The one Cash Money hit Juvenile wishes he was on: “I had the flu”
Cash Money was responsible for some of the biggest hip-hop records of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Ran by Birdman and Slim, the label enjoyed major success with flagship artists such as Lil Wayne, B.G., and Hot Boys. New Orleans rapper Juvenile was at the heart of it, with hits like ‘Back That Azz Up’, ‘Ha’, ‘Slow Motion’, and ‘400 Degreez’. However, there was one song he regrettably missed out on.
Hot Boys, consisting of Lil Wayne, Juvenile, B.G., and Turk, released three albums as a foursome: 1997’s Get It How U Live!, 1999’s Guerrilla Warfare, and 2003’s Let ‘Em Burn. Their second album was by far their most successful, reaching number five on the Billboard 200 chart and being certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Juvenile may have appeared on some of their biggest and best songs, but he was unfortunate to miss out on one of his all-time favourites. ‘I Need a Hot Girl’, produced by Mannie Fresh, was an instant fan favourite when it was released in 1999. The song’s success came off the back of 1998’s ‘Back That Azz Up’, which he felt was a “groundbreaking” record in terms of career impact.
“What made it groundbreaking was the fact that ‘Back That Azz Up’ came out before it,” he told Billboard. “We already had a fanbase for that type of music so it wasn’t hard for this song to go number one. ‘Back That Azz Up’ had to fight to get to number one. But ‘I Need a Hot Girl’ – it was the song that everybody wanted. They wanted to hear everybody in the group.”
Despite it being a Hot Boys track, Juvenile didn’t appear on it. “This particular song, when we went to the studio to do it, I got sick,” he said. “That’s why I am not on the song. I’m not on ‘I Need a Hot Girl’. I’m just the dude in the video in all shots, like I did say something. That song, to me, is one of the best songs from Cash Money of all time. That’s why I still sing it in concert.”
Mannie, Birdman, B.G., Turk, and Weezy all appear across ‘I Need a Hot Girl’, which remains one of their best recordings. In the opening verse, Mannie raps, “You need a hot one I got one, now take it and bend/ Shake it down, break it down with me and a friend/ Biggity-bounce, slide, ride, work that cat to the right/ Push it down, push it up, psst, boom, you dynamite.”
‘I Need a Hot Girl’ has over nine million Spotify streams and a further 2.5 million views on YouTube. It remains the highest-charting single of Hot Boys’ career, reaching as high as number 65 on the Billboard Hot 100. Although the position isn’t groundbreaking by any means, its impact is greater than any chart placement. Juvenile will return with his new album, Boiling Point, on November 14th, and he’ll be hoping to restore that feeling from the glory days.