Cash Money Records was the hottest record label in the USA during 2008. How did they do it? Founder Ronald `Slim` Williams says it was all hard work.
Cash Money started as a small indie label in New Orleans in the early 90s. This year, their Lil Wayne ‘Tha Carter III’ was the biggest selling album in America. “Yes it has finally paid off,” Slim tells Undercover News. “On that scale we have done a lot of work but we’ve never won a Grammy. We have been nominated before but not like this. We have the number one album in the country and the biggest selling album of the year. It was worth the wait”.Slim may have been too close to the Lil Wayne project to see how big it was going to be as it was being created. “I thought it was going to do great but I had no idea we had the biggest selling record of the year at the beginning,” he says. “As we were looking for a single in the studio, when I heard ‘Lollipop’ I knew that was the record.
Slim’s main concern was how different ‘Tha Carter III’ was. “It was a different kind of record for Lil Wayne. I didn’t know if people would take to ‘Lollipop’. I knew it was different but I didn’t know if it would crossover,” he says.
After selling more than 45 million albums, it is somewhat strange calling the New Orleans label “a small indie”. Slim says the label is successful because they are smarter than a lot of the majors. “We are just more hands on than some of the companies,” he says. “They have more money but we spend the money wisely. If they have $1,000,000 and I have $100,000 it is the way I spend it. When you want to sell something then you have got to get to the people who want to buy it. Our goal is to touch people hand to hand. That is why we have been around so long. That is why it has been successful for us. We don’t do anything different than what the majors do. We just touch people hand to hand”.
He says anyone can compete with the four majors, Sony, Universal, Warner and EMI. “You can be just as successful as one of the big powerhouse majors labels today,” he says. “It has been a challenge for us but the one thing we are going to be is number one and we aren’t going to stop until we get there. Comparing us to a major makes me feel great. We have really stepped our game up. We aren’t just known as Independent. We’ve got that name but we compete with the best”.
So what is his secret? “The first thing we have to do is drill for an audience,” Slim says. “Find what you do and master it and do it well and you will pick up fans on the way. Wayne picked up fans on his first record, then on his journey he picked up other fans. They carried along with him and every year they get bigger and bigger. We had 1.2 million of this last record and on the next one he might have 300,000 more. Let the people come along with us first and we will pick up more along the way”.
Cash Money recently signed its first rock artist. Kevin Rudolf. We will have more on that from Slim later in the week.
Cash Money Records picked up 8 Grammy nominations last week including a nomination for Album of the Year for ‘Tha Carter III’.
