Home/Labels/Cash Money Records
Cash Money Records
The New Orleans label whose 1998 distribution deal changed what independents could demand from majors.
| Founded | 1991, New Orleans, Louisiana |
|---|---|
| Founder | Bryan 'Birdman' Williams and Ronald 'Slim' Williams |
| Key artists | Lil Wayne, Juvenile, B.G., Turk, Mannie Fresh, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Tyga |
Founding
Brothers Bryan and Ronald Williams founded Cash Money in New Orleans in 1991, releasing local records with production from Mannie Fresh, whose sound defined everything the label did for a decade.
The Hot Boys
Juvenile, B.G., Turk and a teenage Lil Wayne formed the Hot Boys and became the label's engine. Juvenile's 400 Degreez sold in numbers nobody had projected for a New Orleans record.
The Universal deal
In 1998 the Williams brothers signed a distribution arrangement with Universal reported at around thirty million dollars, retaining their masters and the large majority of royalties. It became the benchmark independents pointed to for the next twenty years.
Young Money
Lil Wayne's imprint under Cash Money signed Drake and Nicki Minaj, and for a period in the early 2010s the extended family was the most commercially dominant roster in rap.
The disputes
Lil Wayne's long legal fight with the label over unpaid advances and the release of Tha Carter V ran for years and was eventually settled. Juvenile, B.G., Turk and Mannie Fresh all left over money at various points, and the accounting has been the label's defining controversy.
Legacy
Cash Money took a regional New Orleans sound global and made ownership the central bargaining point of independent rap. Both halves of that legacy are real, and so is the pattern of artists leaving unhappy.
Mannie Fresh
He produced essentially the entire catalogue through the label's defining period, and the bounce-derived, synth-heavy sound he built is what people mean when they refer to the Cash Money sound. He left over money in the mid 2000s and the label never fully replaced him.
400 Degreez
Juvenile's 1998 album, carried by "Ha" and "Back That Azz Up", sold several million copies and made the Universal deal look immediately cheap for the distributor. It remains the record that broke New Orleans nationally.
Lil Wayne
He signed as a child, became the label's central artist through the 2000s, and turned Tha Carter series into one of the most commercially and critically successful runs in rap. His relationship with Birdman — publicly father-and-son, then litigious — is the label's defining story.
Young Money
Wayne's imprint under Cash Money signed Drake and Nicki Minaj, and by the early 2010s the two of them plus Wayne were among the biggest artists in music. The structure — an imprint under an imprint under a major — became the model everyone copied.
Frequently asked
Who founded Cash Money Records?
Bryan 'Birdman' Williams and Ronald 'Slim' Williams, in 1991.
Which artists are signed to Cash Money Records?
Lil Wayne, Juvenile, B.G., Turk, Mannie Fresh, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Tyga.