“Get It How U Live!! was very important for the South because the New Orleans rap scene was just getting off the ground, and that album opened the door for Cash Money as a whole and for B.G., Juvy, Turk, and Wayne as individual solo artists. It was four young niggas with four different styles that was real, real hungry. We wasn’t in it for the money; we was doing it from the heart.” – B.G. “INTRO” This is one of the few albums in hip-hop history to have a song titled “Intro” that was worth a shit. This one introduced the world to the Big Tymers, Baby and Mannie. “WE ON FIRE” The true introduction to four of the hottest lyricists in the South. It was lyrical and jammin’ at the same time, a rarity in modern hip-hop. It also repped New Orleans to the fullest.
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ESSENTIAL SOUTHERN ALBUMS
“NEIGHBORHOOD SUPERSTAR” B.G. had been a household name for Southern rap heads for some time before this disc was released, but this song solidified him within the ranks of hip-hop as a whole.
HOT BOY$
GET IT HOW U LIVE!! Cash Money - 1997
by Matt Sonzala
W
hat makes a city a great music city is not that it has a huge number of musicians cranking out tune after tune, night after night, in club after club. It’s when that large number of artists somehow captures their city’s essence and brings it to life with an entirely original sound. In hip-hop, generally the lines are clearly drawn. In DC it’s the go-go sound. Atlanta and the Southeast are crunk. Miami is bass. Houston has the slowed down vibe. New Orleans has bounce (and jazz, and blues, and funk, okay, but we’re talking about hip-hop here). Bounce music represents the emotionally charged party vibe of a city that truly never sleeps, and takes its listeners from their hard streets to a hopping dance floor. It’s a fun music, an escape of sorts. One that brings people together in choruses of sexually charged fever and dance floor rocking rhythms. New Orleans lays claim to some of the countries toughest neighborhoods. Huge projects sprawl from block to block where many a hard knock story has been written. Enter the Hot Boys, four teenagers from New Orleans’ Magnolia Projects – Juvenile, B.G., Lil Wayne and Turk – under the tutelage of Mannie Fresh, Slim and Baby, each with enough real life stories to fill a book. Get it How U Live!! wasn’t the first appearance on wax for any of these artists. In fact, Juvenile and B.G. were already fairly well established throughout the South. The Cash Money brand was on fire in the streets and this record set the standard for things to come at the label. The beats were bouncy, but not just bounce. There was a purity to them that harkened back to hip-hop’s earliest days. Simply looped beats that just jammed would play like the best part of a song over and over again. And if you paid attention to the lyrics you recognized that you were witnessing the birth of four of hip-hop’s most potent emcees. This wasn’t “Where they at girl?” looped a thousand times, this was
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OZONE
“GET IT HOW U LIVE!!” The title track set the tone for all things set to come from Cash Money: Get your money, get your fame, and do you. “SPIT N GAME” An incredible closure to an incredible album, these four young boys from one of the hardest hoods in New Orleans spit it real talk for their people.
real live reality rap, with a heavy dose of flossin’ thrown in to keep your interest. “What kinda nigga be sparkling like silver? / Little bitty soulja think he playin’ with a million,” Lil Wayne spit on “We On Fire,” their anthem of sorts. It’s classic hip-hop, a straight up boastful jam that introduces you to each member of the crew. But then on “50 Shots Set It Off,” he says, “I’m jumpin’ out a tree with a camouflaged AK / I size my target then I let him go in the wind, bullets fly by / Blow in the wind, one after another and another how them come.” It was quite an introduction to one of today’s top emcees, barely of high school age. Later on “Neighborhood Superstars” a slightly older Juvenile raps, “Juvenile is reality / Bitch I write my own checks, bitch I pay my own salary / You want business with me? Boss playa you have to be / I’m a million dollar nigga, these bitches run after me.” And it gets worse. Cash Money took money raps to a whole ‘nother level. Way before they signed to Universal they were stunting big, showing off anything and everything, but in a more creative way than many of their contemporaries. This record led to the label’s signing to Universal Records. It preceded 400 Degreez and many of the subsequent records you are now familiar with from the label. But it certainly wasn’t the first Cash Money release. At this point, Cash Money were veterans of the independent game and had finally found the perfect combination. After this album, plenty changed in the rap game and all eyes started to turn towards New Orleans. Master P and No Limit had infected the streets of the entire nation, but when Cash Money finally got their chance to be heard they captured all those fans and brought in some who were still walking the fence. While some of No Limit’s output was too harsh for a lot of the mainstream, Cash Money found a way to balance their reality raps with just enough bounce to bring in all the party people.