Juvenile’s 400 Degreez is an undeniable classic, easily one of the greatest albums to emerge from the Cash Money movement. Produced in its entirety by Mannie Fresh, the album featured hit singles like “Back That Azz Up” and “Ha” among other deeper cuts. It also features a remix of “Ha” with JAY-Z, who at the time was in the midst of delivering his own classic album Vol 2…Hard Knock Life.
In a recent interview with DJ Vlad, Juve opened up about his reaction to hearing JAY-Z hop on his track, sharing the interesting backstory of how it all came together. Off the top, Vlad notes how “Ha” was an absolute game-changer. “You ain’t lyin,” notes Juve. “But the record that really started to make my album take off with record sales, and you probably wouldn’t believe it, was ‘Follow Me Now.’ ‘Ha’ came out, that was the first release. The album sales weren’t doing too great when ‘Ha’ came out.”
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Despite the lackluster album sales, JAY-Z had been working on the remix on his own volition. “So when JAY-Z sent the remix to us, it was kind of unexpected. We didn’t know he was going to do that anyway. He did it on his own. So the idea came to go back and put the JAY-Z song on the remix. Cause JAY-Z wasn’t on the album originally. We gon’ put the JAY-Z song on the album, and I recorded ‘Follow Me Now’ — not knowing that it was a Carlos Santana sample, and not knowing it was already big before I said anything on it. It blew up.”
Eventually, the team realized that the project’s future ultimately centered around “Back That Azz Up,” which was already gaining steam in the clubs. Check out Juve’s reflection on the “Ha Remix” and revisit the classic tune below.
LISTEN: Juvenile ft. JAY-Z – Ha Remix