Juvenile
Reality Check

No one knows tough times quite like Magnolia’s golden boy, Juvenile. But the skies finally seem to be clearing for him after he weathered turbulent label drama and one of America’s worst natural disasters. His UTP crew and Universal-distributed imprint of the same name established, Juve is now poised to reign supreme with his seventh album.

While he doesn’t dwell over the devastation at hand, Juve feels the effects of Katrina on the album’s opener, “Get Ya Hustle On”—where he angrily spits: “Fuck Fox News, I don’t listen to y’all ass/Couldn’t get a nigga off a roof when the storm pass.” Juvenile never forgets who butters his bread, however, serving the club denizens with cuts like the Cool & Dre–helmed “Rodeo,” and street dwellers with tracks like the baleful Ludacris and Fat Joe–assisted “Pop U.” With the exception of some ill-executed pandering to chromosome X-holders, Reality Check proves that Juve can stand the rain.

Key Tracks: “Get Your Hustle On,” “Rodeo,” “Way I Be Leanin’” (feat. Mike Jones, Paul Wall, Skip and Wacko), “Break a Brick Down,” “Pop U” (feat. Fat Joe and Ludacris)