The Hot Boys are back? In a series of exclusive interviews granted to VIBE over the past month, several key players in the long-rumored Hot Boys reunion gave the strongest signs yet that Cash Money’s former super group, collectively Lil Wayne, Juvenile, B.G., and Turk, could officially reconnect this year. “I already signed the deal,” Terius “Juvenile” Grey, told Alison Fensterstock, in March, “so for me I’m gonna definitely say it’s a go. I already received the check.” Juve, who’s preparing his ninth solo album, Cocky and Confident (Atlantic), later this year, went on to add, “Wayne is going to put that out, so for me and Wayne, it’s a go. I don’t know if the business been straightened out, but I know B.G.’s on board and he’s willing to do it. I don’t know where Turk stand on the business side.”
Christopher “B.G.” Dorsey confirmed as much when he also spoke to VIBE. “Yeah, yeah, you can look forward to that coming real soon,” he said. “We finishing all the paper work now, and hopefully we will have that out this year. It’s going to be bigger than the Beatles!”
Mannie Fresh also sounded optimistic when he spoke to VIBE in late March. “I think we close to finishing [the deal],” said the legendary boardsman who as Cash Money’s former in-house producer virtually single-handedly shaped and defined the distinctive sound of vintage Cash Money releases like Juvenile’s 400 Degreez (Cash Money/Universal, 1998) and the Hot Boys Guerrilla Warfare (Cash Money/Universal, 1999). “My thing is: I’m bent on it being a classic. Like, what can I do to make this great? The Hot Boys got a sound [and] without that sound, what is it worth? I still think these dudes are great rappers and I still think they on their game, but it gotta be something like… I ain’t saying that we gotta take our time because that ain’t never been us, but it’s gotta be right.”
The optimism expressed in these interviews comes after years of rumors and speculation concerning the possibility of a Hot Boys reunion, even as many of the group’s former members were openly engaged in a war of words. It’s been over six years since the last Hot Boys project, Let ’Em Burn (Cash Money/Universal, 2003), often dismissed as unauthentic as it dropped after Juvenile, B.G. and Turk had all publicly split from the label. A Hot Boys reunion show slated to cap All Star Weekend in New Orleans last February was cancelled when three people were shot outside the city’s Dream nightclub before the artists arrived.
With Lil Wayne, B.G., Juvenile and Mannie Fresh all operating under separate management and on different record labels (Wayne remains on Cash Money/Universal, Juvenile and B.G. are on Atlantic, and Mannie Fresh is currently independent), not to mention Turk’s continued incarceration in Tennessee after pleading guilty to the 2004 shooting of a Memphis SWAT team deputy, obstacles remain. But Turk is up for parole this year, and with Wayne at the height of his career, B.G. suggested that maybe now is the time for the crew to finally reform like Voltron.
"At one point in time, you couldn’t get me to talk about [the reunion],” he said when he spoke to VIBE. “I wasn’t open for it. But as I got older, I started understanding life in general. Things happen for a reason. People go through things, family go through things. You know they sit down talk it over, be real about it, acknowledge their mistakes, and just move on.”
Atlantic Records and Universal Music Group did not return repeated requests for comment. For more on Juvenile and the Hot Boys, be sure to pick up VIBE’s June/July Real Rap Issue, coming soon!
home
