Young Turk, and Juvenile). The album sold 200,000 units across the Southern United States, but Juvenile had not yet arrived on the national scene. Solja Rags was followed by Juvenile and the Hot Boy$’s first full-length release, Get It How U Live!!
The success of Solja Rags in the South brought Juvenile and the label to the attention of music giant Universal. Cash Money signed a $30 million distribution. deal with the label, and with Universal’s backing Juvenile’s next record, 400 Degreez, blasted onto the national charts in 1998. The album produced two wildly popular singles, “Ha” and “Back That Azz Up” (also released in a clean version as as “Back That Thang Up”). With bouncy, driving beats, the songs hit the top ten charts and received frequent radio play; Juvenile’s highly suggestive video for the single was put into heavy rotation on MTV.
Juvenile’s songs refer to his newfound wealth after a youth spent in the projects, and especially the sexual attention that accompanies such wealth and success. Although some critics predictably called “Back That Azz Up” misogynistic, Juvenile himself didn’t seem bothered by the charges. He also seems to love his image as a Cash Money Millionaire: Juvenile wears pounds and pounds of gold jewelry, gambles and parties lavishly, and, when making his entrance in concert, bursts out of a giant Rolex.
400 Degreez captures the uniquely Southern bounce. sound for which Juvenile is known, as well as his deep identification with New Orleans. Discussing the title of the album in a Soul Train magazine interview, he said, “It represents my hometown. It’s hot. It be burning up there…. I’m hot as a firecracker.” Certainly the album heated up Juvenile’s career: the album got to number nine on the Billboard Top 100 chart and went platinum a staggering four times. With the record’s popularity, Cash Money outsold the other top rap labels, Def Jam and Bad Boy, and became one of the biggest success stories of 1999. Billboard named the record Album of the Year for 1999 in the rap/hip-hop category, and Juvenile was praised, as a Listen.com reviewer noted, for his “peerless technical ability and mastery of various styles.”
Juvenile and Cash Money rushed to capitalize on the success of 400 Degreez. In 1999 the Hot Boy$ released their sophomore album, Guerrilla Warfare, which quickly made it into the top ten, and Juvenile
For the Record…
Born Terius Gray in 1977 in New Orleans, LA.
First solo album, Being Myself, released by Warlock Records, 1995; signed with Cash Money label, released Solja Rags, 1996; joined with B.G., Lil Wayne, and Young Turk as the Hot Boy$ to release Get It How U Live!!, 1997; released multiplatinum album 400 Degreez by Cash Money and Universal, 1998; released Project English, 2001.
Awards: Billboard magazine, Rap Album of the Year for 400 Degreez, 1999.
Addresses: Record company —Cash Money Records, P.O. Box 547, St Rose, LA 70087, phone: (504) 465-5115, website: http://www.cashmoney-records.com. Website —Juvenile Official Website: http://www.juvenileonline.com.
released his follow-up album Tha G Code, which sold more than two million copies and made it to number ten on the Billboard chart. In the same year Warlock released a remix of Being Myself and Cash Money rereleased Solja Rags. In 2000 Playaz of da Game followed Tha G Code; the album was mostly remixed and rerecorded material that had not previously made it onto an album. Although these releases sold fairly well, they did not produce the hits that 400 Degreez had, and they were generally dismissed by critics. Tha G Code received some praise for Fresh’s production, but Juvenile’s lyrics were called clichéd by some: they focus on his status as a Cash Money Millionaire and the related accoutrements. Playaz of Da Game, though, had few redeeming qualities; Birchmeier called it “incredibly amateur” and “an embarrassment.”
In 2001, though, Juvenile returned to the charts with his album Project English. The record was certified gold in November, and it debuted at number two on Bill-board’s Top 100 Rap Albums chart. Juvenile returned to his New Orleans roots in the album, noting in comments included on the Cash Money Records website, “Every ghetto has it’s [sic] own slang…. What I’m doing with this album is putting out slang out there so people can understand what we are trying to say…. Hip-hop is all about words said on top of some dope-a “music.” The album produced more success for the rapper when two singles from the album, “Set It Off” and “From Ya Mama,” reached the top ten at the end of 2001.
Juvenile also branched out in 2001 to establish his own record label, with his brother Corey Gray as CEO of the fledgling company. Called Uptown Project Records, the label’s albums are distributed by Orpheus/EMI. Their first release was by rapper Skip; other musicians on the roster include Young Buck and Wack-O. Juvenile himself, though, remains signed to Cash Money.
Juvenile’s particular brand of Southern bounce music, with its funky beats and signature flow, challenged the domination of the coasts in the rap scene of the late 1990s. His personal success and flamboyance helped establish Cash Money Records as a major force in the rap world and the Cash Money Millionaire as an urban icon. When asked by a Soul Train interviewer about where he is headed, Juvenile said simply, “I wanna be a legend. I’m not in it for a minute, I’m in it for life, you know.”
Selected discography
(With 3Grand) 3 Bad Brothers, 1993.
Being Myself, Warlock, 1995.
Solja Rags, Cash Money, 1997; reissued, Uptown/Universal, 1999.
(With the Hot Boy$) Get It How U Live!!, Cash Money, 1997.
400 Degreez, Uptown/Universal, 1998.
(With the Hot Boy$) Guerrilla Warfare, Cash Money, 1999.
Tha G Code, Cash Money, 1999.
Playaz of Da Game, D-3, 2000.
Project English, Uptown/Universal, 2001.
Sources
Periodicals
Billboard, April 17, 1999; April 7, 2001; November 10, 2001, p. 30.
Hartford Courant, March 2, 2000, p. 18.
Houston Chronicle, August 22, 1999, p. 16.
Jet, July 16, 2001, p. 35.
Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2000, p. 4F.
Newsweek, October 4, 1999, p. 71; February 28, 2000, p. 67.
PR Newswire, November 1, 2001.
Online
“Interview with Juvenile,”Soul Train, http://www.soultrain.com (December 20, 2001).
“Juvenile,”All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (December 20, 2001).
“Juvenile,” Listen.com, http://www.listen.com (December 20, 2001).
“Juvenile: Tha.Nolia.Boy,” Cash Money Records, http://www.juvenileonline.com/frameset_home.htm (December 20, 2001).
—Christine Kelley
Juvenile
Juvenile
Rap musician
New Orleans-based rapper Juvenile stormed onto the national music scene with his wildly popular 1999 singles "Ha" and "Back That Azz Up," both from his 1998 album 400 Degreez. The singer is one of the Cash Money Millionaires, a group of rap artists on the Cash Money label noted for their flamboyance and playboy lifestyle. Juvenile and Cash Money introduced Southern rap, or bounce music, into a scene largely dominated by East- and West-coast rivalry. Juvenile's sixth solo album, Project English, was released in November of 2001. Juvenile's particular brand of Southern bounce music, with its funky beats and signature flow, challenged the domination of the coasts in the rap scene of the late 1990s. His personal success and flamboyance helped establish Cash Money Records as a major force in the rap world and the Cash Money Millionaire as an urban icon.
Born Terius Gray in 1977 in New Orleans, Louisiana, Juvenile was raised in the Magnolia housing projects in the Uptown area of that city. He grew up listening to his parents' music, and told an interviewer from Inside-Hoops that this was a major pastime in his close-knit family: "If my daddy played it, I was down with it…. My family, that's all we had…. We didn't have all the entertainment things that they have out there right now. Music was the way. I listened to everything. Especially if they had rap songs coming out. I was starving for it."
When he was ten years old, Juvenile began making up his own songs, which incorporated Southern slang and referred often to life in Magnolia. The rapper has tattoos on his forearms, marking him forever as a "Nolia boy." In the early 1990s he formed the local group 3Grand. When he was 16, this band released 3 Bad Brothers. His real success, however, would be based on his solo talents. Local record label Warlock released his first solo album, Being Myself, in 1995. The album sold locally and was part of the growing bounce music trend: heavy, with steady, driving beats and Juvenile's persistent patter. Perhaps most important, the album caught the attention of local underground label Cash Money Recordings.
Ronald "Suga Slim" and Brian "Baby" Williams ran Cash Money, and dedicated the label to producing Southern rap with a flamboyant streak. The label paired Juvenile with producer Mannie Fresh, known for his wild funk productions. Reviewer Jason Birchmeier of All Music Guide called his style "dense electro-funk," and later credited him with bringing bounce onto the national scene. Juvenile's first release on Cash Money, Solja Rags (1996), included appearances by other Cash Money acts such as Big Moe, Magnolia Shorty, Big Tymer$, and the Hot Boy$ (B.G., Lil Wayne, Young Turk, and Juvenile). The album sold 200,000 copies across the southern United States, but Juvenile had not yet arrived on the national scene. Solja Rags was followed by Juvenile and the Hot Boy$'s first full-length release, Get It How U Live!!.
The success of Solja Rags in the South brought Juvenile and the label to the attention of music giant Universal. Cash Money signed a $30 million distribution deal with the label, and with Universal's backing Juvenile's next record, 400 Degreez, blasted onto the national charts in 1998. The album produced two wildly popular singles, "Ha" and "Back That Azz Up" (also released in a clean version as as "Back That Thang Up"). With bouncy, driving beats, the songs hit the Top 10 charts and received frequent radio play; Juvenile's highly suggestive video for the single was put into heavy rotation on MTV.
Many of Juvenile's songs referred to his newfound wealth after a youth spent in the projects, and especially the sexual attention that accompanies such wealth and success. Although some critics called "Back That Azz Up" misogynistic, Juvenile himself didn't seem bothered by the charges. He also developed his image as a Cash Money Millionaire, wearing lavish gold jewelry, gambling and partying regularly and, when making his entrance in concert, bursting out of a giant Rolex.
400 Degreez captured the uniquely Southern bounce sound for which Juvenile is known, as well as his deep identification with New Orleans. Discussing the title of the album in a Soul Train magazine interview, he said, "It represents my hometown. It's hot. It be burning up there. … I'm hot as a firecracker." Certainly the album heated up Juvenile's career: the album reached number nine on the Billboard Top 100 chart and went platinum a staggering four times. With the record's popularity, Cash Money outsold the other top rap labels, Def Jam and Bad Boy, and became one of the biggest success stories of 1999. Billboard named the record Album of the Year for 1999 in the rap/hip-hop category, and Juvenile was praised, as a Listen.com reviewer noted, for his "peerless technical ability and mastery of various styles."
Juvenile and Cash Money rushed to capitalize on the success of 400 Degreez. In 1999 the Hot Boy$ released their sophomore album, Guerrilla Warfare, which quickly made it into the Top 10, and Juvenile released his follow-up album Tha G Code, which sold more than two million copies and made it to number ten on the Billboard charts. In the same year Warlock released a remix of Being Myself and Cash Money reissued Solja Rags. In 2000 Playaz of da Game followed Tha G Code; the album was mostly remixed and rerecorded material that had not previously made it onto an album. Although these releases sold fairly well, they did not produce the hits that 400 Degreez had, and they were generally dismissed by critics.
In 2001 Juvenile returned to the charts with his album Project English. The record was certified gold in November, and it debuted at number two on Billboard's Top 100 Rap Albums chart. Juvenile returned to his New Orleans roots in the album, noting in comments included on the Cash Money Records website, "Every ghetto has it's [sic] own slang…. What I'm doing with this album is putting out slang out there so people can understand what we are trying to say." The album produced more success for the rapper when two singles from the album, "Set It Off" and "From Ya Mama," reached the Top 10 at the end of 2001.
Juvenile also branched out in 2001 to establish his own record label, with his brother Corey Gray as CEO of the fledgling company. Called Uptown Project Records, the label's albums were distributed by Orpheus/EMI. Their first release was by rapper Skip; other musicians on the roster included Young Buck and Wack-O. Juvenile himself, though, remained signed to Cash Money.
For the Record …
Born Terius Gray in 1977 in New Orleans, LA; married Shadonna Jones (a nurse), September 4, 2004; four children.
First solo album, Being Myself, released by Warlock Records, 1995; signed with Cash Money label, released Solja Rags, 1996; joined with B.G., Lil Wayne, and Young Turk as the Hot Boy$ to release Get It How U Live!!, 1997; released multiplatinum album 400 Degreez by Cash Money and Universal, 1998; released Project English, 2001; The Compilation, 2002; Juve the Great, 2003; Beelow Presents: Louisiana's Sickest, 2005; Reality Check, 2006.
Awards: Billboard magazine, Rap Album of the Year, for 400 Degreez, 1999.
Addresses: Record company—Cash Money Records, P.O. Box 547, St. Rose, LA 70087, phone: (504) 465-5115, website: http://www.cashmoney-records.com. Website—Juvenile Official Website: http://www.juvenileonline.com; http://www.juvenilerealitycheck.com.
On Juve the Great, released in 2004, Juvenile had a huge hit with the song "Slow Motion." After just two weeks the song hit the number one spot on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, the first time one of his songs had reached that position. Juvenile followed this with another hit, "Nolia Clapp," and the strength of both songs made him look more attractive to bigger labels. He signed with Atlantic Records and in 2006 released Reality Check, which featured guest appearances by Fat Joe, Ludacris, Mike Jones, Paul Wall, Brian McKnight, Trey Songz, Bun B, and 8-Ball. The album debuted in the number one spot on the Billboard 200 chart.
Juvenile's success was tempered by the fact that his home in Slidell, Louisiana, was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He has spent much of his time since then working with other hip hop artists to raise money to help other victims of the hurricane. He told an interviewer on NobodySmiling, "I lost my house, almost everybody with me lost their homes; my family, all my people are in Atlanta, they got split up all over the country, some of my family got sent to Canada, it's real, it's hurting."
Overall, Juvenile is unusual among rappers because he does not try to cultivate a hardened, tough image. He told Cynthia Fuchs in Popmatters, that rappers who try hard to look mean are "knuckleheads. Some rappers wanna be hard. I know I'm a man, I know I'm hard. I ain't got nothing to prove. I don't have to be out there with all that bull****."
When asked by a Soul Train interviewer about where he is headed, Juvenile said simply, "I wanna be a legend. I'm not in it for a minute, I'm in it for life, you know."
Selected discography
(With 3Grand) 3 Bad Brothers, 1993.
Being Myself, Warlock, 1995.
Solja Rags, Cash Money, 1997; reissued, Uptown/Universal, 1999.
(With the Hot Boy$) Get It How U Live!!, Cash Money, 1997.
400 Degreez, Uptown/Universal, 1998.
(With the Hot Boy$) Guerrilla Warfare, Cash Money, 1999.
Tha G Code, Cash Money, 1999.
Playaz of Da Game, D-3, 2000.
Project English, Uptown/Universal, 2001.
The Compilation, Uptown Project Records, 2002.
Juve the Great, Cash Money Records, 2003.
Beelow Presents: Louisiana's Sickest, Beelow and Boosie, 2005.
Reality Check, UTP/Atlantic Records, 2006.
Sources
Periodicals
Billboard, April 17, 1999; April 7, 2001; November 10, 2001, p. 30.
Entertainment Weekly, January 19, 2004, p. 81.
Hartford Courant, March 2, 2000, p. 18.
Houston Chronicle, August 22, 1999, p. 16.
Jet, July 16, 2001, p. 35.
Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2000, p. 4F.
Newsweek, October 4, 1999, p. 71; February 28, 2000, p. 67.
PR Newswire, November 1, 2001.
Texas Lawyer, January 24, 2005, p. NA.
Online
"Interview with Juvenile," Popmatters,http://www.popmatters.com/music/interviews/juvenile/html (February 9, 2007).
"Interview with Juvenile," Soul Train,http://www.soultrain.com (December 20, 2001).
"Juvenile," All Music Guide,http://www.allmusic.com (December 20, 2001).
"Juvenile Interview," InsideHoops, June 21, 2005, http://www.insidehoops.com/entertainment/juvenile-interview-062105.shtml (February 9, 2007).
"Juvenile," Listen.com, http://www.listen.com (December 20, 2001).
Juvenile Official Website, http://www.juvenilerealitycheck.com/ (February 9, 2007).
"Juvenile: Tha Nolia.Boy," Cash Money Records, http://www.juvenileonline.com/frameset_home.htm (December 20, 2001).
"Juvenile: The Reality Check," NobodySmiling,http://www.nobodysmiling.com/hiphop/interview/85561.php (February 9, 2007).
Juvenile
JUVENILE
Born: Terius Gray; New Orleans, Louisiana, 26 March 1975
Genre: Hip-Hop
Best-selling album since 1990: 400 Degreez (1998)
Hit songs since 1990: "Ha," "Back That Thang Up," "Follow Me Now"
New Orleans–based Juvenile was one of the most prominent southern rappers to win mainstream exposure in the second half of the 1990s. He helped to define the sound of the so-called "Dirty South" and to establish it as a force in hip-hop. Juvenile's success with his group, the Hot Boys, and as a solo artist helped turn the New Orleans label Cash Money Records from a regional success into a national powerhouse.
Terius Gray began rapping in his teens while growing up in New Orleans' infamous Magnolia Housing projects. In 1995 he released his debut album, Being Myself, on the Warlock label. It made enough of an impact locally to attract the attention of Ronald "Suga Slim" Williams and his brother Brian "Baby" Williams, co-owners of the local Cash Money Records label. The Williams brothers had started their label in the early 1990s with one artist, the teenage B.G., whose regional success had given Cash Money the funds to expand. They signed Juvenile and in May 1997 released his album Soulja Rags.
Soulja Rags finds Juvenile and the Cash Money house producer Mannie Fresh developing the sound they later perfected on 400 Degreez. It presents Juvenile's tightly constructed rhyming over a collection of synth-heavy, bouncy, club-friendly tracks typical of southern hip-hop. Also typical are the album's "gangsta" lyrics. On track after track Juvenile boasts in gleeful, vivid detail of a hedonistic life of crime, sex, and violence. The above-average skill with which Solja Rags delivers standard-issue Southern hip-hop made it an underground sensation, selling some 200,000 copies throughout the South. This success set the stage for the Cash Money "supergroup," the Hot Boys, which paired Juvenile and the increasingly popular B.G. with two new rappers, Lil Wayne and Turk. The Hot Boys' debut album, Get It How U Live, was released in October 1997. Like B.G. and Juvenile's solo albums, it concerns itself mainly with typical "gangsta" boasts of guns, drugs, sex, and money. Again, however, the exceptional talent of the artists involved managed to distinguish the album from its many competitors, with the four rappers trading rhymes in compellingly varied yet complementary styles over Mannie Fresh's original take on the "dirty south" production style. With almost no commercial airplay Get It How U Live sold almost 400,000 copies throughout the South and the Midwest. This phenomenal success scored Cash Money a distribution deal with Universal Records in the summer of 1998.
While the deal with Universal was a great step forward for Cash Money, it was Juvenile's third album, released around the same time, that ultimately turned the label into a major commercial force. Again produced entirely by Mannie Fresh, 400 Degreez is the culmination of the producer's career. He takes the bass-heavy, skittering beats typical of southern hip-hop and layers them with keyboards, strings, and off-the-wall sound effects to create a fresh yet extremely catchy and accessible backdrop for Juvenile's rapping. If 400 Degreez represents the pinnacle of the Cash Money sound, it also represents the ultimate expression of the Cash Money philosophy of the over-the-top, conspicuous flaunting of wealth. Track after track flirts with absurdity in its loving descriptions of jewelry, cars, and other symbols of "the good life." Juvenile is also in top form, particularly on the album's two popular singles. On "Ha" Juvenile lays down a rapid-fire series of lines describing a typical high-flying day in the life of a "gangsta," punctuating each with a final "Ha": "When you broke you drove—ha / When you paid you got bookoo places to go—Ha." This simple device, coupled with Juvenile's aggressive delivery and spaced-out keyboards, makes for an almost hypnotically compelling track. Although "Ha" became a big hit, it was surpassed by the album's second single, "Back That Thang Up," a gleefully explicit come-on set to an infectious, club-friendly beat. These two singles eventually drove sales of 400 Degreez to the 4 million mark, making Cash Money Records a household name.
Two subsequent Juvenile releases, Tha G-Code (1999) and Project English (2001), competently returned to the sound that had made 400 Degreez such a success. While neither album squanders the artistic or commercial legacy of 400 Degreez, they fail to attain the breakthrough quality that makes 400 Degreez one of the landmark albums of 1990s hip-hop.
Juvenile's southern-accented delivery and uniquely New Orleans slang combined with Mannie Fresh's party-oriented yet idiosyncratic production to create a fresh take on an already regionally successful sound. The success of 400 Degreez transformed hip-hop in the 1990s by turning Cash Money into a major industry force and spawning numerous imitators working in the "dirty south" style.
SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:
Being Myself (Warlock, 1995); Solja Rags (Cash Money, 1997); 400 Degreez (Cash Money, 1998); Being Myself (remixed) (Warlock, 1999); Tha G-Code (Cash Money, 1999); Project English (Cash Money, 2001).
WEBSITE:
matt himes
juvenile
ju·ve·nile / ˈjoōvəˌnīl; -vənl/ • adj. of, for, or relating to young people: juvenile crime. ∎ childish; immature: she's bored with my juvenile conversation. ∎ of or denoting a theatrical or film role representing a young person: the romantic juvenile lead. ∎ of or relating to young birds or other animals.• n. a young person. ∎ Law a person below the age at which ordinary criminal prosecution is possible (18 in most countries). ∎ a young bird or other animal. ∎ an actor who plays juvenile roles.DERIVATIVES: ju·ve·nil·i·ty / ˌjoōvəˈnilitē/ n.
juvenile
1. Applied to volcanic material derived directly from a magma. Material derived from the surrounding wall rocks is termed ‘foreign’.
2. See JUVENILE WATER.