Juvenile getting
back with Cash Money is like N.W.A. reunion that everybody longed for. Juve’s
return marks the return of the label’s greatest selling rapper and a mending
of past beefs – sort of.
While his foray
alone didn’t get exactly as he planned, the Magnolia representer is taking it
back to ’98 with his eyes fixed on the future.
AllHipHop.com:
What’s going on right now with ya’ll?
J: You know what’s
up, we trying to get this album out December the 23rd. Juve The Great man, you
heard me!
AllHipHop.com:
Why you call it that?
J: Because man
I gave them what they wanted, a lot of people say "when we going to hear
some songs like on 400 degrees? That was the Juve I know." I gave them
that same thing, Juve The Great, himself.
AllHipHop.com:
Your still the best selling artist that Cash Money ever had.
J: I know this
man.
AllHipHop.com:
What made you guys patch things up, are ya’ll patched up or is it just
straight business?
J: It’s straight
business man it’s not too much of a friendship, It’s just a fact.
Come on man lets do this business. Let’s get this business right and lets do
this and make some money.
AllHipHop.com:
Yeah, who made the connection, was it you or them?
J: Me. I was making
sure I was going to make the connection because of my lawyer. I would say my
lawyer made the connection.
AllHipHop.com:
So, is it a better situation than you had before money wise?I know you had beef
over the money.
J: Yeah, I am
not tripping.
AllHipHop.com:
So how are you trying to come out? The last album was almost another era ago,
Rap has changed.
J: I’m a
trendsetter myself and I always felt like that. I felt that I was a rapper that
could change the whole era and the way people do things so I just did me man.
I tried to branch out a little bit. Do different flows, different skills…
different topics.
AllHipHop.com:
What other crew members are going to be on the album?
J: I got Manny
n the first single and that’s really just about it. Everything else is
just Juve and UTP.
AllHipHop.com:
UTP, the group is still together? I guess some people thought it was a wrap.
J: Well people
thought it was a wrap because [Young] Buck made his move to G-Unit. The whole
thing with Buck leaving at the time, is I wasn’t straight and we always
had this thing if you had an opportunity come to you, you take it. You always
come back and look out for the captain.
AllHipHop.com:
So there’s no beef between you and Young Buck then?
J: Nah, there
isn’t no beef between Buck and me.
AllHipHop.com:
So your happy for him and he’s had a lot of success…
J: Yeah! No matter
what Buck does it makes me look good because I spent a lot of time with him.
AllHipHop.com:
So you won’t be on the album though?
J: Nah, unfortunately
when I was doing my album I was captivated to myself and he was traveling with
G-Unit.
AllHipHop.com:
So do you have a label situation that you’re trying to setup?
J: Yeah, right
on the nose.
AllHipHop.com:
Any detail about that?
J: I don’t
want to put to many details out there but we been back and fourth with Sony
and we’re to the money point. And if that don’t work I got a liitle
change.
AllHipHop.com:
So how are the people responding to you coming back? A lot of people were pretty
happy to see you back to where you started more or less because they want to
catch that old feeling back from the early days.
J: I knew my fans
were happy, because my fans really want to hear me and a lot of people who liked
Cash Money back then. So with me doing that, I know it was a good move for Skip
and Wacko too because we on the Universal system which is the best system in
the music industry. I want to take full advantage of that.
AllHipHop.com:
I remember your first video, it was one of the craziest videos I ever saw. It
was just raw, I was like "who is this dude he’s so ghetto?" How
different is that Juvenile to this Juvenile?
J: That’s
where I’m at to be honest with you. I’m on some other s###. I done
jumped the fence like 20 times on this album.
AllHipHop.com:
You recently had an issue with the law
J: I don’t
even want to get into that because that’s nothing major and that situation
been handled and taken care of. Somebody want to be on frontline, they want
to promote s### and I ain’t trying to give them that.
AllHipHop.com:
What are your views on the Internet, I heard you had a situation with a bootlegger.
J: I’m going
to be honest with you; it was a friend of mine that stole something from me.
You aren’t going to kill them, but you going to whoop em. That was more
personal if anything.
AllHipHop.com:
Are you open to more or less stay out of trouble?
J: I’m going
to stay out of trouble, Juve don’t get convicted for nothing. All the promotion
they put on TV, I jumped a bootlegger and stuff like that, you got to understand
that don’t hurt me. Not to be the most ignorant person in the world, but
some of my fans want to know if you’ll bust a m########### in the head.
AllHipHop.com:
Is it hard to maintain that rep?
J: I’m not
trying to maintain anything; I’m a people person.
AllHipHop.com:
So you and little Wayne have ya’ll managed to patch anything up? His last
album was 500 degrees.
J: We haven’t
never sat down and talked or anything like that. We still in the same building
but rushing him would do nothing, tripping’ like that.
AllHipHop.com:
Have you spoken to BG or Turk?
J: Oh yea all
the time. Not Turk so much because I don’t ever see him. Me and BG chill.
We really don’t talk about nothing. I be talking about how good he look
most of the time, because he done got bigger than a m###########. Him and my
dog Slim are working on the album.
AllHipHop.com:
So how ya’ll feel about New York do ya’ll enjoy it?
Skip: We come
through here all the time, over on 145th. We know where that herb at and everything.
AllHipHop.com:
So what’s the best thing about New York that ya’ll like?
S: That Purple!
AllHipHop.com:
Where ya’ll buy ya’ll jewels from?
S: From the projects!
(Laughs).
AllHipHop.com:
So ya’ll don’t go to Jacob or nothing like that?
S: I got a kid
out there at the Diamond Exchange we go get our own s### made. We got a cat
in Miami who does the same thing.