What Happened to Turk? Where He Is Now in 2026

Turk came up as the youngest energy in the Hot Boys, the New Orleans crew that also launched Lil Wayne, Juvenile, and B.G. and turned Cash Money Records into a national powerhouse. His story since then has run through nearly a decade in prison, a long and deliberate comeback, and — most recently — a very public falling-out over a reunion tour that has landed in court. Here’s where Turk stands in 2026.

01Profile

Real name

Tab Virgil Jr.

Stage name

Turk

Born

February 8, 1981 (45 years old)

Birthplace

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Occupation

Rapper, author

Best known for

The Hot Boys, Cash Money Records

Former label

Cash Money Records

Turk is one of the four original Hot Boys, a New Orleans institution whose late-’90s run helped push Southern rap into the mainstream. Decades later, he remains a working artist — releasing new music and, in 2025, the memoir-driven album that anchors his current chapter.

02The Rise of a Hot Boy

A teenager on Cash Money

Turk joined Cash Money Records as a teenager and became one of the four members of the Hot Boys, alongside Juvenile, B.G., and a young Lil Wayne. Under Birdman and Slim’s label, the group’s raw, regionally rooted sound became a national force at the turn of the millennium, with albums like “Get It How U Live!” and “Guerrilla Warfare” cementing their place in Southern hip-hop history.

Solo ambitions

As the Hot Boys’ profile grew, Turk stepped out on his own, releasing solo material through Cash Money before eventually parting ways with the label. He remained a recognizable name in New Orleans rap, but the trajectory of his career would soon be interrupted by a case that removed him from music for years.

03Incarceration and Return

The turning point came with a 2004 shooting incident in Memphis.

• 2004During a police raid on his Memphis apartment, gunfire is exchanged and two officers are wounded. Turk has publicly acknowledged firing a weapon during the raid.
• 2005He is convicted on federal firearms charges stemming from the incident.
• 2012Turk is released after serving roughly nine years, as reported by AllHipHop and NOLA.com.
• 2010sHe rebuilds his career, releasing new music and later publishing a memoir, "The AutoThugOgraphy of Turk."

As NOLA.com and AllHipHop documented, Turk was convicted in the mid-2000s and spent roughly nine years in prison before his 2012 release — a chapter he has since addressed openly, including on television and in his own book. In the years after, he framed his return as a hard-won second chance, and set about rebuilding a music career that had been paused at its peak. That history is settled and long resolved; his current legal situation, detailed below, is a separate and ongoing matter.

04The Cash Money Tour Dispute

Dropped from the anniversary tour

In 2025, Cash Money staged a 30th Anniversary Tour celebrating three decades of the label, drawing on its Hot Boys legacy. But according to reporting from Billboard, TMZ, and Vibe, Turk was dropped from the lineup, and the fallout quickly turned litigious. Turk said publicly that the split stemmed from a compensation dispute, alleging that promoters branded him a “security risk” after he declined a reduced deal. Those are his characterizations, and the underlying claims remain unproven.

Lawsuits on both sides

The dispute produced legal filings in more than one direction. As TMZ reported, Turk filed suit against tour-related companies over breach of contract and use of his name and likeness. Separately, Billboard reported that a roughly $12 million breach-of-contract and defamation lawsuit was filed against Turk in late 2025, alleging he breached his agreement and harmed the tour. It’s important to be precise here: these are allegations contained in lawsuits, the matters are ongoing, and none of the claims on either side have been proven or decided by a court. Nothing in the public record establishes fault.

“This litigation involves competing lawsuits, and the allegations on both sides remain unproven.” — Summary of reporting by Billboard and TMZ on the tour dispute, 2025

A public feud

The tour fallout also spilled into a reported public feud between Turk and fellow Hot Boy B.G., which several outlets covered through late 2025. As with the litigation, coverage has largely centered on statements made by the parties themselves rather than any independently established facts, and readers should treat the back-and-forth as an ongoing personal dispute rather than a settled account.

05What He Is Doing Now

A new album, “JOSEPH”

Amid the legal turbulence, Turk kept making music. In August 2025 he released the album “JOSEPH,” a project he tied to his personal story and given name. The release landed almost in tandem with the tour dispute, which meant the rollout played out against a backdrop of headlines about lawsuits rather than purely about the music.

Focused on the work

Publicly, Turk has continued to present himself as a working, independent artist committed to putting out new material regardless of the industry friction around him. He has used interviews and social media to clarify his side of the tour dispute while emphasizing his catalog and his standing as an original Hot Boy. Given the active litigation, his public comments have understandably centered on his own perspective — which is exactly why the underlying disputes remain unresolved.

Where things stand

As of mid-2026, the legal matters tied to the Cash Money tour remain open, with claims and counterclaims unresolved. What is clear is that Turk is still recording, still touring in his own right, and still very much part of the ongoing conversation about the Hot Boys’ legacy — even as that legacy is complicated by public disputes among its surviving members.

06Summary

Turk’s recent story is one of a veteran artist pressing forward through both a hard past and a contentious present.

More than 25 years after the Hot Boys first broke through, Turk remains an active artist with a new album and a complicated present. The tour litigation is still playing out, the allegations on all sides remain unproven, and how this chapter resolves is a story still being written.