Comprising a number of Cash Money Records’ young protégés of the 1990s, Louisiana hip-hop outfit Hot Boys strategically pooled their resources early in their careers, boosting their individual profiles in the process. Banding together in 1997 under the tutelage of label co-founders Birdman and Slim, the New Orleans crew – originally a five-piece formed of B.G., Lil Wayne, Juvenile, Turk and the late Bulletproof AKA Lil Derrick – instantly struck up a rapport in the studio, with the exception of Derrick, who soon parted ways with the group. By October of the same year, their debut album as a quartet, Get It How U Live!!, had arrived. Produced in its entirety by Cash Money mainstay Mannie Fresh, the LP found success in southern states, and was rumoured to have shifted over 400,000 units despite being met with lukewarm critical reception. The crew’s follow-up, Guerrilla Warfare, dramatically improved on the performance of its predecessor, reaching number five on the Billboard 200 and achieving platinum certification within months of its release. Aided by a reissued version of the Get It How U Live!! cut “We On Fire”, complete with an additional verse from B.G, and a new single entitled “I Need a Hot Girl”, which reached #65 on in the US, the album received much more favourable reviews from journalists. However, finding their rhythm as soloists in the ensuing years, three of the four Hot Boys cut ties with the label, leaving just Wayne on board. This didn’t stop Cash Money from neatly packaging the collective’s unreleased material into a third and final LP, 2003’s Let ‘Em Burn, which entered the US charts at number fourteen. Now retrospectively hailed as a supergroup given the successes of its individual members, the group has since reunited in 2012 for a remix of Turk’s “Zip It”, with an incarcerated B.G. recording his verse over the phone.
