Juvenile’s third studio album 400 Degreez is a Cash Money Records classic. It’s the best-selling album in Juvenile’s solo career, and it made the New Orleans legend a household name thanks to songs like “Back That Azz Up” and “Ha.” However, one of the most memorable moments about the album comes on the last track, a rare remix to “Ha” that features JAY-Z.
During his visit to VladTV, Juvenile spoke about the record and how important the original was to his career. Although “Ha” was a breakout hit, it didn’t propel album sales. Juvenile explained “Ha” did numbers, but it was another record that took off.
“You ain’t lyin,” Juvenile said in response to Vlad calling “Ha” a game-changer. “But the record that really started to make my album take off with record sales, and you probably wouldn’t believe it, was ‘Follow Me Now.’ ‘Ha’ came out, that was the first release. The album sales weren’t doing too great when ‘Ha’ came out.”
Even though album sales were lukewarm at first, Juvenile and the Cash Money Records camp would receive an unexpected boost from JAY-Z, who was recording a remix to “Ha” that they didn’t even know about.
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“So when JAY-Z sent the remix to us, it was kind of unexpected,” Juvenile said. “We didn’t know he was going to do that anyway. He did it on his own. So the idea came to go back and put the JAY-Z song on the remix. Cause JAY-Z wasn’t on the album originally. We gon’ put the JAY-Z song on the album, and I recorded ‘Follow Me Now’ — not knowing that it was a Carlos Santana sample, and not knowing it was already big before I said anything on it. It blew up.”
400 Degreez went on an impressive run, selling over six million copies and establishing Cash Money Records as a Hip Hop powerhouse. Thanks to Juvenile and the success of 400 Degreez, New Orleans received a surge in attention from the wider Hip Hop community.
On April 13, New Orleans mayor LaToya Cantrell invited Juvenile to City Hall and presented the key to the city to him. As a gift, Juvenile gave the mayor one of the industrial lamps from his Made By Juvie luxury furniture brand.
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Cash Money Records Legend Juvenile Receives NOLA City Key
“In recognition of his contributions to the music industry and being known as one of the pioneers of Hip Hop music in the South,” read the plaque Juvie received with the key on it. “Known as a creative genius and homegrown talent that has made him a hip-hop legend and known worldwide.”
