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Lil Wayne Now Owns All of Young Money Entertainment

LAS VEGAS, NV - JANUARY 27: Rapper Lil' Wayne performs during the 2018 Adult Video News Awards at The Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on January 27, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

The current issue of Billboard features a cover profile of Lil Wayne, focusing on the legendary rapper’s path to releasing his long-gestating new album Tha Carter V. According to the story, when that album arrives, it will be the first in his catalog that does not bear the logo of Cash Money Records, the label that signed him as a teenager in 1998. The terms of a recent out-of-court settlement between Wayne and Cash Money reportedly dictated that Young Money Entertainment, Wayne’s subsidiary of the label, is now owned entirely by him, though its distribution with Cash Money’s parent company Republic Records remains in place.

Lil Wayne and Cash Money have been embroiled in a public feud in recent years, over Wayne’s allegations that he was not properly paid for the music he released on the label. The tension included a falling-out between Wayne and Cash Money co-founder Birdman, a formerly close associate that Wayne has said he regards as a father figure. Wayne told Billboard that he and Birdman are back to speaking every day, but their relationship has changed. “Not even just with him, but my relationships with a lot of people have become different, just because of how different I work now,” he said.

Young Money, which Cash Money and Wayne launched as a joint venture in 2003, is responsible for signing superstars like Drake and Nicki Minaj, as well as a host of other artists.

Read the full Billboard profile here.