It’s been over two and a half decades since Juvenile’s “Back That Azz Up” was released to the radio and immediately had a chokehold on the airwaves. Now, the NOLA rapper is back with a brand new song, “Hotboy Summer,” and a whole bunch of branded products that he strongly believes will enhance the season.
In the past, it’s been reported that Juvenile had some skepticism around “Back That Azz Up” — also known as “Back That Thang Up” — which would go on to be one of the most defining rap songs of the late ’90s/early ’00s. We recently had a chance to ask him about it while on site for the Hard Summer festival in Los Angeles, and Juvenile explained, “Truthfully, I thought ‘Back That Azz Up’ was going to be a song to bring me back to where I started from because when I first started my music career, I was really a club dude that made booty music, which is called bounce music.”
Ultimately, Juvenile says that he “wasn’t too sure about” the song “because I wanted people to respect me as a rapper. I wanted people to know I really could rap. “I didn’t think it was going to be the biggest song on my album.” He then revealed that he thought the remix to his song “Ha” — which was also on his 1998 album 400 Degreez — was going to be a bigger track, but he was “proved wrong.”
“That was a great song, Jay-Z jumped on it,” Juvenile said of the “Ha” remix. “Great song, but ‘Back That Azz Up’ did something way more different. It just took off, and album sales took off. It did everything you want a record to do. And I’m still here right now because of that song.”
Now, 26 years after “Back That Azz Up” was first released, Juvenile is having a musical renaissance. He has a new album on the way and just dropped the first single, “Hotboy Summer,” which is, quite literally, a summer anthem if you’ve ever heard one.
There are some clever parallels between “Hotboy Summer” and “Back That Azz Up,” like the use of symphonic sounds in the beats, for example. When asked if the new song is supposed to be a sort of spiritual successor to its triple platinum predecessor, Juvenile told us: “The fans are going to see the similarities between ‘Back That Azz Up’ and my new song ‘Hot Boy Summer,’ and yes, oh yes, it’s bounce music.’
“Some of those cuts that you heard in ‘Back That Azz Up’ that you hear in ‘Hot Boy Summer,’ you hear those all in them New Orleans records because that’s pretty much how we make our music down there,” Juvenile explained. “That has the real elements of bounce music. So you’re gonna hear that in that song, you’re probably going to hear that in some of my future songs. So, be looking forward to all my new singles. I’m telling you it’s going to be classic.”
We also asked Juvenile what he thinks are some essentials that people need to have a “Hotboy Summer,” and he did not disappoint, ay that “the first thing you need to have is my new album, The Boiling Point,” his first solo full-length studio project in more than a decade, which will be out in the near future.
“The second thing you need to have is my cognac, called YAC. It’s what I’m drinking right now,” he continued. “The third thing you need to have is some of my smoke, called 400 Degrees rolled up in my papers that we call Juvenile Fats. Along with this wonderful drink, you got a lid on the side. What do you think she is going to have in her hand drinking? Juvie Juice. That’s right.
“You go home to the kids, you dig, the kids at home, and what do you bring the kids to eat? You bring them the Juvie 400 Degrees hot chips,” Juvenile added. “That’s how you have a hot boy summer. You heard?”
Finally, being that 2025 marks 30 years since Juvenile first started putting out music, we asked him what the most important lesson he’s learned in these three decades. “The main thing that I learned is to have your business together,” he replied.
“Have your business together, surround yourself with great people [who] understand the business and know what you want to do creatively, and know where you’re headed with your career,” Juvenile concluded. “That’s willing to make the sacrifices, and the sacrifices that make your career worth it. That’s what I learned.”
The post Juvenile on How To Have a ‘Hotboy Summer’ and Which Song He Thought Would Be Bigger Than ‘Back That Azz Up’ (Exclusive) appeared first on VICE.
