Juvenile

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2026

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Juvenile became a household name in 1998. That's when he dropped his breakthrough record, 400 Degreez, featuring Back "That Thang Up" among others. Earlier this year, he released Boiling Point – his first album in over a decade. He joins Bullseye to talk about touring with a live band, choosing to make party records, and auditioning for Cash Money Records from the backseat of a car.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of Maximum Fun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:28.2	It's Bolzai. I'm Jesse Thorne. My first guest this week is Juvenile. He's a rapper whose career,
0:35.3	I would argue, you could carve into three distinct chapters. Chapter one, Juvenile, New Orleans Teen Sensation. Before Juvie graduated high school, he was taking home a steady
0:39.5	paycheck as a rapper. In fact, he performed on one of the first New Orleans bounce tracks ever.
0:46.4	You'll hear a bit of it soon, I promise. Juvenile even had a record deal back then. His debut,
0:52.4	Being Myself from 1995, was received well enough in New Orleans,
0:57.1	though it didn't cross over much beyond that. So when Juvenile became an adult, he got a day job
1:05.4	and figured that was that. But then there was Chapter 2, Juvenile cash money juggernaut. The story goes that he
1:13.8	finished his shift at a gas processing plant and a car pulled up. The CEO of Cash Money Records
1:20.8	was driving. He offered Juvia a ride and had him freestyle the whole way home. And by the time
1:27.4	he opened the door to leave,
1:29.2	he was signed to the hottest hip-hop label in the world.
1:33.4	In 1998, Juvenile dropped his breakthrough record 400 degrees.
1:38.2	It featured his biggest, probably his signature hit,
1:42.7	which, I mean, I don't even need to tell you what it is, right?
1:45.9	You know, want your back that thing up. You're going to back that thing up.
1:50.5	Come with big daddy with you back that thing up. Girl, who is you playing with? Back that thing up.
1:55.4	Girl, you must good. Want your back that thing up. You've got to keep your back. Yeah. Make me laugh. Yeah. Make a player want to grab yeah. Now, now walk it like a dog, yeah, now juvenile is in his third chapter.
2:01.7	Maybe it's started when he was on Twitter one day, and a friend
2:05.7	in the trawl, yeah, or long day, want to walk it like a dog, yeah, break you off
2:09.8	get mighty, yeah, that for sure you.
2:12.3	Now juvenile is in his third chapter.
	...

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