Yesterday, we reported the case of the obvious rift in Cash Money. We have watched as activities slumped in the label from December last year when Lil Wayne rounded off work on his “Carter V” album and the label –Cash Money Records– refused to put out the project, nor pay him a $10M fee as agreed.
The aftermath of that is a messy lawsuit in which Wayne has sued the label to the tune of $51M for what he termed a “prison sentence”, stating that Birdman and Cash Money Records have “refused to release his Carter V album”. According to TMZ, Wayne is pressing charges with the hopes of severing his contract with the label.
This has been the situation, a messy one at that, but what is even messier is the fact of a likely “extinction” of Cash Money if Wayne and his cohorts (Drake and Nicki Minaj) were to leave. Already, we hear Drake’s “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late” is the last string contractually binding him and Cash Money, which makes it all the more likely he will leave as well.
Anyways, today we take a quick look at what is left of Cash Money in the event Wayne’s exit becomes official.
As we speak, there are five major namees on the label – Ace Hood, Bow Wow, Austin Mahone, Limp Bizkit and Birdman (the head honcho). But there are speculations they aren’t enough arsenal to keep the label firing high.
Ace Hood is perhaps the biggest name left on the imprint if things go as speculated with Wayne’s purported exit. Signed to YMCMB in 2012, Birdman said of him to MTV News:
“When you got a young man with that kind of focus, you never know how far he can go in this business”.
The official announcement was made to MTV News correspondent Sway Calloway on the set of DJ Khaled’s “Take It To The Head” video shoot.
“We wanted to do it right, set it up right. I think Ace Hood is a superstar. I love his work ethic, I think he’s a very talented young man…”, Baby told MTV News.
Ace remains the best option Cash Money has of staying afloat. His “Bugatti” single perhaps is the most commercially rewarding from the label in recent times (if we take away Wayne and his unit, that is).
Next up is Bow Wow but we aren’t exactly sure of him lasting on the charts today, neither are we sure of him resounding in the markets. He’s spent the last few years shuttling between Hollywood and everything else there is in a bid to generate himself some buzz, but zilch. His next big project “Underrated” isn’t making any serious noise with singles, neither is the label ready to cut the big cheque for some banging PR, not with Birdman’s monopoly and his penchant to drive the Bugatti.
Austin Mahone is probably just going to add to the numbers and fizzle out before long. Only time will tell. Not to be pessimistic or nothing but the teenager hasn’t particularly done anything that should serve as an anchor were the label to rely on his creativity to stay in business tomorrow. But we watch, who knows how things could go?
Who is Limp Bizkit? From Interscope to Cash Money Records, we watched the horrendous mismatch that was their partnership and today we are still watching. In 2012, when Cash Money signed Limp Bizkit, Rolling Stone defined the public’s reaction as ‘ranging from confused to abhorred’. Following that, Bryan ‘Birdman’ Williams quickly downplayed any regret whatsoever over the signing:
“Everybody gonna have their opinion, but we don’t even listen to that. We been through this long enough not to pay attention to the negativity. We’re just gonna let the music speak for itself.”
Nearly three years down the line, nothing major has been heard from the band, Limp Bizkit. Nothing. The only thing we hear is silence, silence so loud we know better than to expect anything ground breaking from the partnership.
Birdman is, today, musically out of tune with the trend of things. And in all sincerity, it’ll be easier for money to grow on trees than for him to drop a song or album today and have it buzz across platforms. He is not the answer to Cash Money’s problems, he is no answer to anything; in fact he owes Cash Money and the world answers.
These said, we don’t see the slightest chance that Cash Money and it’s commodities will see the light of day, at least not with rumors of Tyga also wanting out as he looks to buy off the rest of his pact with the label. Most especially, not with Wayne and his gang out of the equation. But we watch still.
Image: www.uptownmagazine.com
––
@ChibuzoHI
