Birdman Says Master P Ruined Cash Money’s Deal With Priority Records

Birdman recently reflected on all the obstacles he had to overcome before Cash Money Records launched into a successful label.

Appearing on Nick Cannon’s Counsel Culture Show on Wednesday (April 23), he shared how his and his older brother Ronald “Slim” Williams’ vision was not immediately accepted.

Birdman recalled having a meeting with executive Sylvia Rhone of Warner Bros., but the brand said it was not ready to partner with an independent label.

“Sylvia Rhone said our music don’t work for them, so we just left,” Birdman told Cannon. “I just walked out.”

They also met with Def Jam, but was rejected because of their album artwork, and Birdman is still confused about their brief interaction with the label.

“I went to Def Jam and met with Russell [Simmons], Lyor [Cohen], and Kevin Liles,” Birdman said. “This ni**a Russell said he don’t like our artwork. I said, ‘This some weird sh*t. I walked clean out. N*gga don’t like my artwork, what about my music? You don’t care for the music? So, I left.”

Birdman went on to say that they almost inked a distribution agreement with Priority Records, who also signed Master P’s New Orleans-based label No Limit Records, to an unprecedented deal. According to Birdman, Master P intervened and made sure it didn’t happen.

“I went to Priority, some weird sh*t here.  I go to Priority, they fly us to California,” he said. “Me and Slim, a couple of the homies, we go out there. Ni**a come in there and said, ‘I’m sorry, we can’t do the deal. They said because Master P said, ‘If we sign y’all, he’s leaving.’ I just jumped on a jet and went back to New Orleans was like, ‘F—k it, we just gonna grind with it.”

When Universal Records reached out to the camp, they negotaied “one of the more historic deals in music history.”

“And then Mel Lewinter and them called and I said, ‘This my last trip. I ain’t taking no more motherf**king flights to New York or California,” he recalled. “F**k it, we’ll thug it out. I’m still making millions, they gonna come down here and f**k with me, I ain’t going back. And that was my last flight,” Birdmand rememverd.

After years of rumored tenseions between Cash Money and No Limt, everything seems to cool now. On No Chill with Gilbert Arenas, Master P spoke on the relationship between the two camps.

“A lot of people thought, ‘Oh, they got beef,’ but, man, we lived right up the street from each other,” Master P said.