Birdman Discusses Cash Money Being Rejected by Labels Claimed to be Due to Master P & Artwork

Birdman shared some intriguing details about Cash Money’s journey from a street label in New Orleans to a significant force in mainstream music.

He engaged in a conversation with Nick Cannon on the Counsel Culture Show episode that aired Wednesday (April 23), discussing how he and his older sibling Ronald “Slim” Williams achieved success, along with some of the initial meetings they had with record labels before sealing their landmark agreement with Universal Records. Baby mentioned he first met with Warner Bros. and executive Sylvia Rhone, but they weren’t particularly interested in the independent label’s sound. “Sylvia Rhone stated our music didn’t appeal to them, so we left,” he remarked. “I simply walked out.”

Cash Money subsequently had a meeting with the iconic rap label Def Jam, but faced rejection due to their artwork, a decision that still puzzles the rapper and music executive. “I walked into Def Jam and met with Russell [Simmons], Lyor [Cohen], and Kevin Liles,” Baby recounted to Nick Cannon. “This dude Russell expressed that he didn’t appreciate our artwork. I thought, ‘This is some bizarre s—t. I just walked right out. If you don’t like my artwork, what about my music? Don’t you care for the music? So I left.”

Baby then mentioned that he and his brother were on the verge of a deal with Priority Records, which happened to be in association with another New Orleans label, No Limit, run by Master P. Nevertheless, he claimed that things fell through after the label flew them to their offices in L.A. “I went to Priority — some odd s—t happened — they flew us out to California,” he remembered. “Slim and I, along with a few friends, went there. Someone came in and said, ‘I regret to inform you, we can’t proceed with the deal. They mentioned that Master P said, ‘If we sign you, he’s outta here.’ I just hopped on a jet and returned to New Orleans thinking, ‘Forget it, we’ll just hustle our way through this.”

Eventually, Universal reached out, enabling both parties to negotiate one of the more memorable agreements in music history. “Then Mel Lewinter and them contacted me and I stated this is my final journey. No more damn flights to New York or California,” he recounted. “Forget it, I’ll manage without them. I’m still raking in millions; they’ll come down to work with me, I’m not going back. That was my last flight.”

Master P and Birdman appear to have resolved their earlier conflicts, as the No Limit founder presented Lil Wayne a key to New Orleans together with Mayor LaToya Cantrell last year. He also stated there were no problems between the two camps during his appearance on No Chill with Gilbert Arenas in 2021, stating, “Many assumed, ‘Oh, they’ve got issues,’ but in reality, we lived just up the road from one another.”

Catch the complete discussion below.

• Source: NEWHD MEDIA