Cash Money Records is Breaking My Heart
On January 14, 2000 I did what I consider to be the most brazen (or maybe #brazy) thing I’d ever do in my adolescence: I attended the Cash Money Millionaires Jam at the Oakland Coliseum when I did not have permission to go in the first place*. At 13-years-old, I used some of the money I made from babysitting/writing to give to my friend’s brother so that he could purchase one ticket to the Cash Money Millionaires Jam on my behalf and I could go with them to the concert. I then created a fake permission slip for a fake field trip to some smart sounding place that seemed like it could’ve been legit, had my mother sign said fake permission slip, and drilled my friends so that my alibi was air tight**. I told my mom that after the “field trip” I would just spend the night at my best friend’s house. My best friend and I were freshmen but now went to two different high schools — sleepovers were typically what we did every weekend so this was normal. Instead of catching the bus home after the field trip, I’d just catch the bus to her house. I was going to call my mom and check in before the concert that way if she paged me later I could just say my battery died and I didn’t notice. Like I said, I made sure my alibi was air tight. By the time the night of January 14, 2000 came around, even I was surprised my devious plan was actually coming together.
But I never got to see the Cash Money Millionaires (who were really just the Hot Boys) that night. A riot broke out during the intermission before they were set to perform. There were fights everywhere, and the show was immediately and effectively shut down. I was crushed, crestfallen. I spent a few months painstakingly planning for this concert just to be able to go see the Hot Boys, but more specifically Lil Wayne, and I saw no one. A few months later Cash Money was touring with Ruff Ryders but they never came back to the Bay***. This means I never had the opportunity to witness Cash Money take over for the ’99 and the 2000 in the actual year 2000 despite being there. I’m 30 and I still regret this.
As you might imagine, it pains me to see Lil Wayne go through this legal battle with his label home, Cash Money Records, and his surrogate father, Baby. I want for Baby to pay Lil Wayne his $70M and to forget about all that has happened within the last two years. I want Tha Carter V to come out and be the most fire rap album. I want him to break someone else’s Billboard records with that album. I want, so much, for the rapper I grew up on to continue his legacy. But the truth is that I will probably never see my dreams come to fruition. We’re probably never getting Tha Carter V—an album I’ve been promised as a Lil Wayne fan for quite some time. It’s going right up there with that elusive new OutKast album that I keep hoping for (and that I’ve been hearing about since late 2012) but never see materialize. In interviews, Lil Wayne always talks about how he desperately wants to put Tha Carter V out for his fans and how he is always considering his fans when he puts out new music that isn’t Tha Carter V.
Henceforth, as a fan, I’d very much like to be excluded from this narrative. I don’t like being lied on and I don’t like being lied to.
We’re not getting Tha Carter V because Baby is not giving Lil Wayne his money. We’re not getting Tha Carter V because business is business. We’re not getting Tha Carter V and we all have to come to grips with that. Some people think Baby is doing Lil Wayne a favor; they think the album is possibly, maybe not good. Some people think Lil Wayne and Baby are in cahoots and are maliciously delaying this long-promised album to boost sales. I think we all should stop talking about this damn album that maybe doesn’t even exist in the first place. Even though it saddens me deeply, I think we may be approaching the end of Lil Wayne as a solo rapper.
It’s a sad state of affairs for people like me — people who quite literally grew up on Cash Money Records. But to say that I didn’t see this coming would be a bold-faced lie, just like the one I told my mother about going on a field trip.
*I had asked my mom if I could go to which her reply was a swift, “No.”
**To this day, my mom has no idea that I went to that concert. Please don’t tell her.
***I finally saw Lil Wayne live in the Bay in 2009 (!!!), sat in the 2nd row and nearly burned by eyelashes off but that is another story for another day.
