A classic booty song, "Back That Azz Up" stands on the shoulders of "
Baby Got Back" and "
Rump Shaker," and paved the way for "
Get Low" and "
Drop It Like It's Hot." It's one of the raunchier songs in this genre, made possible by the revelation that you could put the word "ass" right in the title as long as you changed the spelling to "azz." That tweak helped make it palatable on playlists where it otherwise wouldn't have been considered, and the song crossed over to become a pop hit, reaching #19 on the Hot 100.
"Back That Azz Up" falls into a rap subgenre called "bounce," which Juvenile claimed he invented. It's a genre that conveniently describes its own sound: you want to bounce up and down when you hear it.
At the end of the song, Lil Wayne shows up with instructions for once that azz is backed up: drop it like it's hot. This was back when Wayne really was little - he was just 16 but already signed to Cash Money Records along with Juvenile. According to the song's producer, Mannie Fresh, Wayne was always hanging around the studio, and when this song was being completed, he came up with that famous coda and got himself on the track.
This was the first time many listeners heard Lil Wayne. A year later (1999) he released his debut solo album, Tha Block Is Hot.
The clean version is called "Back That Thang Up."
The track was produced by Mannie Fresh, the sonic architect behind Cash Money Records' early catalog. Instead of using samples, he created his own hooks using keyboards and sequencers. For "Back That Azz Up" he put together a mini string section with a violin that plays throughout the song. Fresh says that part is what sets the song apart, or as he put it, "the thing that makes girls shake they azz."
Mannie also raps on the song, coming in near the end. He and Lil Wayne are listed as featured artists and also co-writers along with Juvenile.
In 1999, when this song was red hot, MTV asked Juvenile if female fans were answering his booty call. "Yeah, but I learned not to mess with that," he said, "You touch the wrong person, and you'll be the next person in court. So I just watch, I don't touch."
"You touch 'em, man, and they might have a witness on you and you might wind up in court," he added. "They ain't about to do me like they did Mike Tyson."
The song was released on Juvenile's 400 Degreez album in November 1998, and it started to catch on in June 1999 when it was released as a single. It reached a chart peak of #19 in November 1999, and in February 2000, Juvenile set out on tour with Eve and DMX.
The song got a boost when Juvenile performed it on The Chris Rock Show, October 8, 1999.
Juvenile was living large in the late '90s when the song was a hit, but around 2000 he started getting the sense he was being cheated, and when he looked over his contract it confirmed his suspicions. Over the next few years he distanced himself from Cash Money Records and was also arrested a few times. He left the label when his contract was up in 2005, but by then he was on the wane. But this song served him well, and in 2024 he and Mannie Fresh set out on the Back That Azz Up 25th anniversary tour. When the tour ended, they launched a podcast called Still 400, a reference to the album title.
This is the song that popularized the phrase "drop it like it's hot," which is part of Lil Wayne's rap at the end. In 2004, Snoop Dogg made that the title of his booty shaker.
The song has a kind of snake charmer effect on some listeners, compelling them to dance when they hear it. In the season 3 premiere of
Abbott Elementary (2024), the staff of the school conspire to break the principal (played by Janelle James) out of a funk by playing "Back That Azz Up" - which they know she can't resist - when she doesn't expect it. She fights the urge ("Not today Juvenile!") but quickly succumbs to its power and
starts dancing.
Juvenile often has some fun when introducing this song, telling the ladies in the crowd to get ready by stretching their glutes.
In 2023, Juvenile played one of
NPR's Tiny Desk concerts where he performed "Back That Azz Up" with a live string section, horns, and Jon Batiste on melodica. The audience was so hyped up, Juvenile gave them more of the song as an encore.
