Turk

• Genre: Dirty South
• Hometown: New Orleans

About

A thugged-out rapper from New Orleans, Turk is the most low profile member of the Hot Boys, rhyming alongside Juvenile, B.G. and Lil' Wayne. Like his blinged-out brethren, Turk raps about doing dirt, bagging freaks, assassinating haters and Southern pride. Unfortunately for him, the once-untouchable Cash Money Records family began to splinter right around the time his long-awaited solo debut, Young & Thuggin', dropped. Despite beats from resident maestro Mannie Fresh, and cameos aplenty from his more established cohorts, the album failed to make much of a splash, especially compared to the crew's earlier, multi-platinum mega-hits. In 2003, after most of the Hot Boys left Cash Money due to shady accounting practices, Turk hooked up with a different label and returned with album number two, Raw & Uncut, which pretty much sailed under the radar of all but the most fervent fans. After seeing their own Mannie Fresh-less solo offerings go virtually unnoticed, Turk, B.G. and Juvenile went back to Cash Money Records (which was riding high thanks to the success of the Big Tymers), with hopes of re-establishing their faded reputations and invigorating slumping sales.

- Brolin Winning