Author: URBANindustry
Published: December 31, 1969
Tool: [ email ]
Funny how things change in this rap game. It wasn't that long ago that a journalist could lose more than a little respect by 'admitting' a certain MC named Juvenile had talent. From those who had caught wind of Juve's bluesy flow, my decision to feature "400 Degreez" in my column and later give Juvenile an interview didn't sit too well with most readers. "You're wasting space," "this is No Limit part two," and "my five year-old cousin could rhyme better," is what the mail said. One online and radio DJ even telling me that "HA" was just a novelty track, and Cash Money a fad that wouldn't last two more weeks.
Well, we know how this story ends.
Or really how it properly begins. Now with their faces on covers of every major hip-hop magazine, MC's scurrying to get that Cash Money remix, and the registers continuing to make that bling, bling sound, we know who is laughing. Yeah, all the way to the bank. Head soldier Juvenile's multi-platinum sophomore battle charge led the way, followed by B.G.'s fifth album, "Chopper City In The Ghetto" hitting platinum plus sales while the nation lifted their soldier rags and the rap game tried hard to cop that dirty south slanguage. And how high on the charts with their latest installment, the Cash Money super-group of Juvenile, B.G., Lil' Wayne and Turk are out to teach the world what it takes to be a true Hot Boy. And it's not all gravy.
But forget all the haters, the media who slept on them or just couldn't understand, and the radio that wouldn't play them. The Cash Money family has a much bigger critic. Themselves. "I been here since I left the hospital," Lil' Wayne, who is preparing to drop his solo album "The Block Is Hot" in a few weeks begins. "And I stay rhyming. I'm always up in the studio, we never leave." "We keep growing lyrically," B.G. continues, "because we stay rhyming every day. If you lagging, you lose. Simple. And all of us here is first string players, we don't play the sidelines. We play our positions and get the job done." It's that dedication to the game mixed with Mannie Fresh's futuristic funk beat explosions and a street hustler's shrewd business sense that have propelled the clique past their haters and competition. Just ask them if they freestyle to keep their flows tight, and that street sense comes alive. "Freestyle," B.G. chuckles. "Nah, it don't excite us, we just put a beat behind it and call it a track. Freestyling never made me no money." Like I said, it's all business up in here.
A lot of that business means keeping it street, from the flows to the politics. "A lot of these artists are getting signed up to labels and signing they lives away," Juvenile explains with a deep voice that resonates with the calm, steady composure of a man twice his age. "And then they got to go deal with this producer and that producer, running studio to studio and taking twice as long to do a project as it should. I go into a studio and make an album in a week." It's that independent ethic, the one that fueled N.W.A. and later Master P that separates these Cash Money ballers from the imitators. "Those CEO's you dealing with at a major, they calling all the shots, from the videos to singles and all that," Juve starts again. "Stay independent and the money is ten times better because you have far less hands touching it before it gets to you. We rap hustlers. It's the dope game. All of us used to be into something else before the rap game, we were all hustling. All we had to do is transfer those ethics." Simple right? Wrong.
We've all heard plenty about the crack game becoming the rap game, a 5 am hustler turning into legit product mover. But continually moving units like Sean Carter is easier said than done. To move it you got to know what your customer needs for that next fix. Jay switches styles like Lil' Kim swaps hair dye. But Hot Boys take customer service even closer to home. "You got to stick to where you from," Juvenile instructs when asked if he is concerned with worldwide appeal. "Not everyone gonna feel us. But you got to stick with those original fans 'cause they are how we got here. Never get to far outside of your folks, 'cause the minute you do is the time your head gets too big and you start to come down." "I just came up off my block to do this interview," Lil' Wayne asserts. "Everybody the same, everyone got a hood, so they will understand."
"But it's also like our new track "Help"," B.G. jumps in. "A lot of niggas hollerin' about being flossed and being street. But see that, we got all these niggas hollerin' 'help' right now. We got the industry on lock without a doubt. And that's 'cause we cover every topic in the game. From flossin' to the streets, murder, parties, whatever. If it is a part of life that we living or that people around us are living then we goin' speak on it. We going to ring up Backstreet Boys numbers. And you can't ring that up being stuck on one topic." Ringing up Backstreet Boys numbers? I told you it wasn't easy being a Hot Boy. "This isn't even the half of it neither," B.G. shouts. "Dawg, this is just the start of it. More albums, more flavors, more frequently without a doubt."
