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Master P - Master Entrepreneur, Hustler, &, Hip Hop General
The icon know around the world as Master P, (real name Percy Miller), was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. His childhood was a tough one. Master P was brought up in a poor neighborhood filled with street gangs, while his own family, Percy has four other siblings, could barely make ends meet. To make matters even worse, his parents got divorced when he was only eleven, forcing the family to split leading to P having to live with his Pops separated from his brothers and sisters, although they still remained tight.
But don't think things got much easier for the young Percy Miller, the next chapter of his life was moving in with his Grandmother and 14 other children, with Percy and his brother making it 16 kids in a 3 bedroom project apartment. But despite the challenging circumstances, like being the last of 16 to eat at meal time and not having his own bed, P was always a positive spirit who had belief and faith that he was on the path to a better future and was always very grateful for what little he did have
The Calliope Projects. Is where P spent much of his early life, and is not a place for the light hearted. B, as it was also know, was a notorious housing project in New Orleans where daily survival was a matter of life and death. You're talking about a part of the USA more associated with murder and poverty then it was producing entrepreneurs and moguls. Which all makes the success that was to come P's way even more breath taking.
Due to his unfortunate surroundings, P like a lot of others growing up in these tough conditions, got caught up in the street life. But it was during these early years of his life is when P dug deep into his entrepreneurial spirit, hustling to make ends meet. But even at a very early point of his life, P had a vision and set his goals, and most importantly, he went all out to achieve them. When studying the rise of the Master there was strong evidence from a very young age that he had something that bit extra about him.
Whiles we all have dreams and goals, not only where P's a lot bigger than most, he proved to have the grit, discipline, and resolve to see his through. The story he now often tells of practicing his basketball game in the dark, as the police would shoot out the street lights in their battles with the local drug dealers, in order to improve his game is only more proof P is cut from a different material to most.
It's great testament to the young up and coming general that no matter what challenge life threw at him, violence, death, drugs, and all the other drama that goes down in the hood, P never lost faith that God had a brighter plan for him. And a change of surroundings was soon to come for P when he was awarded a basketball scholarship to the University of Houston in the late '80s.
Just as things seemed to be heading in the right direction for Percy, he was to face yet more adversity seriously damaging his knee in his freshman’s year. Once again at such a young age the young P had to overcome a challenge that would have broken a lesser spirit, but as the world was about to find out, Percy Miller is cut from a different cloth.
During this period of growing into a young man P also had to face the devastating loss of his Grandfather who had been a major influence in P's life up until that point. But to add to the tragedy, ironically, it was when P's grandfather was about to be released from hospital was when he was fatally given the medicine meant for another patient, This adding to what sounded like a, mafia style murder, of one of P’s brothers who was shot in the back of the head in a car, by a so called friend, and dumped on the hi way. To recover from one such tragedy is commendable, but two, just goes to show what spiritual and inner strength the Miller family must have.
Life was going slow and steadily for Master P, until one day he found out that he received an inheritance of 10 000 dollars, and again irony appeared, as the sudden windfall was left to him by his Grandfather who had tragically passed away due to the medicine debacle. Never the less P was now armed with a stack of cash that would give the young entrepreneur a much needed financial kick-start, and P was about to turn a sad loss into something positive.
While most young men in the hood would waste all of that money on a car, alcohol and a chain, Miller, being a natural-born businessman, opened a music store in Richmond - “No Limit Records”, with it being focused on selling hip hop which was not easily available to the public. Has sales went up and the business rapidly grew young P closely watched and observed to what his customers liked, what would attract them to one product over another, analyzing what was hot and what not so hot. Has we know Master P doesn’t do things just for kicks as he then took all the data he gathered and used it to start piecing together a plan of his own.
It is well documented that P faced many challenges and obstacles during his transition to rapper, first starting with his broad southern American accent. You got to remember this was a time when hip hop was totally dominated by east coast and west coast artists, and other than the Gheto Boys, and, Luke and The 2 Live Crew, the was no southern based artists of any note on a mainstream level. And to add, he was based in the west coast at this point.
Master P now often tells stories of countless rejections on his come up as a rapper, but with the combination of grit, determination, and some real smart thinking P was steadily becoming a force to be reckoned with.
Has P's star began to shine there was two pieces of total out the box thinking which were about to take Percy Miller's life to places I don' think even he imagined. The first was when he turned down a 1m dollar offer, whiles only having 500 dollars in his pocket, from one of the biggest executives in the game. But even at the stage P was more in pursuit of a partnership rather than the standard deal given to most artists. The second piece of master mind thinking was when he made it his mission to find out who was negotiating Michael Jacksons deals, who was the highest paid artist in the world by far at the time. And remember, Google wasn’t around in them days and such information was much harder to find out.
After finding out and tracking down MJ’s attorney Master P spent 25,000 dollars, in the late 80s early 90s, for a 15 minute meeting with Michael Jacksons business negotiator, and to this day the Master P himself claims it to be the best money he's ever spent, as in that 15 minute meeting the knowledge P received would prove to be worth 100s of millions not too far down the line.
Another thing that also make P's achievements even more noteworthy, is when you look at the other labels that get compared to Master P and No Limit, they all where lead by rappers, or groups, that are considered GOATS in the world of hip hop. Take Puffy and Bad Boy for example, their success was led by Biggy Smalls, The Roc by Jay Z, Def Jam had LL Cool J and Public Enemy. All though P is a competent rapper who's sold millions of records, I think even he'd admit to not quiet being on Biggy's level as a rapper, but when it comes to hustle, Masters P excels.
1992 marked the release of his debut studio album “Get Away Clean”, which, along with the two consecutive releases of “Mama’s Bad Boy” and “The Ghettos Tryin to Kill Me”, Master P was growing and developing has an artist demonstrated that the newly found south style had a lot in common with West Coast gangsta-rap. Master P had a hard time getting heard and getting his stuff out on the radios, so instead he dug into his entrepreneurial spirit and focused on selling his music through his own distribution channels, and like the true hustler he is, he independently sold over 100, 000 units of his music. A fantastic achievement in itself.
It's evident that Master had always looked at the hip hop game through the eyes of an entrepreneur. When he released his hit single “Mr. Ice Cream Man” which featured on the album with the same name, in 1996, it was a time when most of the game was dark, with groups like N.W.A dressed in all black. So P saw a gap and came out bight and flamboyant, dressed in an all-white gangster suit and hat in the Ice Cream Man video. P saw a gap and no one was going to stop him filling it.
Has Mater P's name and star began to rise the majors again began to circle but by this point the No Limit leader was truly in the driver’s seat. Priority Records agreed to the deal he had worked tirelessly and waited so patiently for. The 85% to 15% spit, in Mater P's favor, was a deal totally unheard of and a piece of business that not only took the world by storm, but was a move that paved the way and was the blue print for the likes of, Bad Boy, Roc A Fela, Death Row and Young Money in time to come.
During the next year, Master P truly exploded, as his album “Ghetto D” came out and skyrocketed through the charts, the tide had truly turned with sales hitting above the 761 000 mark, and the album went on to become triple platinum. Its biggest single, “Make ‘Em Say Uhh!” is still one of Master P’s most famous singles to date. His next album he dropped was, “MP Da Last Don”, which is his best-selling album to this day, as it sold more than four million copies overall.
Unlike the majority of rappers, Master P didn’t get spoiled by the money and fame he received. Instead, he constantly invested his earnings into his label, while giving an equal opportunity to all of his soldiers. The door at No Limit Records was open to any talented artist that was ready to work hard and become a part of the family. The label gave a jumpstart to a large number of careers, including Mia X, Kane & Abel, Fiend, Sons of Funk and Mystikal.
Whiles the No Limit army was selling records by the millions during a period in hip hop when the independent label released over 20 albums in one year, the No Limit general was about to shake the hip hop world to the core once more, when one of hip hop biggest stars joined the ranks in the form of, the one and only, Snoop Dogg, after his own split with, Suge Knight and Death Row Records.
Master P has remained close to his family through his life, as two of his brothers, better known as Silkk the Shocker, and C-Murder, helped him run the company, while the music part of their recordings was done by the Beats be the Pound. His son Romeo Miller has also followed his Dads footsteps and had an exceptional career in music and film which started when he was just a little boy.
With all the success, there has always been a dark cloud hanging over the Miller family ever since Corey Miller, aka, C-Murder, was convicted of murder, a charge the Miller family have attempted to get over turned several times, and are still fighting for his freedom to this day. We will go into more depth of the story of C-Murder in a later article.
The year 1997 marked Master P’s increased activity in the Movie business, as he spent his own money producing the hood classic “I’m ‘Bout It, ‘Bout It”. Boosted by the success of his first film production he went on to take the 9-th spot on the Forbes rich list. In the following years, after receiving support from various distributors, he released a string of independent movies “I got the hook up”, “Tears of Clown”, “You only live once”, and “Foolish”. Then over a decade since the first release, July 2019, saw the release of 'I Got the Hook Up 2' which also done very well.
The impact that Maser P has made in the film business shouldn’t be under estimated as along with the great commercial and critical success, P has paid a major role in the careers of the likes of, Eddie Griffin and AJ Johnson.
Amongst the long list of exceptional ground breaking achievements during Percy Miller’s, aka Master P’s career, we can’t forget as well has conquering the music and film businesses, launching careers and clothes brands, he has also managed to squeeze a short career with two NBA teams. The No Limit general had shorts stints with Charlotte Hornets and Toronto Raptors between 1998 and 99. Some achievement when you really think about it.
Master P is famous not only for his music, but for his dedication towards helping the community through, the P. Miller Youth Centers, and his P. Miller Food Foundation for the Homeless. He has received a lot of recognition for his charitable work and was presented the key to the city of Memphis, and was granted the Certificate of Special Recognition by the Congress.
Master P is an enigma of the Hip Hop industry and a man that epitomizes the so called American dream and embodies the hustler’s spirit. He is not only a giant in the world of hip hop, he is an inspiration and help to a community. And, unlike the majority of rappers who came out during the 90s; his success had absolutely nothing to do with the two towers of rap music – New York and L.A. Instead, he was dedicated to evolving the hip hop movement in his region, to the point they are now one of the power houses in the game. And with an estimated fortune of in the 100s of millions, it looks like the soldier who came up through the ghetto really has no limit, Master P we salute you.