Birdman established Cash Money Records, along with his brother, Slim, in 1990. The label was created in New Orleans and they signed local rappers. Because they were new to the game, they offered each artist 50% of their profits on each album. They would sell their records to local CD shops and would land small deals. It did not take long for the Cash Money label to become well-known within New Orleans. Soon, they would be overshadowed by No Limit Records before the mid-1990s.Things would change for the label when they added Juvenile, Turk, Lil Wayne, and B.G. to the label. At a time when boy bands were taking over, Birdman decided to turn the four young men into a hardcore rap group. In 1996, they released the debut album from B.G., Chopper City. The album would be hailed as a classic and it built a fan base for the rapper outside of Louisiana. Soon, the success of B.G. attracted a major record label in Universal Records.
Universal Records attempted to sign the teenage rapper, but the move was blocked by Birdman because B.G. was under contract with his Cash Money Records. The label tried to work out a joint venture deal, but it was turned down and Universal Records offered a distribution deal. Under the terms of this deal, Universal would become the exclusive distributor to Cash Money Records. At the time, Universal was not looking to distribute the entire Cash Money label, but it ended up being a profitable partnership. At one point, it appeared that deal was going bad as Juvenile and B.G. had left the label. During this frame of time, Lil Wayne was not looked at as one of the top rappers. This is what led to the assault that Wayne put on the rap game.
For the past three years, Lil Wayne has been on top of the game. However, unlike other stars, Wayne insured the future of his crew. Starting in 2007, he began signing acts to his Young Money label. Right before he was sentenced, Lil Wayne introduced them into the game. Now, the entire crew is stars. Not only are these artists, which include Drake, Bow Wow, and Nicki Minaj signed to Young Money, but they are also signed to Cash Money Records. Recently, Birdman spoke of how releases from these artists were going to keep his label on top of the rap game. Not only will they be holding things down, but Lil Wayne will be releasing singles off of his album, Tha Carter IV with the videos already being filmed.