Sqad Up was an American hip hop group from

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a U.S. state, state in the Deep South and South Central United States, South Central regions of the United States. It is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 20th-smal ...

. The group originally consisted of rappers

Lil Wayne Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September 27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record executive. His career began in 1995, at the age of 12, when he was signed by rapper Birdman (rapper), ...

, Gudda Gudda,

Kidd Kidd Curtis Stewart (born November 26, 1983), better known by his stage name Kidd Kidd (formerly known as Nutt Da Kidd), is an American rapper from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was one of the first members of Lil Wayne's label imprint, Young Money Enter ...

, T-Streets, Raw Dizzy, Young Yo, Sha Tura, Fee Banks, and Supa Blanco, with Raj Smoove as the in-house producer. In 2004, Sqad Up released their debut album ''Now or Never'' on their independent label Money Yung'N Records.

History

1999–2006: Formation, early releases and separation

In the late 1990s,

met Young Yo in high school and they became close friends, sparked by a shared interest in hip hop culture and fashion. "I was always fly and fresh when I was younger and that's how me and Wayne got jam tight. He was already rappin' but his shit wasn't really poppin'. It was B.G.'s time then. When

Juvenile Juvenile may refer to: *Juvenile status, or minor (law), prior to adulthood *Juvenile (organism) *Juvenile (rapper) (born 1975), American rapper * ''Juvenile'' (2000 film), Japanese film * ''Juvenile'' (2017 film) *Juvenile (greyhounds), a greyho ...

came on board and they got the Cash Money and Universal deal Wayne had to go on the road and he asked me to go on tour with him", says Yo. Yo realized the opportunity in front of him and decided to call his brother Supa Blanco to invite him on tour as well. Despite playing college basketball at

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...

at the time, Blanco accepted and joined them on the road. Dino Delvaille, who at the time was the Universal Records A&R known for bringing the Cash Money Records deal to the table, began urging Yo and Blanco to start rapping. When they returned from the tour Yo, Blanco, and Wayne decided to start Sqad Up. In addition to the aforementioned trio, the group consisted of some of their close friends from

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Nutt da Kidd, Gudda Gudda, T-Streets, Raw Dizzy, and Fee Banks. Gudda got an invite into the Sqad when he and Wayne met at a dice game when they were about 15, with Wayne saying, "you should be rappin', you been through a lot". Throughout 2002 and 2003, they released seven installments of their ''SQ'' mixtape series and became one of the first groups to start making mixtapes in New Orleans. In 2004, Sqad Up decided to work on their debut album, but Birdman, the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

of Cash Money Records, did not feel that they were ready to release a studio album yet. As a result, they never signed to Cash Money and instead created their own label, Money Yung'N Records. Lil Wayne left the group and stayed with Birdman, heeding his earlier advice. This lead to Sqad Up having beef with both Lil Wayne and B.G. They exchanged verbal jabs on a handful of various mixtapes. On June 22, 2004, Sqad Up released their debut album, ''Now or Never''. In 2006, they met rapper

Lil' Flip Wesley Eric Weston Jr. (born March 3, 1981), better known by his stage name Lil' Flip, is an American rapper. He embarked on his musical career as a freestyle and battle rapper before earning a record deal with Suckafree Records in 1999. Lil' F ...

at The Source Awards who apparently was a fan of their music. They ended up releasing a couple of mixtapes on Lil Flip's independent record label, Clover G'z Records. That same year, Sqad Up went on a number of tours to support their sophomore album ''We Here Now,'' but it was never released and the group disbanded.

2015–present: Reunion

In July 2015, Raw Dizzy posted a picture on

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

that read, "The Original Sqad Up Re-union Album" and tagged all the original Sqad Up members. In September 2015, Lil Wayne brought out Raw Dizzy, Kidd Kidd, and Gudda Gudda to perform, "We Ready", "Guess Who's Ready", and "Best of Me" at his Lil Weezyana Fest in New Orleans. In January 2016, A$AP Retro asked Raw Dizzy in an Instagram direct message if the project is still being worked on, to which Raw Dizzy replied: "We working on doing it fam". On April 6, 2016, Dizzy released a single titled "Heaven" featuring Lil Wayne. The song may end up on the Sqad Up reunion album.

Discography

Studio albums

Mixtapes

References

External links

*
Sqad Up
discography at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

{{Gudda Gudda Musical groups established in 1999 Southern hip hop groups Musical groups from New Orleans Gangsta rap groups 1999 establishments in Louisiana