Back in the day, Juvenile was one of the few artists recording for
Cash Money who was worth a shit. He even gave Lil Wayne his first
memorable appearance, in the cleaned-up version of “Back That Azz Up.”
Juve has since moved on — at least in the physical sense. On his
first album in three years, the New Orleans rapper unloads a bunch of
rhymes about making money, ruling the streets and “rollin’ like a big
dawg.” Cocky and Confident’s opening title track comes
out strong — “If you’re a pit bull, I’m Mike Vick/I’ll bury your
ass,” Juvenile declares — but the overlong album quickly settles
for past triumphs. His flow is still on, but the beats and themes are
five, if not 10, years old. At least his producers are familiar with
Auto-Tune. The game hasn’t changed much for Juvenile. Not much else has
either. — Michael Gallucci
This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2009.
