Cash Money Records | |
---|---|
Parent company | Universal Music Group |
Founded | 1991[1] |
Founder | Ronald "Slim" Williams Bryan "Baby" Williams |
Status | Active |
Distributor(s) | Republic Records (United States) Universal Records (1998–2006) Universal Music Group (International) |
Genre | |
Country of origin | United States |
Location | New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. Miami, Florida, U.S.[2] |
Official website | cashmoney-records |
Cash Money Records is an American record label founded in 1991 by brothers Ronald "Slim" Williams and Bryan "Baby" Williams. The label gained prominence in the late 1990s for having signed and released albums for New Orleans–based musical acts including Lil Wayne, Juvenile, B.G., and Hot Boys.[3] It became an imprint of Universal Records, a division of Universal Music Group in March 1998, and remained so during its following iterations as Universal Republic, Universal Motown and ultimately Republic Records.
In the late 2000s, Cash Money signed and released projects for a number of prominent hip hop artists, including Drake, Nicki Minaj, and Tyga. Wayne launched Young Money Entertainment in 2005, which operated as an imprint of the label and Republic Records until 2018—a joint venture colloquially branded as Young Money Cash Money Billionaires (abbreviated as YMCMB). The label has been commonly regarded as among the most successful urban contemporary music labels of the 2000s to 2010s.[4]
Artists signed to Cash Money Records have achieved a combined 12 number one albums on the Billboard 200 chart and seven number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart: Juvenile's "Slow Motion" (ft. Soulja Slim), Lil Wayne's "Lollipop", Jay Sean's "Down" (ft. Lil Wayne), and Drake's "One Dance" (ft. Wizkid & Kyla), "God's Plan", "Nice for What", & "In My Feelings".
The label's name alludes to the Cash Money Brothers, drug kingpin Nino Brown's gang from the 1991 crime film New Jack City.[5]