In a new interview, Cash Money Records co-founders Birdman and Slim opened up about the prolific label's two decades of hits and controversies. Naturally, the discussion with Billboard's Dan Rys veered into the rumored 2017 release window for Lil Wayne's Tha Carter V and the label's reinvention in the early '00s following the disbandment of the Hot Boys.
"I didn't really ever want to see the breakup; I didn't even think this type of shit would happen, 'cause I knew we was all in it together," Birdman said when asked about the end of the Hot Boys' run marking a new era for the label. "And it kind of made us look like we was gonna fall. But when it comes to creativity, business, music, I really put that shit in them. I taught 'em that."
Slim added that he was "disappointed" in how everything went, but wasn't interested in "bashing" any artists. "The same people that was trying to break us up didn't know what was going on," he said.
Slim was similarly reserved in discussing the label's move into making Wayne its solo star, telling Billboard he learned to not get caught up in "the gossip part" of the music industry. Birdman was a bit more direct when speaking about how the departure of other Hot Boys members changed Cash Money.
"Once they left, I was like, fuck 'em, I'ma do me, let them do them," Birdman said. "It was fun in the beginning, but it ended up being pain at the end for them. 'Cause they ain't last, not one of them; any n**** that left, they ain't last at all."
In February, Wayne and (most of) the Hot Boys crew reunited at a LeBron James-hosted party in their hometown of New Orleans:
"I don't know if these people fully appreciate what's going on tonight," James told the All-Star Weekend crowd. "Yo, we got mothafuckin' Hot Boys in this mothafucka right now."
B.G. was unable to attend. In 2012, the Times-Picayunereported that he was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for gun possession and witness tampering.
