Originally posted on Madetoorderphilly.com Sept. 9, 2010
“Cash Money is a army nigga, a navy nigga…” Still remains as one of the boldest lines to ever come out of the south. In 1998 B.G. literally stuck his chest out on wax and the world what Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf had already known. CMR was the truth and had enough musical talent to wage war.
Lookin back I don’t think anyone expected this label to be as big and relevant in 2010 as they were in 1998-2002. Through losing almost every architect that crafted the CMR blueprint over the years there had to be a drop off! There had to be a time where the fans would just stop caring right? The buying public was certain there would be a moment where they would Death Row themself or pull a Roc-A-Fella style disbanding.
While the talent has changed constantly over the years…three things have always remained the same. A triumvirate at the top that rivals any musical executive team in passion, work ethic, business acumen and talent development! Baby, Slim and Wayne. These three have single handedly monopolized the independent rap game to the point where you almost HAVE TO go through them if you want the attention of the buying public and stand a chance of selling any records. Meaning, a hook from Drake, a feature from Wayne or Nicki Minaj or if all else fails signing to the label!
Cash Money is the last of the independents and have solidified their spot as the best ever in my book. Over the last 24 months Lil Wayne has gone 4X platinum with the Carter 3, the label had multiple #1 hits and established the Young Money brand which has the best talent in the music industry under one roof EXCLUDING NOBODY. The list of top tier artists who have come thru their doors is limitless: Bow Wow, Drake, Jay Sean, Nicki Minaj, Lil Twist, Jae Millz, Corey Gunz, All Star, G. Malone, Sean Garrett (ed. note SG has since moved on to a signing with Roc Nation), Cool and Dre, T-Pain (rumored) and DJ Khaled to name few.
How is it that an independent label has the capital and resources to be able to pull off this type of coup of the urban music game all by themself? By selling more records than Bad Boy, Death Row, Loud, Ruff Ryders and Roc-A-Fella…that’s how! The deal Cash Money has with Universal is unprecidented and will never be duplicated. For those unfamiliar with music industry politics I will say it in laymans terms: their deal with Universal is the same as Def Jam’s deal with Universal. 85% of all royalties go to Cash Money as the label owners and 15% goes to UMG as a distributors fee; the publishing is a 50/50 split with Cash Money retaining full rights to their masters, meaning no negotiation at the end of contract term. They can literally walkway and re-release every Cash Money album at a new label if they wanted to after getting what I know would be a 9 figure signing bonus. Rumors swirled late last year that Warner Music Group has been in negotiations to give Cash Money total control of their Urban Music Division! Giving them access to a whole new pipeline of artists/labels that would now fall under the YMCM umbrella like Ti/Grand Hustle, Gucci Mane/1017 Brick Squad, and countless others.
Now to put that into proper perspective, not only are they saying they are the best rap label, they have officially gained the full respect of their peers who almost feel the same. We can now begin to see how its possible for Baby to buy a $2.5M Bugatti Veyron, you see how its possible for Lil Wayne to own a $18M home in Miami Beach, you see how its possible for Baby to buy a $1M Chopard watch that is a 1 of 2 (Elton John has the other)! These guys have access to limitless money that is approaching wealth status. I read the internet a lot and see that people constantly say “Well if Baby has so much money why is he never on Forbes list!” That is a good yet misguided question. It serves to mix two issues. Forbes is a well respected publication but if you do not make your financial records public they cannot access them and therefore cannot include you in a list. All of Baby and Slim’s empire is under privately-owned corporations that don’t have to make their financial gains/losses public. However, from tax return records filed with the federal goverment it is estimated that The Cash Money Records empire is worth between $550 and $750M CASH!
If Lil Wayne, the flag-ship artist of this dynasty has his best year ever and makes $20M…what type of coin do you think the CEO’s are pulling down if they own everything that generates a profit? Exactly! At this point, hating on Cash Money and Young Money is a pointless cliche and is getting nobody anywhere. Nothing you say or do is goin to stop these guys b/c they are smarter than you, work harder than you and are more talented that you are. Those are characteritics of a juggernaut. Cheers to Cash Money’s 12th year of operating mainstream and a minimum of 12 more years to come. On deck for this year they now have a Lil Wayne EP and Carter 4 album which will top Eminem for highest selling album of the year. They are also slated to release Nicki Minaj (ed. note 1.3M sold as of republish date), another Birdman album and another Drake album before years end, with Bow Wow, G. Malone, Lil Twist and Baby/Wayne collabo albums to follow in 2011.
Its scary thought for the competition but as they have already shown (as many have already done), if you can’t beat em…join em.
The Win
© 2011, @BWyche. All rights reserved.
