Master P founds No Limit Records

Why it matters

Percy Miller founded No Limit Records in 1991, out of a record store he owned in Richmond, California, using a $10,000 inheritance. He recorded as Master P. He had a brother (C-Murder) and another brother (Silkk the Shocker) and a son (Romeo, eventually) and a cousin (Mia X) and a network of New Orleans-area rappers (Mystikal, Soulja Slim, Fiend, Snoop briefly) and he put all of them on the label. What No Limit did between 1995 and 2000 is an extraordinary piece of independent-label business. They put out something like 75 albums in five years. Most of them shipped gold. Master P retained ownership of his masters, distributed through Priority for a percentage that gave him 80% of his own profits, and grossed (by his own accounting) roughly a quarter of a billion dollars. The records themselves are uneven and the label aesthetic (Pen & Pixel airbrushed gold-chained covers) is its own thing, but the business is the point. Master P is one of the very few rappers of the 90s who came out of the era richer than the people on the major labels. He kept the catalog. He still owns it. You should learn from this.