When you think of No Limit Records, you think of Master P, a deep talented roster, and a multi-million dollar empire. In the mid to late ’90s, No Limit Records was a machine that pumped out hit after hit. Many fans were unaware of the fact that No Limit wasn’t an overnight success.  Â
Percy “Master P” Miller was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Miller’s parents separated when he was young. His brothers Corey, Vyshonn, and his sister Germaine went to live with his mother in the Magnolia Projects. Percy and his brother Kevin lived in the Calliope Projects with his dad and his grandparents. His grandparents had twelve kids of their own. The three-bedroom project was occupied by sixteen people. Young Percy slept on the floor, and some days he had no choice but to eat Corn Flakes and water for dinner. Despite living in separate households, Percy and all his siblings would spend time with each other every day.
Fast forward to 1983, and it was a bittersweet year for Miller. He met his high school sweetheart and future wife Sonya, but he also felt heartbreak due to the passing of his grandfather. The death of his grandfather made Miller assume a leadership role within his family. His goal was to change his family’s situation. He viewed basketball as his ticket out of the projects, but unfortunately, the dream turned into a nightmare when he tore his ACL during practice at the University of Houston. He felt like a failure as he took a long bus ride from Houston back to the Calliope Projects. Miller tried working a job, but it didn’t pan out. He turned to hustling on the streets as a way to provide for his family.
After his son, Romeo, was born Miller felt as though he needed to change his lifestyle. He packed his family up and moved to Richmond, California. Miller opened up a record store, and after interacting with local rappers, he felt he could do the same thing. From that point forward, Percy Miller became known as Master P.
In the early days, Master P formed a group known as TRU (The Real Untouchables). He was living on the West Coast, and his music had a southern style to it. No one was purchasing his record, but he decided to go back to the studio and try again. Master P reached out to his brothers to join the No Limit movement, but unfortunately, his brother Kevin was murdered in New Orleans. Vyshonn and Corey would travel to California to join Master P. Vyshonn would become Silk The Shocker, and Corey’s rap name was C-Murder.
Master P continued to put out music, but he couldn’t generate a buzz on the streets.
A major opportunity developed in 1993 when Tupac Shakur called Master P and offered him a slot as his opening act. During the course of his performance, Master P didn’t feel the love from the crowd. He did notice one person dancing and enjoying his music. At that moment, he vowed to turn that one fan into millions.
Spending time on the road with Tupac inspired Master P. He was able to branch off and do shows independently. The up and coming artist traveled town to town, promoting and selling his music with a hustler’s mentality. His strategy consisted of looking for the fancy cars and the guys who played loud music. When he found those types of individuals, he would give them a CD. When he saw homeless people, he would give them t-shirts because they were the equivalent of walking billboards. Master P sold his music from the trunk of his car. He sold his CDs using the blueprint of the streets. For example, P would sell one thousand CDs for $10, and that would generate $10,000. Then he would do the re-up. P would take the $10,000 to buy five thousand more CDs, and as a result, it would generate $50,000.
Master P received another dose of inspiration when he met J-Prince, the founder of Rap-A-Lot Records. J-Prince spoke to Master P in regards to his distribution deal with Priority Records. Focused on taking his label to the next level, Master P went to Merritt College and took business classes. A short time later, he was able to get a distribution deal with an independent distributor. His album ‘The Ghetto Is Tryin To Kill Me,’ was his first taste of success as it sold 100,000 copies. His next move was recruiting all the most popular local rappers in The Bay area and putting them on a compilation CD. ‘West Coast Bad Boys,’ sold 320,000 copies.Â
P’s next move was going down south to recruit talent. He put out the ‘Down South Hustlers,’ which was also a successful compilation.
The ball kept rolling as Master P recorded the game-changer ‘I’m Bout It, Bout It.’ Then he made a strategic business move. Master P paid $25,000 to meet with Michael Jackson’s lawyer. The lawyer advised P to search for a 85/15 distribution deal in which P gets 85% of the profits, and the distributor receives 15% of the profits. Master P inked an 80/20 deal with Priority Records. At the time, it was the most lucrative deal for a Black-owned label.Â
In 1996 Master P released ‘The Ice Cream Man.’ The album went platinum, and as they say in show business, the rest is history.Â
Percy Miller left the Calliope Projects, transformed into Master P, and built a 350 million dollar empire. You can view Master P’s historic rise on the 5-part docuseries ‘No Limit Chronicles,’ now playing on BET on demand.
