Lil Wayne and the Hot Boys, hip-hop royalty, lean on nostalgia at sold-out St. Louis show

ST. LOUIS — Hip-hop royalty Lil Wayne and the Hot Boys concluded their reunion tour on Friday at the Enterprise Center with pyrotechnics, nostalgic energy and a medley of nearly 50 hits.

Past rifts didn’t matter at the sold-out show. The group rapped classics, draped their arms around each other’s shoulders and smiled all night, back together as a music family, at their first St. Louis performance in over a decade.

“Thank you for supporting us for 30 years,” Big Tymer member DJ Mannie Fresh said at the show’s start.

It’s been more than 15 years since the Hot Boys reunited for a multi-city tour. The New Orleans rap trailblazers, including Lil Wayne, Juvenile, B.G. and Turk, signed to Cash Money Records in 1997. They climbed to the top of the charts in 1999 after releasing their sophomore album “Guerilla Warfare,” with songs highlighting growing up in New Orleans’ violence-filled housing projects, surviving the street life — and the women, cars, money and flashy lifestyle of success.

The album went on to sell over a million copies. And when the Hot Boys disbanded, Lil Wayne carried the record label and ultimately became one of the most influential voices in rap history.

Known as Weezy, Tunechi and Birdman Jr., Lil Wayne is the self-proclaimed “hottest rapper under the sun.” He’s had six of his albums go platinum and won five Grammy Awards. Weezy is an American music legend.

But before he was a solo artist he was the youngest member of the Hot Boys.

Juvenile also experienced success after Cash Money, releasing six studio albums and maintaining relevance in hip-hop culture.

But B.G. and Turk disappeared: Turk faced several criminal charges and went to prison until 2012 for second-degree murder. B.G. pleaded guilty to weapons charges, was sentenced in 2012 and released in 2023. Their imprisonment delayed past reunion plans.

Then, in November 2024, the supergroup finally reunited at Lil Wayne’s Weezyana Fest in New Orleans. In January, they announced a three-city mini reunion tour, including St. Louis.

However, not everyone was happy. Some concertgoers in other cities posted criticism on social media, accusing the rappers of subpar performances.

That was not the case in St. Louis.

Cash Money’s DJ Mannie Fresh was first up to get the crowd hyped.

Fresh, a turntable master, is one-half of the rap duo Big Tymers, with Cash Money co-founder Birdman.

On Friday, Fresh seamlessly mixed millennial rap favorites with classic soul tracks like Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.”

After Fresh thanked the audience for rocking with the record label for three decades, Juvenile ran out on stage to kick off the Cash Money set. He started with his song “Ha,” an apt beginning, as he rapped about his success and the group’s, for making “something out of nothing.”

The Cash Money set shined a light on the label’s legacy rooted in hit records and bling bling as Birdman, B.G. and Turk joined Fresh and Juvenile on stage. The audience went wild when the Big Tymers performed their songs “Still Fly” and “Get Your Roll On,” with the crowd joining in, creating a nostalgic hum of voices echoing through the arena.

The Hot Boys members leaned into their solo catalog, with Juvenile performing hits like “Slow Motion,” “400 Degreez” and “Set It Off.”

B.G., perhaps one of the most beloved Hot Boys members, was grinning ear-to-ear as he rapped songs like “Cash Money Is an Army” and “Don’t Talk to Me.” Turk rapped with precision, gripped the mic and leaned into the audience on his verse from “Welcome 2 Tha Nolia.” Although he and B.G. had been away for a long time, they didn’t miss a beat, reminding everyone that the stage was where they belonged.

Aside from visual effects on the projector, the set didn’t include any fancy bells and whistles. Instead, they focused on rapping high energy bars, engaging with the audience and showing love to one another. Birdman thanked the crowd for supporting Cash Money, getting emotional after performing his verse from the rap group Clipse’s song “What Happened to That Boy,” and expressing how he’d been in the rap game since he was 16.

Alas, some audio issues marred the performance, especially when multiple people rapped simultaneously. That did not, however, dampen the mood.

After a 15 minute intermission, the audience lost it when Lil Wayne ran out from the darkness in a yellow puffer coat smiling and rapping “I’m Going In.” Fire erupted from the stage floor and he set the arena ablaze with hit after hit song. Lil Wayne ran through a medley of 16 songs that included “John,” “Blunt Blowin” and “Lollipop.” He jumped in his mixtape bag briefly performing tracks from “No Ceilings” and “Sorry 4 The Wait.”

Lil Wayne’s drummer, Yayo the Drummer, delivered a superb performance, adding a rock ‘n’ roll-fueled flair to Weezy’s catalog of rap bangers. Lil Wayne also grinned ear-to-ear throughout his set, and thanked the audience after every song.

Juvenile, B.G. and Turk then re-emerged to perform a few Hot Boys classics with Lil Wayne: Turk went crazy on the mic during his memorable verse from “I Need A Hot Girl,” with Weezy and B.G. engaging in an unforgettable rap banter centerstage. It was exactly what the audience wanted.

Then they dived into a few more solo tracks including B.G.’s hit “Bling Bling” and Juvenile’s iconic song “Back That Ass Up,” inciting dance fever throughout the arena.

With Lil Wayne, B.G. and Juvenile on stage, the only song missing from the set was Lil Wayne’s breakout solo record “The Block is Hot.”

Juvenile, as he exited the stage, yelled: “Hot Boys for life.”

Lil Wayne wrapped up the night by performing “Steady Mobbin” and “A Milli.” The arena faded to black as Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” blared from the speakers while Wayne told the audience that he wouldn’t be where he was without them, a mantra he repeated throughout the show.

It was an evening celebrating some of the greatest voices in hip-hop. Lil Wayne and the Hot Boys performed with the hunger of artists in their prime and reminded the world that Cash Money Records is “where dreams come true.”