By Daniel Paiz

Juvenile’s “Back That Azz Up 25th Anniversary Tour” lands in Denver at the Fillmore Auditorium, containing a variety of celebrations. The New Orleans emcee brought along his 400 Degreez Band and that included a drummer, guitarist, bassist, and two deejays. One of those DJs folks have likely heard of: Mannie Fresh opened and at times shut the show down.

The crowd was bouncing all night. The headliner is why the crowd was there, but Juve’s partner in rhyme might of stole the show. These two veteran emcees showed why 25 years later they can still fill a venue.

Opener, Or Show Stealer?

Mannie Fresh is a man of many talents, and he exercised his deejaying and emcee skills in front of an all the way turned up Fillmore Auditorium crowd. The veteran artist skipped back and forth between 2000s jams and more modern fare. The teasing of songs throughout the night elicited quite a crowd response (although certain tracks felt like they needed a bit more time).

This Denver pitstop might have been a “Cash Money Records from the 99 to 2000” reunion as opposed to a strictly Juvenile concert. Fresh’s catalog of hits kept rattling out of the speakers, including “Real Big”, “Still Fly”, and a snippet of “Nolia Clip” that was criminally short. New Orleans’ music man got the crowd buzzing early and often, and the energy level matched Fresh’s performance.

Juvie The Great

Juvenile is clearly enjoying this 25th Anniversary Tour, as he’s celebrating the release of his biggest hit, “Back That Azz Up”. Also featuring Mannie Fresh and Lil Wayne, this song launched Juvenile into the cosmos of Billboard music charts. It’s endearing to see how much Juvie appreciates the fans, and he was throwing out numerous bags of chips that he apparently has a line of, called “CheeWees”. The New Orleans flagbearer also has some sort of new vape resin he’s releasing as well. These items seemed to distract a bit, and perhaps for good reason.

Many artists do not frequent locations that have a higher altitude. Some are not used to it, and others infrequently experience it. Juvenile has played Denver before, but it seemed that it’s been a while as he was intermittent in his performance. There were times where Mannie Fresh played a Big Tymers track or another few records from his career while Juvie was offstage. Perhaps that was intentional, making the show partially a celebration of Juvie, and partially a celebration of the collaborators he worked with at the start of his career. If it wasn’t though, it was a smart way to play off altitude impacting the headliner.

The set improved as it went on. “Gone Ride With Me” and “Welcome 2 Tha Nolia” got the crowd moving a bit more than other tracks during the headlining set. What really elevated things were the two most popular tracks in Juvenile’s catalog: “Slow Motion” and “Back That Azz Up”. Headliner and DJ energy melded together, and the live band piled on top of that to the crowd’s delight. It felt like the evening had been waiting for that energy all night and then finally reached that level.

The band was hard to hear at times, as the sounds of the DJ drowned out the instrumentalists. The drummer was the only bandmember consistently heard along with the DJ, Mannie, and Juvie. The supporting rappers onstage, including Juvenile’s son Young Juvie, were largely inaudible as well.

Were it not for a couple of solos from the guitarist and the band being saluted at the end, it would’ve seemed like there wasn’t a band. Perhaps that was due to the sound setup at the Fillmore, perhaps it was due to the bandmembers. In any case, witnessing Juvenile and Mannie Fresh together in person was worth checking out. These two have a chemistry that will demand large audiences for years to come.