When did Cash Money take over?

It was 25 years ago, when Juvenile, featuring Mannie Fresh and Lil’ Wayne, recorded “Back that Azz Up” a single from Juvenile’s successful “400 Degreez” album. Certified four-times platinum, the album turned 25 in November 2023. “Back That Azz Up” was released as a single in June 1999 and reached No. 19 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.

“Y’all really been backing that azz up for a quarter century,” Juvenile posted in February. “I gotta hand it to the azzes. Y’all did y’all’s thang.”

According to Mannie Fresh, who produced “Back That Azz Up” and performed at Jazz Fest Sunday with Juvenile and Turk, the record introduced New Orleans Bounce music to the world. 

“At the time, I felt like if it was going to be anybody to make a Bounce record…and break it to the word, it was going to be me,” Juvenile told VladTV.  “That was my focus. I was like just give me a real fast beat and let me go.”

Mannie Fresh did that and then some. 

“I was like we are going to merge classical music with 808 (a percussion sound used in hip-hop, trap and electronic dance music),” Mannie Fresh said on “People’s Party with Talib Kweli” in 2021. In the 2019 video “The Making of Juveniles’ “Back That Azz Up” with Mannie Fresh: Deconstructed,” he said the string line is the song’s most iconic sound. 

“Most people know the intro ‘from the ‘99 to the 2000’s.’ Still when that comes on, people wake up,” he said. “I’m super, super happy to have a song…that’s still going strong. That’s what a producer or…anybody that’s in music dreams of having. It stood the test of time. I don’t see it going anywhere.

“I get it that it’s a lot ratchet,” he added, “but it is a masterpiece.”

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Tammy C. Barney is an award-winning columnist who spent most of her career at two major newspapers, The Times-Picayune and The Orlando Sentinel. She served as a bureau chief, assistant city editor, TV...