Cash Money Records

Lyrics

[Intro]
New Orleans. Nineteen ninety-one.
Air so thick you could wring it out and fill a cup.
Two brothers. Bryan and Ronald Williams.
Folks asked them later, why that name?
Simple answer.

[Verse 1]
Birdman said, "We were always trying to get money."
So we just called ourselves Cash Money.
It ain't a metaphor.
It ain't no poetry.
It's just the goal written right there on the sign.
From selling candy out his mother's house to this.
A name that was an invoice.
A promise made to themselves before anyone else was listening.
Slim, the quiet one, making the numbers work.
Bryan, the face, pointing at the future like he already owned it.

[Chorus]
Cash. Money. Records.
You say it enough, it starts to sound like a machine printing it.
Cash. Money. Records.
A self-fulfilling prophecy in three words.
You don't ask for it polite.
You name yourself after it.

[Verse 2]
Then came ninety-eight.
The suits from Universal came down south.
Sat in some cool, dry room that smelled like fresh paper.
Talked about a thirty million dollar deal.
But the trick wasn't the number.
Nah. The trick was the masters.
Slim said, "We own our own."
They kept eighty percent.
Then Juvenile dropped Four Hundred Degreez.
And the whole damn country learned how to back that azz up.
The sound of South Carrollton Avenue rattling windows in Chicago.

[Chorus]
Cash. Money. Records.
You say it enough, it starts to sound like a machine printing it.
Cash. Money. Records.
A self-fulfilling prophecy in three words.
You don't ask for it polite.
You name yourself after it.

[Bridge]
They signed a nine-year-old kid named Dwayne Carter.
Put a microphone in his hand.
He became Lil Wayne.
The prophecy found its voice.
And a red Bentley.
And a diamond grill.
They spoke it into existence.
Turned a name on a building into an empire in the bank.
Just by calling the thing what it was.
What they wanted it to be.

[Outro]
Cash Money.
Simple as that.
Say what you want.
Then go get it.
The rest is just paperwork.