madeincharlie: Blast From The Past: Bigga’ Than Life: ”Cash Money...

By :Anwar Washington 0 comments

Blast From The Past: Bigga’ Than Life: ”Cash Money Records Where Dreams Come True”

As it turns out, the Louisiana bayou is is an especially fertile ground for self starting entrepreneurs. ”What Russell did in 15 years, I want to do in 3”, said Baby, CEO of New Orleans based Cash Money Records. By all accounts, Williams, 25, and his older brother Ron, are well on their way, riding the rising of popularity of rappers B.G., Juvenile, Lil Wayne, and Turk. In February, the Williams brothers signed a pressing and distribution deal with Universal Records much like the arrangement No Limits has with Priority. The difference? they took up-front money, $30 million for a 3 year deal.

”The fact that Universal financed Cash Money Records just so they can press and distribute them is unbelievable”, says Simmons. By the time Universal got wind of Cash Money in 1998, the label was 6 years old moving between 50,000 and 150,000 albums per release. ”Everybody wanted to give us $5 million or $10 million for a 50-50 joint venture, but we already had money and wanted 100% of our masters,” says Ron, 28, who express the Williams desire to retain control to Dino Delvaillie, senior, director of A&R at Universal. ”It’s very hard to convince a major label to let someone keep full ownership of their masters, but when we looked at the units, they were moving without any promotions or videos, it was a no brainer” says Devaille, who ”discover” Cash Money while on vacation in New Orleans. What’s more remarkable is that just 8 months into the 3-year deal, and having released only 2 albums (Juvenile 400 degreez) has sold nearly 3 million copies, Cash Money is already black. Says Devaille, ”We’re paying them a check every month!”

Companies like Cash Money Records and No Limit are building their own empires outside of major label system and coming to the table with enough leverage to demand autonomy and complete ownership.

(1999)

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