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Master P sold records from trunks
The big record companies worked from the top down: they had relationships with national radio and MTV, and they pushed an artist toward stardom from there. No Limit did it from the bottom up. A community in New Orleans bought into the idea, and the growth spread through the South.
No Limit had maybe a local radio station and a community of people who bought into the music. Sales and buzz kept spreading across the region, and at some point MTV had to play it, because the label had become too popular to be left out.
The top-down model rested on a belief about control. One record company executive claimed that with enough push behind anybody, even someone without talent, he could make them a popular musician.
How did No Limit reach stores nationwide?
No Limit signed a distribution deal with Priority Records in 1996, which put its albums into national retail while Master P kept control of the label. Master P had started No Limit as a record store in Richmond, California, before moving the label to New Orleans. His 1997 album Ghetto D debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.
How did Southern rap labels grow independently?
Rap-A-Lot Records in Houston, founded by James Prince in 1986, and Cash Money Records in New Orleans, founded in 1991 by Bryan 'Birdman' Williams and Ronald 'Slim' Williams, both built regional followings before national attention. Both later secured national distribution: Rap-A-Lot with Virgin Records, and Cash Money with Universal.
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