Juvenile

Simply put, hip-hop might not be the same without Juvenile.

Over nearly three decades, the multi platinum record-breaking New Orleans icon served up a string of classic albums, influenced two generations of stars, and pioneered a sound rooted in Louisiana bounce, yet carried by worldwide rap appeal and ambition. Like all timeless stories though, his stretches back to humble beginnings in the neighborhood his music put on the map: the Magnolia Projects. As if predisposed by destiny to pick up a microphone, he heard Melle Mel’s verse on “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, commenced spitting, and never stopped since…

“That’s really when it all started,” he recalls. “I heard Melle Mel saying, ‘Don’t push me, ‘cuz I’m close to the edge’, and that was it. I was only seven-years-old, but I knew I had to rap.”

He made local waves by appearing on DJ Jimi’s “It’s Jimi” in 1991 before bringing a national spotlight to the burgeoning bounce music style on his breakthrough “Bounce for the Juvenile.” After building a fan base on his 1995 debut Being Myself, the production of Mannie Fresh caught his ear, and nothing would be the same. At the time, the in-house Cash Money Records producer cooked up “Drag ‘Em ‘N’ tha River” for UNLV—a group Juvenile brought to the label.

In response, Juvenile recorded “Set It Off” and knew he “had to get with Mannie Fresh.

“At the beginning, I truly came to Cash Money, because of Mannie Fresh,” he recalls. “I knew his beats were bigger than most artists. There was something there.”

There definitely was…

After his Cash Money Records debut Solja Rags, he crafted an era-defining opus in the form of 400 Degreez. Not only did it go quadruple-platinum, but it also became “the best-selling album in Cash Money Records History.” It produced staples such as the ti