Blowing Up a Storm Over New Orleans

March 20, 2006

Juvenile's 'Reality': Blowing Up a Storm Over New Orleans

By J. Freedom du Lac

Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, March 8, 2006; C01

New Orleans rap star Terius " Juvenile " Gray was just about finished

recording his new album, " Reality Check, " when Hurricane Katrina

devastated his home town as well as his new home, a waterfront mansion

that was basically swallowed by Lake Pontchartrain.

Infuriated by the aftermath, the gruff-voiced hard-core rapper returned

to the studio to record what would become the album's most compelling

song, " Get Ya Hustle On. "

Over minor-key synth lines and a detonative, midtempo bass-drum beat,

Juve compares New Orleans to Haiti as he excoriates the government, from

Mayor Ray Nagin on up. But especially Nagin, about whom Juvenile, in

that croaky Tone-Loc-like voice of his, seethes: " Your mayor ain't your

friend, he's the enemy/Just to get your vote, a saint is what he pretend

to be. " (At which point, a backing vocalist shouts something

exceptionally unsavory about da mayor.)

The apocalyptic video for this song features kids wandering through the

rubble of the Lower Ninth Ward while wearing masks of Nagin, President

Bush and Vice President Cheney, but " Get Ya Hustle On " isn't simply a

political statement. It's also a street-style call to action, as

Juvenile urges the Crescent City's underclass to " get money " by any

means necessary.

In doing so, he comes up with an unlikely rhyme: " Everybody need a check

from FEMA/So he can go and score him some coca-i-na . " (To sell, of

course, not to sniff -- which, in Juve's calculus of post-disaster

impoverishment, is apparently okay.)

The rapper also has some salty words for Fox News Channel, whose

coverage of the disaster he apparently didn't enjoy. To say that he'd

like the network to kiss his backside would be putting it mildly...

Still, nothing on " Reality Check " resonates quite like " Get Ya Hustle

On, " about which we can only say: You're doing a heck of a job, Juve.

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