Cash Money had a hay day and a half. I remember seeing a young Weezy at Summer Jam in the late 1990s and it sure felt that the South had risen again. Everything they touched was magic.
Juvenile was the calling card of course and even today 400 degrees sounds major and “Ha” sounds like James Brown rapping and alive and kicking. In 1999 Universal got involved in distribution and eventually bought the label. Today it is the a sound (if not the sound) of young America: Weezy, Drake and Minaj is about as big as hip hop gets and surrounding this triumvirate of sound is everybody from Busta Rhymes to the late great Teena Marie.
Now comes news that Paris Hilton is recording an album of House Music, produced by Afrojack for Cash Money. The sort of sidelong glance of a move that has kept the UMG subsidiary at the top of its game and Hot 97’s Summer Jam reeling after they lost their participation!
Hilton’s album could be a joke but I doubt it. In theory, using an artist who is famous for nothing is a great idea. Meanwhile, rock nyc interviewing Chanel West Coast this afternoon -she is signed to the Cash Money subsidiary Young Money owned about Lil Wayne.