New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Turning the heat all the way up this year, multiplatinum rap icon
Juvenile proudly presents 400 Degreez - 25TH Anniversary Edition on November 3, 2023 via UMe. He will celebrate his magnum opus and one of the most important Southern rap albums in history with this special release.
25 years ago, 400 Degreez left a scorching and indelible imprint on the culture upon arrival back on November 3, 1998. It holds the distinction of becoming "the best-selling album in Cash Money Records history" and reaching 4x-platinum status. The ubiquitous "Back That Azz Up" has also impressively endured as a generational bounce anthem, popping up in tracks by modern superstars.
Among many accolades, The Ringer crowned 400 Degreez one of the "20 Best Southern Rap Albums Ever," and it achieved a coveted 9.4 grade from Pitchfork who observed, "It's an album about what it's like to be baptized in fire and the ways you need to be resourceful in order to survive - not to escape Hollywood shootouts, but to grit your teeth and keep creditors off your back, to keep from getting carjacked by kids who are bored and lashing out."
Speaking to its resounding impact, the LP has generated nearly half-a-billion total streams and counting.
To celebrate its arrival, his fan-demanded NPR "Tiny Desk" concert also just premiered today. Watch it HERE. Initially, his Twitter followers urged his performance on the program, and he hilariously responded, "Wtf is a tiny desk" on April 10. The next day, he promised, "All Things Considered, 10k retweets, and I will RECONSIDER doing @NPR Tiny Desk." His mentions lit up, and he found himself in Washington, D.C. at NPR headquarters delivering an epic performance earlier this month. For "Tiny Desk," his once-in-a-lifetime band and New Orleans natives comprised of longtime producer and 400 Degreez collaborator Mannie Fresh, 5x-GRAMMY® Award winning Jon Batiste, and GRAMMY® Award-winning trombonist-singer Troy Andrews a.k.a. Trombone Shorty.
They bring classics from 400 Degreez to life like never before.
After more than two decades, it's still the soundtrack to the summer.
Juvenile joined forces with
Birdman for the 2019 collaborative album, J.A.G. The latter generated over 20 million total streams and views across platforms and incited unanimous critical applause. Pitchfork christened it "a shockingly strong late-career reunion record," and Billboard summed it up best as "a beginning of a new chapter" and praised Juvenile, "He sounds revitalized."
Simply put, hip-hop might not be the same without Juvenile. Over nearly three decades, the multiplatinum 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. 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 title track, "Ha" (which JAY-Z notably remixed), and "Back That Azz Up." The latter would be sampled by everyone from
Drake to City Girls. The Ringer lauded 400 Degreez among the "20 Best Southern Rap Albums Ever" behind only UGK's Ridin' Dirty and OutKast's Aquemini. Pitchfork bestowed a rare 9.4-out-of-10 rating upon the record, and
Kendrick Lamar cited it as one of his "Favorite Albums" in Complex and went so far as to claim, "They had the West Coast on smash. We definitely tried to be like them."
Juvenile comprised The
Hot Boys alongside Lil Wayne, B.G., and Turk. They smashed charts with the Get It How U Live! [1997] and the platinum Guerilla Warfare [1999]. His next solo offering, Tha G-Code, went double-platinum followed by the platinum Project English. Meanwhile, 2003's Juve The Great emerged as another unsung platinum classic as "
Slow Motion" [feat.
Soulja Slim] topped the Billboard Hot 100 at #1 for two weeks. He maintained a prolific pace in the ensuing years and collaborated with everyone from
Future to
Yo Gotti before reuniting with Cash Money Records.
