Neighborhood Superstars: Cash Money Records Tour

Cash Money Records became a global force in hip-hop while staying connected to its roots in Uptown New Orleans. Bryan “Baby” Williams (also known as Birdman), who co-founded the label around 1991 with brother Ronald “Slim” Williams, said that “We wanted to create neighborhood superstars.”

One of Cash Money’s main ties was to the Magnolia public housing development in Central City. Accounts differ as to when the Williams brothers actually lived in the Magnolia. In a self-produced documentary about his upbringing, Baby details his early childhood residence above Gladys Bar, a small business run by his father at 1233 S. Saratoga (the City of New Orleans named the closest corner “Williams Brothers Way” in 2024), and his school-age years at 2615 Valence in the 13th Ward, saying only of the Magnolia that it was “where I made my bones.” In any case, the house on Valence is about nine blocks up Magnolia Street from its namesake housing complex.

Cash Money added ties to the Magnolia when a roster overhaul in 1995-96 brought on board the rappers Juvenile and Turk, who both grew up there. Juvenile, who rocks tattoos on his forearms that say “‘Nolia Boy,” deepened the label’s affiliation with the project by making it the setting of the video for his breakout hit “Ha.” Another artist, Magnolia Shorty, took her name (as bestowed by Soulja Slim) directly from the complex.

When Cash Money’s balance sheet started living up to its name, the Williams brothers began an annual Thanksgiving turkey giveaway in A.L. Davis Park, across the street from the Magnolia. The park features in other nationally known videos, too, notably “Back That Azz Up.”

Before taking over dance floors across the country, though, the Williams brothers spent years building a local and regional following. In 1993 they opened an office in the Central Business District,  alongside New Orleans’ white collar establishment. From there, they scoured the city for talent.

Their most important recruit was Mannie Fresh, whom they approached at the DJ booth at Club Rumors and convinced to be their in-house producer. (Early Cash Money artists performed at Rumors, too, which was ground zero for the city’s hip-hop community in the early-to-mid 1990s.)

In this period the label also sponsored talent shows at the Big Easy nightclub, which served as a rolling audition of young artists from across New Orleans with potential to join the Cash Money roster. The Big Easy became a locus of their rivalry with Big Boy Records, another independent outfit trying to make waves in hip-hop by tapping local talent.

Two blocks from the Big Easy was Peaches Records, where, proprietor Shirani Rea would recall, Mannie Fresh test-marketed new tracks by playing them for customers. Baby worked closely with Rea and Gary Holzenthal of Odyssey Records, the city’s other major hip-hop retailer, on promotional events ranging from midnight sales to in-store performances. (An autograph session at Odyssey for the Cash Money artist Lil Slim was the occasion for Baby’s first meeting with an 11-year-old Lil Wayne, who lived nearby in Hollygrove.)

Lil Wayne and BG were the only artists not purged in the 1995/96 overhaul. They joined Juvenile and Turk in the Hot Boys, Cash Money’s new flagship act, in shows at Club Whispers in New Orleans East, where the city’s biggest players showed out on Saturday nights. The success of the label’s new lineup, including the Big Tymers, a duo Baby formed with Mannie Fresh, set them up to sign a landmark national distribution deal with Universal Records in 1998.