Hot Boys

As soon as New Orleans' Master P and his No Limit Records crew started to cool off in the late '90s, Cash Money Records was there to pick up the bling-bling and run with it. Assembled by producer Manny Fresh under the auspices of label heads Ronald "Suga Slim" Williams and Bryan "Baby" Williams (who later made an ill-advised album under his name), Cash Money's music shared some common traits with their hometown rivals in No Limit: a mix of over-the-top materialism and Run-D.M.C.-era production values; an assembly-line approach to releases and merchandising (new CDs often pictured the next few album covers well before the actual recordings were even finished); and lyrics that introduced thick Big Easy slang into the mainstream vernacular. But if Master P's No Limit Records created the template for successful New Orleans hip-hop, Hot Boys operated on a higher artistic plane, with the nimble playfulness of their raps and the extraordinary futuristic productions of Manny Fresh. Fresh, in codifying the Southern bounce sound, effectively became the most significant rhythmic innovator out of New Orleans since the Meters' legendary Porter/Modeliste rhythm section. The fly-by-night nature of the albums didn't matter to fans: After years of being ignored by the hip-hop scene at large, New Orleans had a huge reserve of enthusiasm and style to be tapped.

Juvenile (born Terius Gray) was the highest-profile member of the crew, which also included Lil' Wayne, B.G., and Turk. Growing up in and around N'awlins' lethal 17th Ward neighborhood, the Hot Boys were immersed in a hard-core existence of drugs and guns from a young age, which makes the fact that they were rhyming on record about this reality before they reached puberty (B.G. waxed his 1993 debut True Story at age 11) shocking and sadly credible. These tricky, regional rhythms manifested themselves in a Big Easy version of booty bass, which the Hot Boys gleefully adorned with anthem-making catchphrases. "Back That Azz Up" and "Ha," the hit singles from Juvenile's 400 Degreez, sounded wildly original when spun on narrowly programmed radio stations in both New York and Los Angeles, and a regional niche sound blew up nationwide. While the Hot Boys' image as baggy-jeaned, heavy-lidded, medallion-wearing adolescents -- not to mention their lyrics about platinum-crusted teeth and diamond-toenailed hoes -- suggested little depth, tracks like "F*** Tha World" (from Tha Block Is Hot, where Lil' Wayne details the murder of his father) carried significant emotional heft. Apparently, Lil' Wayne's drug troubles led to his ouster from the group (Wayne countered with 500 Degreez, a record that purported to be 100 degrees hotter than Juvenile's hottest release), and producer Manny Fresh took his turn on the mike with his group Big Tymers. Curious listeners should start with 400 Degreez and B.G.'s Chopper City in the Ghetto, and move to Tha Block Is Hot. And if all this music fails to entice, mainstream America can nevertheless thank the Hot Boys for popularizing the phrase "bling-bling." (PETER RELIC/NATHAN BRACKETT)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide