Club Shay Shay - Master P

Episode Date: March 8, 2021

On episode 24, Shannon welcomes in rapper, actor, movie producer & record executive: Master P. From music to sports to cereal, ramen noodles and sneakers, Master P knows how to build a brand from the ground up. He talks Shannon through his history in business, disclosing lessons he learned through his successes and failures. He also explains his recent publicized interest in acquiring Reebok, and his goal of collaborating with up-and-coming players like Jalen Suggs.  Master P talks Shannon through his journey growing up in Louisiana, dreaming of becoming an NBA player before ultimately being called toward music and business. He talks about his sons’ basketball careers, and how he’s been able to translate lessons about his own hard work and education to his family. With stories about playing with Del Curry, opening for Tupac, signing Ricky Williams to his sports agency, and much more, Master P has decades worth of insight and knowledge to share. #DoSomethinB4TwoSomethin & Follow Club Shay Shay:                                                                 https://www.instagram.com/clubshayshayhttps://twitter.com/clubshayshayhttps://www.facebook.com/clubshayshayhttps://www.youtube.com/c/clubshayshay Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news and the best analysis delivered by the time you get your coffee. The show hits every single game every single week, but I can't do it alone. So I'm bringing in all the big guns from NFL media like Colleen Wolf. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What happens when a professional football player's career ends and the applause fades and the screaming fans move on?

I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. For some former NFL players, a new faith provides answers. You mix homesteading with guns and church. Voila! You got straight away. They try to save everybody. Listen to Spiraled on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, welcome to another edition of Club Che Che.

I am your host, Shannon Sharp, also the proprietor of Club Che Che. And the guy that's stopping by for a drink and conversation today, he really doesn't need an introduction, but I'm going to introduce him anyway. He's a rapper, he's an actor, movie producer, record executive, a mogul, former NBA player, and Mr. Make Him Say Huh Master P. All my life, been grinding all my life. Sacrifice, hustle pay the price. NBA player, and Mr. Make-Em-Say-Huh Master P. P, what it do? What's going on, bro? Man, thanks for stopping by and giving me a few minutes of your time today.

I really, really appreciate it. We're going to cover a broad range of topics. We're going to go all over. And hopefully, I really hope that when we're done with this conversation and we air this, a lot of people will take heed to what you said. And maybe they will become better people, better businessmen, and better aspects of their life. So I really appreciate you taking time today. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Let's start with the latest Reebok. Adidas let it be known that they're looking to sell the Reebok brand from under their umbrella. You mentioned along with Baron Davis that you would like to purchase this. Do you feel that you've taken the necessary steps to put you in line to be able to take over this property?

Well, right now, we already showed proof of funds. So we have a seat at the table right now and we're getting close. And to be able to take Reebok Black, it'll be history, something that never been done. To have a CEO of a large tennis shoe brand like this, it would change the game, change the narrative. It's all about economic empowerment. You know, it's what we protest for, it's what LeBron and them stand up for at their games to want to show some diversity, but also show some plan of action. The plan of action is we don't have to stand in the streets and protest no more.

We have to understand the importance of building economic empowerment. This is how we change the private, this is how we change the crime rate in our communities. This is how we change the private. This is how we change the crime rate in our communities. This is how we give back. This is how we give opportunities. And this deal is just one of many. If it go through and they choose us to be able to run a brand like this, I have an initiative that I want to start.

It'll begin with Allen Iverson, Shaq, and to the next newest, biggest player in the game that'll be the next draft pick, Jalen Suds. I want to be able to take Jalen Suds and be one of the faces to this brand. And because I want kids that come from nowhere that's been underrated their whole life and say, you know what?

Now let's put these kids on this platform and showcase them and show them that how we could come from the bottom and change the narrative by doing what's right and being able to recognize the underdogs. And I think the NBA, the NFL, the Major League Baseball, this is history to have a CEO of a company like me that come from nothing, not a perfect life, but changed my life and be able to do something big for the culture. So I want to take the whole culture with me on this ride to get the seat at the table, to show them that we understand financial literacy, we understand growth. And this is a movement. This is not just a deal. Like I said, this is only one of many. We're going to open up banks. We're going to open up grocery stores. We're going to create products. So showing that we can do this. So

this is the 21st century. This is how this is going to look. This will be very different from you, Master P, because normally what you do is that you build from the bottom to the top, but you will be purchasing a company that's already been established and you will take over. So why was it important for you? Because normally, like I said, you like to build. That way you're like, okay, I know this is me. This is my blood, sweat, and tears. And so now you're going in basically to a ready-made product. Now you're just trying to take it to the next level. Yeah, because that's the growth. When you look at Reginald Lewis did this in 1970s. This guy did this. He was from Maryland.

And he showed us that we can do this. And I want to show this generation that, yeah, we can build stuff. But at the same time, we can acquire major brands, and now we can help more. Because when you look at it right now, it's hard for us to help people in our community. My model is the more I make, the more I give. So now people don't realize, you know, you lose thousands. So you look at millionaires might lose thousands to become millionaires.

Billionaires lose millions to become billionaires. And we have to think like that. That's the only way we're going to close this gap up. And so that's what my life is about, not closing that gap, showing the imbalance, add some diversity. This is the time. And I think we got to think bigger. This is me being on a mission to grow, keep learning, get the experience, all the failures that I've been through, you know, falling, hitting the ground, picking myself back up and not being afraid to say I don't know everything and putting the right team together. Because I mean, the financial team that I was able to put together to go and acquire a deal like this is incredible. It's almost like sports. Sports did it for me, you know, to where now I know it's not just about me.

I'm the head of the team, but I need so many of these great people, you know, financial people. Now, like for me, it's like I don't need street people with me. I need nerds. I need people behind computers. I need people that know technology. I need people that know money. And that's how we grow and get to this, fixing this imbalance. B, you talked about picking yourself up after you've been knocked down. I think that's some of the hardest thing for people. People don't like failure.

People don't handle failure. People don't handle rejection. No one handles that well. So how do you, after one, two, three, 10 doors slam to your face, you have a business startup and it fails. How did Master P pick himself up and says, okay, that opportunity didn't work out, but there's another one over there that's going to work out. How do you stay so positive in situations like this? Well, I put my trust in faith and God and it's not just about me. I know that whatever it is for me to get to my destination, some of them doors need to close. That's not the right door for me. A bigger door always open up

and I want to take other people with me. So I know that this is not just about me. I want to take thousands of people that has business that look like us, that has products and get products and brands into these stores. And I just think that nobody has educated us. So I want to be that person. I want to be the Muhammad Ali of business. I want to be the king of business to lead us to that to that mountaintop and say, look, look what we could do now. We could eat now. we could feed our people. And I think it's not dwelling on the past. Everybody dwell on old slavery or just how they mistreat us. I'm like, no, we can't change the past,

but we could change the future. So that's what drives me to where every time I fall, I'm like, no, I got to get up. I got to keep going. You know, yesterday was a bad day, but tomorrow is going to be better. And I keep that positive attitude and speak it. So, you know, like we just see, I got on my shirt right here. L.A. great in L.A. great is about from Louisiana to Los Angeles to to the greats.

I mean, everybody that came before me is not about me and able to create a product brand, water, sports drinks, anything in the beverage business. And they've been doing this for years. And I'm like, you know what? It's time for us to do that. So to be a part of this, it's a movement to be able to give water back to people in our community, help the elderly. They don't get this, you know uh help educate the kids in the in the community and and that's what is i think that's philia keeps me the guy that invented the light bulb he filled

999 times and then all of a sudden he created the light bulb look look where we are now and so think about us now being able to create something something to push us and drive us doing something positive. I mean, I didn't come from a perfect life. A lot of people feel, a lot of people went to jail, a lot of people died at a young age. And I'm saying, God, spare my life. Let me do something right. You know, if you do right, blessings will continue. So I think that'd be my motivation. It's no limit to what I could do. I named myself Master P because I'm a master of whatever I do. And I think you got to speak positive on yourself. And it's no limit to what I could do I name myself master p because I'm a master whatever I do and I think you got to speak positive on yourself and it's all about consistency and putting in the work you know even a failure to me is just a lesson it's not a loss it's not

an L it's a lesson and that's how I look at I'm like you know what it's it's not a race it's a marathon I just got to keep going I'm gonna get there and that's what I did in the music industry I went from selling no records to selling a hundred million records independently. And that's just how God is. When you do the right thing, you will overcome all the negativity. Even the haters going to love you in the end. Even the people that just wait, okay, maybe they might not want to see me on top right now. Are they going to wait until you go on to say, I'm going to buy all this product. That's cool. But guess what? I'm going to still keep doing my part while I'm here. I'm going to keep showing them that we can actually do this.

We can build these big brands the same way they was able to do. And now we can buy these brands and take over and put the money back into the culture and the community. But we have to support each other. We've got to stop with the self-hate that don't want to see. You know, I celebrate you, man. Like, I'm proud of you from what you were able to do you know what i'm saying transition from sports to be able to to communicate and be able to talk to us that's big that's how we change the narrative we have to showcase more of this and the people that are doing the right thing i tell my son all the time i say romeo you blessed just keep doing the right thing. I tell my son all the time. I say, Romeo, you blessed just keep doing the right thing. God going to bless you

with bigger and bigger and better things because you're doing the right thing. And I think that but we don't show that we don't showcase that we be you and I was having a conversation off of off camera and we're talking about and I was asking us like you in LA. He's like, yeah, I'm in LA. I said you

left the boot. He's like, yeah, I'm in between two places. I'm between Minnesota and LA and I asked you and I asked you. I said, well, I'm in LA. I said, you left the boot. He's like, yeah, I'm in between two places. I'm between Minnesota and LA. And I asked you, and I asked you, I said, well, why did you move? He said, why did you leave where you were from? Why is it that we can be at a location and we might have five, 10 homies and they all cool as long as we all there together. But as soon as I make it out, if you make it out of if someone's making out, why do we become resentful? Why is it like that? Well, because if you look at it, right, everybody has 24 hours.

While you're working, they sleeping and partying and playing, and then they want the same results. You're not going to get the same results. You sacrificed. You got out and did what you needed to do. I tell you all the time, like, I'm no different. I got a brother incarcerated. We all had millions of dollars.

So life is like this. People that want to sit on a condo and smoke and drink. And guess what? You can't be mad at me or you because our life is different. We got a nicer house, a nicer car or whatever

because we decided to do the right thing. We left the condo. I'm not trying to go backwards. And I think that's what people got to realize. Like, if you don't want to go back, it's two types of people. It's average people and above average people. The difference, average people are comfortable being uncomfortable, above average people not. And we're not. So yeah, I have a house in Louisiana. I have a house in Minnesota. I have a house in Los Los Angeles so I can go back and forth but the thing why I go to Minnesota my kids go to Minnehaha Academy and they play basketball

my I got a I got a one kid Hersey Miller he's a six three current guard he a senior and you know he's getting ready to go to college and I I have a 6'4 shooting guard, a mercy miller. He a freshman. And he's starting on a varsity team. And my thing is I'm allowing them to see both sides. So when they go to Minnesota by their mom, they able to feel like, now I gave up California. I gave up New Orleans.

I got to go in the cold weather. I want them to be uncomfortable. And I want them to be able to experience this. Instead of saying everything is good. I'm teaching them work ethics. And guess what? They're not the top kids in the country right now, but they will be in the end. I tell them, it's not how you start. It's how you finish. You put the work in. These kids put the work in. They've been putting the work in for years.

I mean, we played on the national TV game last year. We played against LeBron's son, Bronny James at Sierra Canyon. Y'all put them on? Yeah, everybody looked at us like, they just gonna get blowed out the water. You know, we won that game by 20%. We wasn't even ranked.

Now we one of the top teams in the country, but we wasn't ranked.. Now we're one of the top teams in the country, but we wasn't ranked. Nobody knew my kids were even Jalen Suss. Jalen Suss now went to Gonzaga. He's probably going to be the top five NBA player in the draft this year. But last year, nobody was

talking about him. And that's what I love about this. I'm saying like I don't mind being the underdog. Even when I played, nobody knew like can Master P really ball? They didn't know that this is what I did about this I'm saying like I don't mind being the underdog even when I played nobody didn't look like can't master P really buff they didn't know that this is what I did before this right so I love that team atmosphere and to be able to to let my kids see of both the balance like don't worry about what I got but think about what you can build and add on to what I have that's how we build generational wealth. But you

have to understand, I was talking to the trainer the other day, Chris was like, and he trained LeBron and a lot of other people. And it's like, what makes these kids different is that they know that they got to work for what they want. Like you're not just handing it to them because nobody could teach hard work. You just have to put your body through this and deal with it. We just want opportunity. That's it. We don't, we don't want nobody to give us nothing. We want opportunity. Right. That's what I want to talk to you about, Pete, is that you can, you and I understand we didn't have anything.

There was nothing to be given out to us. Our parents didn't have anything. So it wasn't like they could just hand us anything and we could just sit back. So we had to grind. How do you get your kids when you've accomplished so much and they can sit back and just go into business with you and not have to grind, say like you had to grind or I had to grind going up. How do you get kids to understand that you got to grind in order to get what you want? Well, first you have to show them this success is temporary. So you got to grind in order to get what you want. Well, first you have to show them this success is temporary. So you got to show them who God is first. Once they know that and they have the faith to keep going,

and then you have to let them know that all the stuff you have is like the hurricane. Me growing up in New Orleans, this could all be washed away. You have to start over and you got to go back. and then you have to teach them or work at it. So you got to start at a young age. I've been doing this with my kids since they was three years old. Like, you know what, this is what it is. Nobody going to give you nothing. You got, it's a mentality. It's a mindset. So my kids now, what I love about them, when somebody walk up to them and say, well, why do you work so hard? Because Master P, you're there, You don't have to do that. And when you get on the court, you know, people know these kids are beasts.

They like animals because they like I got to protect my family name. So you got to you got to love something and have a purpose in life and know exactly why you're doing something. When a kid say they got to protect their family name, they know it's like a Steph Curry curry i played with dale curry and i don't watch step curry come in the gym when he was young but what dale told him was that nobody is going to give you nothing so you want you got to get in that gym and put them shots up my kids at at uh 18 and and and uh 15 they in the gym putting up 1,500 shots after the game, you know, on the days off. Like, they know, like, you don't work, you don't eat. Like, our whole mentality is, you know,

we got this whole thing to where we got to go harder than the next person. We got to go harder than the next family. We 10 steps behind. They've been passing money down from their descendants. And that's what I'm saying to my kids. If we're going to do this, it's going to take all of us. It's not just me that

has to go hard. We all have to go hard if we're going to break this negative cycle, this imbalance of wealth. And if we're going to do that, and we know this is temporary, so I also got to teach them about helping and philanthropy, giving back. Like, this is not just about you because you can't take this with you.

So this is temporary success, but having some integrity. So I just think that's what I give my kids when they get up in the morning saying, you have to keep educating yourself. Same way you want to be a student of the game in basketball, you got to be that in life and in school and education so my kids like right now we're looking for a college we're going to look for a college that's going to not only be a great college but can also help you on both ends off the court and on the court so you know i've been talking to a lot of school i've been talking vanderbilt i've been talking to byu stanford howard uh i mean we've been talking a lot of great schools but lsu i could go on and on but i'm like you know for my kid to come there it's going to have to be something that's going not just give them basketball but also educational because we want

to keep building that up you know keep understanding that knowledge is the most important thing in this wisdom so we want somewhere that's going to prepare us off the court because that's what a lot of athletes you look at a lot of athletes end up back in the hood because they have no education and they they know nothing about finance so they're depending on financial advisors so a financial advisor is going to be your best friend once you make some money but what happened before you got right you're trying to teach your kids to surround yourself with people that's knowledgeable, but people that you can really trust. Yes.

Yes. You mentioned about a possibility of acquiring Reebok, and you mentioned Shaq, you mentioned Allen Iverson. Would you like to see Reebok become a major? Because Reebok used to be a major player in the NBA, used to be a major player in the NFL. I don't know if they were, and they were somewhat in baseball, but are you trying to get the brand back into that? Because right now it seems to be basically Adidas and Nike in basketball. Well, think about it. If that brand is black on, you imagine what a kid gonna do when

he walk into the store knowing that even a white asian latino because there's been an imbalance we started buying these shoes and we never was able to benefit off so imagine if we take a dysfunctional brand like this and make it just as big as night like we're going to change the game like like kids are going to be proud uh to play in these shoes i'm talking about high school college and then pro athletes are going to be proud to when you know when you look at lebron you look at all these different players they're going to be proud even if they're not in the brand they're going to feel like man we we overcame something this is major um i feel like it's a it would be a movement like when a kid walk into a store saying wow i wear this because look what master p built look what he give back

to the community and the culture and you're gonna see reebok everywhere and i think i think it's about to happen it's about to happen and if it don't happen then we're gonna keep building i mean i got my own brand i got i got my yacht. You know what I'm saying? It's there for motivating oneself, encourage you to think independently. We create big brands, just the cereals that's coming out, the master crunch. So, you know, I mean, we came a long way. You know, I did the music. Now we've got the hooty hoot cere So, you know, so kids can have fun. You know, I mean, we're thinking outside the box.

Yeah, we want to acquire this, but if they don't get it to us, it's not the end of the world. Then we're going to keep building what we have already, taking these companies and turning them into international companies. Because right now, I mean, taking these companies and turning it into international companies. Because right now, I mean, I went from having a small amount of fans purchase our stuff to having hundreds of thousands buy all over the world now. So we, I mean, from China to Europe to India to Africa,

like we're building fan base that just keep building and building. It's because the brand loyalty and what we do in the community, people want to support us because they know the more we make, the more we give. Pete, let me ask you a question. And I think a lot of people want to know this. How do you, how do you get from an idea to getting something on the shelf? Yeah. You know what?

People don't realize you have to trust the process. You have to start the process you have to start small and build bring it to life like start first building that brand saying speak it like this is what i want to do then do your research go online figure out where you can get this stuff made at and keep building like so let me show you nobody had noodles like for as an african-amerAmerican person to create noodles, I created these wrap noodles, the icon version. And I just went online,

started looking for a place to make the noodles, came up with the brand. And, you know, me and my partner, James, we was like, you know what? Let's take this to another level. And we did. And I think that we are afraid, but think about about it they've been making billions of dollars off us because sometimes people always say it's the smaller things even if you look at aunt jimama and uncle ben those brands

they made billions of dollars but they wasn't owned by us and i tell my people trust the process next thing you know we're going going to make even healthier items. That's coming next. But first we got to get some of that shelving space. So it's almost like you said, starting a brand is like playing baseball. You got to swing at the ball to hit it. You might hit a home run, but if you never swing, you're never going to hit a home run. Right. And so get in the game and start small. It's almost like buying a house. Don't go buy a big house until you learn the process of buying a little small house or

a condo or whatever and say, oh, just the process. I mean, it don't take a rocket scientist to understand that. I like what you've done because I think sometimes people get caught up in trying to invent the next thing. Why not try to improve on something that's

already been invented? We've been in Roman, people have been in Roman, New England, college, and right now people are like, hold on, I don't really need to invent a new snack. I can just get my own snack. Yes. We're going to eat it anyway. Think about it.

We know when we was in the ghetto that was a meal for us. When our parents come home, you happy to have those noodles. You like, okay. Because my dog loves noodles. Exactly. So, because I think it's amazing. I mean, you look at what you've been able to do.

And I want to, let me ask you this. Do you believe had your career, had you become an NBA player like you had dreamed? Would any of this have been possible? Because I don't know. I don't know, P. I think this forced you to become what you became. Yeah.

Because I believe you would have been devoted most of your time to honing your craft of being a great NBA player. And you wouldn't have had the time to do this. So I think this is a blessing and a curse yeah this is this this is a blessing for me because i won't i wouldn't be able to feed the people i'm able to feed now i wouldn't be able to do the things just on an nba salary and uh a thing that god closed those doors and it made me come up with something else to start realizing you know that i need to do something else and And that product outweighs talent.

Cause I was always wanting to do it with my talent and what God showed me, this stuff would be around even when I'm not around. And that's the difference. Like we got to think like that. That's when you're thinking bigger. That's when you can help more people. You can feed more people. And I look at a lot of NBA guys because once you make it, you know, you can help your family and the people around you. It's hard to go and say, wow, I can help other families. I can help other people. And with this, I can. I can give more people opportunities. I can

create more millionaires. This is a blessing for me. And I looked at it and I said that with product, we're going to be able to feed countries. It's not just us no more. We're going to be able to feed families that are starving in Africa, overseas, international, all these different places, because we could put this brand everywhere. And like you said, it's a blessing. I mean, because, you know, when you're in the NBA and everything don't go the way you want it to go and you got to leave and come back home and start over, you start thinking you just want that other shot to get back.

But, you know, we definitely got to take some time and start thinking about our futures. And that's my thing is teaching this generation how to be more than just athletes and entertainers. You know know like these business people that own these companies that own these leads that own these teams they yeah if they could write you a check for 200 million dollars what do you think they work exactly p i if i'm you know what i believe I believe that you worked harder,

not that you didn't work hard at your NBA career, but I believe you worked harder because you didn't want what happened at the NBA to happen in this region. Because sometimes you can be the right package, but you arrived at the wrong destination. So the package that you had had to go to the right destination.

And the right destination was music. The right destination were products. That's what your calling was. You didn't know it at the time, but that's what the calling was. Yeah, I mean, but that's how God will work because you'll be so caught up into, you know, what you got to do and you don't want to feel that you don't want to start over. But God will have a bigger door for you.

And it's definitely a blessing for me, and I'm thankful. It'll humble you on the way through your journey. But, I mean, that's what life is about. You just have to get up. That's why I'm telling you about the failure part. You have to get up and just keep going, you know, instead of sitting around depressed, upset at yourself and letting the haters tell you you're done you know this is when you get up and you go harder

and like they always say you go hard to go home you know i'm saying and it's like when you come from where we come from it ain't no going back to them but just feed the kids the community and the elderly in that because that's how i look at it. Yeah, I'm going back. I go back a lot, but it's because I have a purpose, something to do. You know, I got to do my part. It's not that I'm going back there to live because that ain't what I work hard to say.

I got to keep growing. I got to keep getting better. Yeah, that go hard to go home wasn't working for me because I did everything I possibly could to get out of home. I wasn't trying to go back. I'll go back to visit, but I ain't trying to leave. Yeah. Look, man, I had Ricky Williams on last week,

and you opened up a sports agency business, and Ricky was your first client. Yeah. What would you have done? Because obviously that didn't work out the way you had hoped. What did you learn about that situation, and what would you have done differently knowing what you know now? So I'm gonna tell you one thing that you talked to Ricky is nothing I could do differently because that was Ricky Church. Nobody never wanted to say that.

They finally said it on a documentary. What Ricky told me was look, it's either you gonna get this deal done for me, I'm gonna go to the white man and get this deal done because I need this money. you gonna get this deal done for me i'm gonna go to the white man and get this deal done because i need this money he wanted the incentives and he wanted the upfront money which he got a lot of money up front that a lot of athletes didn't get in that time right and um it's just a business decision that had to be done which which was the truth that's the way he wanted to do it and you got to look at it for me i've always let people be their own boss ricky was the boss of what he what he need to do but we caught a lot of flack because we black guys that's in that business that that scared david falk and all those other companies that how could we get a

heisman trophy just getting in the game and that's that's because the loyalty the community and people knowing that that we're going to do what you want to do. You're the boss. Be honest with you. And that's what people don't realize. That's how I treat people. Well, that's the truth. You know what I'm saying? An agent can say, well, I think we should hold out and

ask for this. But at the end of the day, that agent worked for me. I tell you what to do. You don't tell me. I'm paying you. You're not paying me. But think about this. Ricky Williams was a kid coming out of college. Yes. Back then.

And to this day, college, you know, even when I played in college, we get $400 a month. Everybody wearing your jersey. You have no money. Your mom has no money. Let's be honest. This kid to get $8 million to $12 million up front, knowing that he might get hurt, he's like, I want to take that money.

Right. And I've got the Saints owner, Benson, to give him that, which nobody else wouldn't do that. And it's all about having relationships and resources. Man, Benson was like this. Benson was like, get me Ricky Williams. I'm going to give him whatever you want. I'll give him the upfront money.

And that's what he was able to get. And it happened. And so everybody else looked at it what it was able to get. And it happened. And so everybody else looked at it like it was a bad deal, but it wasn't. Ricky had a lot of other issues going on, you know, with his own personal life and it showed throughout the time, but at least he was able to get that money up front to be able to, to live a better life for him and his family. So, I mean, like you say, go and do stuff for a reason. And I think people wanted to find an out

to make us look bad, but not looking at that. If Ricky would have did that with a white agent, what would they say about it? Because that's what he wanted to do. He was going to do it with any of those guys he was going to be with. That's what he wanted. And this was a guy that had his mind made up.

And if you talk to Ricky, you know, he a guy that know what he wanted. And this was a guy that had his mind made up. And if you talk to Rick, you know, he a guy that know what he want. Right. So in other words, but see, in him doing that, it did irreparable harm to you because it made it seem like you didn't know what the hell you was doing and you were out there doing bad deals. When in actuality, he say either P, you get the deal done, or I'm going to take it to this corporation, this white corporation, and they'll get it done. So you've got no choice.

Well, you've got no choice now but to get the deal done. Yes. And that's life. I mean, that's business. It's not personal. It's business. And that's what he wanted. And I think, you know, however it worked out, I mean, that's his career.

And that's what was told. Experts told him that. He had agents that worked for the company that told him, like, this is not a good deal to do, but it's a good deal for money-wise if you need the money. And you got to imagine most of us getting out of college, we need the money. We need the money. We need the money.

So they don't say whatever they want. We already got mama and grandma in the house. We already got a Range Rover. We already got a Mercedes. We got a Rolex. Back then, Versace was the thing. We already wearing Versace, so we need that paper. Yeah.

And guess what? A lot of white athletes don't have to go through that. No. No. And that's sad, but we don't talk about that. We just try to stereotype and make up stuff just for the press and the media. But, I mean, any real media people could look through that and say, wow, you know, after Rick and William said it, it's only documentary.

He said it. He said it. It wasn't you. It was him. Because he said, I want to earn my money. And in actuality, earning your money, this is too dangerous of a game to tie up that much money in incentives. You're not playing basketball.

You're not playing baseball. Football is like... And that was told to him, but you know what he said? It's like any of us. If we know what we want to do and the reason why we want it to happen like that, we're going to get it done the way we want it done.

Like, I think in his career at that time, nobody was getting eight to twelve million dollars up front to play football guaranteed money like as soon as i sign i'm going to get eight to twelve million dollars nobody was doing it that's a lot of money for a football player right so he was looking at it well maybe my career is three years i'm gonna make what two million a year whatever like that's only six million dollars if i played three years and if i get hurt or whatever he's like if i take this money up front and i can go start a business do all these other things but you really have to be prepared to be a boss to do that right because

you know after that time when you don't reach these incentives then what you're going to have to fall back on and those are the type of things that was told to him, but he was like, you know what? That sounds good, but we poor right now. We need that money. You mentioned that a lot of white athletes don't have to endure because my thing was I grew up in the 80s. I was born in

68, grew up in the 70s and 80s. We didn't have indoor plumbing. We didn't have running water. So you actually think that the first chance I get some money, I'm trying to get 15,000 square feet, or I'm trying to get something bigger. Let me tell you something. When I got to college, when I got to college, my coach at Houston said, why are you smiling so much, son?

I said, coach, because I got my own bed. You know, I was sleeping on the floor the whole time. I lived with my grandparents. So I never had a bed until I got to college. So the coach was like man i love this kid he home when he gonna ball he's gonna go i was happy to you know what i'm saying like to have my own bed so imagine that go to college and you get to go and you ain't got to go outside to go to the bathroom you getting three good meals a day man i ain't going y'all think i'm about to

flunk out of here you think i'm about to go back home and not get three meals a day and have to go outside and use the bathroom and watch in the tub? Y'all must be out your mind. Man, let me tell you something. The guy broke in our house. We chased him up the street like, man, you must have came to give us something because we ain't got nothing to give. Y'all did him like, like, said like a, a, a, a,

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But think about this. You were ahead of your time Pete because there are a lot of guys now you see Jay-Z has started Rock Nation and his own label. You were ahead of your time. There are a lot of guys that are doing what you did damn near 20 years ago.

Yeah. And it's a blessing, to be honest with you. But when you do right, like I said, all this stuff will come in. Nobody's really doing what I'm doing now. And it's all because of what I was able to do in the past and learn from that, learn from those mistakes. And like I say, learn from those failures and just keep going.

But when you look at it right now, I mean, I look at it. So imagine, Shannon, nobody really looked at this and I'm going to do a basketball documentary next because I want people to see that I didn't just go to the NBA. I went to the CBA. I had to go to all type of those type of coaches to get to the league, to get 10-day call-ups. It's different now. Like I had to go get off in the CBA to get a 10-day call-up. So people don't know that I went to Dallas. I went to Denver.

I went to Sacramento. I went to all those teams on 10-day. But, you know, you had to stick. I was out there with the Moch and nars with with with with the uh i mean it was just so many great players but you know so i had to go through john lucas john lucas in houston if you could survive john lucas training in the summer you could go to the league because john lucas gonna make you quit it and once i survived that playing with the Nick Van Nexels and the Sam Cassell, I knew that I was ready.

But I also, when I look back at it, imagine me. I had my own sports agency. I had some of the top NBA players that I had put into the league. So you know I easily could have did a package deal if I really just wanted to. I tried to do it the right way. I went on my talent. Like I could have been in the league for at least three to five years,

just on package deals. If that's what I wanted, but I did it the right way and it all worked out. And I think that's how God works. And I think these blessings is going to be even bigger because I did it the right way and I'm able to see it. I can help more people. So it's not about me. I can look at these contracts. I can look at a kid and say, you know what? You won't get to the league. They're going to take you away from your family.

They're going to turn you against your friends, all this stuff. And then when it's over for you, nobody going to speak to you again. And they say, well, how do you know that? I know from experience. I watch kids that that I put into the league. And I understand this. Because the first thing they do, you know, when you come from the hood, they don't want you to be around your people no more. Correct. And so think about it.

Who is not going to take care of their mother or their father? Which, you know, we see these stories all the time. Like, my mom and my dad took me to AAU practice, took me to all these different things. And then once I make it and I don't help them, like how do you expect to have blessings? Yeah, you ain't having no good over there. You see what I'm saying?

My thing is to these kids, because you know, once they get you around this fortune and fame, they make you forget about where you came from. But they come on the tilling. They come when it's good. My thing is trying to educate these kids and show them when it was bad, where were these people?

Now we got to hold them accountable because they come when it's up. I told one of my guys the other day, I said, yeah, are you best friends with your financial advisor? You know why? Because you're successful. Let's see you lose all this and see if that's still going to be your best friend.

Hey, P, I tell, look here, my grandmother and my mother didn't drive me to one practice. But I tell you what, my mom gave me life and my grandmother gave me everything but life. And so, if you're there in the beginning, you're going to be there in the end. I don't get how some of these guys, like, they make it out and then they abandon their family.

I could not do that in good conscience. Yeah. Yeah, we got we got to check but we have to keep educating them and showing them the right way. Because they say money is the root of all evil. And it's the love for money. The love for money. Yeah. I'm reading you got a scholarship to Louisville. And when you were coming out of high school, Louisville was one of the preeminent programs in all the college basketball. But you walked to the University of Houston. Why?

Because I feel like it wasn't right. A lot of stuff was going on in my family. And I was I felt like this was the right place I had family in Houston so I decided to go Houston and it made me who I am today because it's like what I was able to do at Houston in the relationships and you know like we used to go back and play Clyde in uh in uh in in in the dream. So I seen them at one of our alumni games last year. And it just, you know, Ricky Winslow, Big Caddy, you know, all these dudes coming. And when we came back together, nobody knew that I was going to make it in music.

So they all looking at me like, boy, you did something with your life. But we never knew because I never was into the music in practice and none of that type of stuff because I was focused on being the best basketball player in and I just think that Houston really showed me a lot for us you know the whole team atmosphere and and I think it was it was the right place for me I mean mean, I turned down LSU. I had Dale Brown come into the project, recruit me, John Thompson. And so that was the right fit for me. You know, Houston, because, you know, my coach was like,

no, you running gun, you can shoot the ball. So I learned how to shoot with no lights. We had no lights in the project, so I had to listen for the nets. So I was always the job shooter, you know. I'm looking at you. You mentioned some of the leagues that you played in, the ABA, CBA, IBL, NBA. You averaged 24 points a game in 2004,

the ABA, Las Vegas Rattlers. Played in the preseason for the Charlotte Hornets, Toronto Raptors. And you played with some great players. You played with Vince Carter, Charles Oakley, the Toronto team. You mentioned Tracy McGrady. Tracy McGrady Tracy McGrady

yeah I mean I remember you doing an interview and you said I'm good enough to make it is whether or not they can look past Master P and give me a fair shake well people got to realize

Master P was so big and my music was so big even my music was so big, even at Charlotte. I mean, I did a hell of a job there. But, you know, Bob Bass, the GM, said, man, your music is pure filth. And then another thing, he knew I was a tough guy, right? He said, why are you not scared of Anthony Mason? I said, sir, I'm not scared of no man. He said, well, I'm scared of Anthony Mason. And I don't know why you're not scared.

So me and Anthony Mason ended up being friends, but we got into it when I first came here. He's from New York. I'm from New Orleans. You know, God bless the dead. Like that was my dude. But when we first got there, Anthony Mason was a bully. I'm on a team with Anthony Mason, Derrick Coleman and B.J. Armstrong, you know, Dale Kirkwood. And so when I get in the training camp, Andy Mason said, don't nobody

touch me. Telling all the rookies, you know, nobody touch me in practice or you're going to have a problem. So you know me being from New Orleans. Soon as I went up for a shot, I hit him. He like, little man, this dude about 6'10", I'm 6'4". He like, little man, this dude about 6'10". I'm 6'4".

He like, little man, we're going to fight after the press. He said, no, bro, fight right now. We got to fight right now. And he started saying, man, I like you. You tough. And we ended up being friends after that. But, you know, me just setting the stage. Because I asked coach.

I said, coach, what happened if we get into it? Coach said, whatever happened in the gym, stay in the gym. the gym so I'm like well I got tested a couple times even in Toronto you know I'm a rookie so the rookies always supposed to carry the bags and I'm like you know me all out there with Charles Oakland that was my dog man me. Me and Oakland, we, you know, we was on it. So it was like when we come to town, it was like, man. And so they wanted me to carry the bags. I said, I can't carry the bags. I'm a super rookie.

So I never carried the bags. You know, I ain't going to say no name, but one of the players did try, you know, because everybody from the hood, but you know, we played basketball. And that, I don't think that went too good for him. After that, I ain't never had to carry the bags. Nobody never asked me. But P, you know, you already know,

if you're a younger player, they gonna try you. They gonna see how far they can go with you. Now, if you let it slide, because you know in sports, it's kind of like anything. It's a prison mentality. It's a serengeti mentality. No, they'll put shaving cream in your face. I set the rules straight when I got there. I said,

look, man, I come here to work to get better. I'm not coming to play, so don't play them games with me. I ain't trying to do that. And they got it, but I did have to make an example so they can understand that they're not going to keep playing them rookie games with me. So, you know, it's a lot.

You're right. Playing basketball with people I don't know how it is now, but back then you had real guys from hoods in these leagues. So it was always looking for the next tough guy who going to run the team or whatever. And I'm like, man, this almost like being in prison. Yeah, yeah.

It's a mentality that you got to stand up for yourself. And sometimes Pete, you got to be willing, you got to fight even though you might not can beat the guy, but you got to stand up for yourself because if you don't, they'll continuously run over you. And I used to tell them I went to college. I said, look here, I didn't come to fight, but I didn't come to lose either. So how are we going to do this? Yeah.

You know we're going to fight. No matter what. Yeah. Hey, so this doesn't, the basketball thing doesn't work, it doesn't work out. How the hell, considering that you were not in the music, you weren't doing anything in the music, how the hell you get to the music business

from basketball when you, that wasn't a part of it to begin with? Well, I got hurt at Houston. And you know, back then, they take the scholarships away from you. Like, there's no use for you. So when they took that scholarship away from my grandfather,

said, you can't sit in this house. You got to do something. But I didn't even know if I was going to be able to walk after that no more. And I just started listening to music and getting into it. And then I had a son. I had Romeo. And I'm like, I got to get away.

I went to California. And I opened up a record store. And I watched all these people stand in line. I'm like, I'm going to start my own little company. So I opened up this little small mom and pop record store called No Limit Records. And I started realizing, watching the people, what they was buying and what they liked. I'm like, man, I have a story to tell. So not only I own the store and I understand the whole customer service part of this but also I realized that I have a story to tell and I wanted to I wanted to put the south on the map because at that time you had two pot biggest small everybody was the east coast west coast

you had a little bit of the ghetto boys and uncle luke and I'm and I'm like but as far as the music in the south going to the east coast and the west coast it was just a little bit of and I'm like nah I gotta represent and so I just started doing music and I started going on the road cause Tupac used to come into my store and so I started going on the road

with them and then one day they let me open up for them and the rest was history after that. Wow. I mean, just like that. But you open up a music store and then not only say, you know, but you had to have bigger dreams than just running a music store, the operating store or storefront.

Yeah. Now what happened was when Tupac, Tushar, E-Fort, all those guys was coming to put their records in my store's own consignment. And when it was coming in, I started thinking, I'm from New Orleans. All the stuff I done been through.

You're thinking about Hustle. You got a Hustle going. Yeah, I did. That's what happened. I'm like, I need to put this into, you know, put my story into. Then I start calling my brothers. I'm like, man, let's start this group. And it just all went from there. It was hard because think about it.

I didn't have the major companies behind me. So I'll be sitting in the lobby, like we talked about earlier, waiting on these record people to come to the table to try to get my music on the radio stations. And sometimes it didn't work because I didn't sound like nobody in the West Coast. So it seemed like it was a failure, but it was different, but it was unique. And that uniqueness, once I got bigger, it took me to be able to sell over 100 million records. You mentioned that you moved to California. Your grandfather passed.

You got a $10,000 settlement. And you flipped it in the millions. Normally, people get the kind of money that's really never had money. They blow it. Why were you so caught? Why were you like, you had an idea of what you wanted to do with that money once you got it. And blowing it wasn't bad.

Yeah. Well, my thing was, I knew I could have went brought a car yeah I know I could have brought some jewelry and I'm saying you know by going to college I'm like I need to invest into a business so I could have some money all the time and that's what I did and when I when I found that record store uh I invested back into myself and I think people got to realize you are your most important investment because you know what you want you know what you like and when I was able to do that you know you're going to be passionate about something because you love this it's like basketball I put my hard work in best because I love it same thing in in music. I love it, and I love doing it. So you find a business, you got to find a problem. The problem was, first,

you didn't see nobody had hip-hop stores in music. They had R&B stores, and they had gospel stores in the Black community, but it was no hip- hop breakfast store. And when I found that problem, I'm like, I'm going to take this 10,000 and turn it into something. I didn't know what I was going to turn it into, but I took that 10,000 and turned it into a business and it just kept growing. So what was your business model? Because like you said, you went to college, but if I'm not mistaken, you had never owned a business at that point in time, correct? No, I haven't.

But what I did was I started going to the library and researching. Okay. And I think that's the part that education is so important. Like you have to research, you have to do your due diligence to know exactly what you're getting into, the ups, the downs, how you're going to get distribution, where you're going to get your products from, all those things. So I didn't just jump into it. I started going to the library.

I mean, I started spending so much time at the library. The lady at the library was like, you know, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm trying to understand about this music business. I want to know everything about it. And I think, you know, it's almost like playing basketball. People say, you know, what makes you good? Your basketball IQ, your football IQ, you know, like you really have to invest into the education part of it. And that's what I did. I started really getting out there saying, let me know how these record companies work for the stores, the retail. And then when I got into putting my own music out, I started going back to the library,

studying contracts, how to negotiate contracts, all those types of different things. And so I think the education part, me willing to learn. The most important thing is knowing that you don't know everything. That's the greatest thing for me. I'm like, I don't know. So only way I could be an expert, i got to go through it and experience it but right now i don't know and i tell people all the time don't be afraid to say you don't know what was one of the things that you learned in the street that you were able to bring to business that helped you become successful in business well not to let nobody take advantage of you.

And you have to stand up for yourself. And that's what the streets taught me. And I think it worked for me because most business people only have just the business side or the education side, but to see both sides. But, you know, even the streets taught me how to keep your word and have an integrity. And I think that took me a long way in business because once I was able to leave that life behind and understand what corporate America, you know, is all about, I wanted to take that same drive and hustle and grind with me to corporate America, but

positive. And I think that's what saved my life because I never was about trying to take advantage of somebody. It's just like, I just want my piece. Whatever my fair share is, that's what I want. And I don't care what it is. If it's $10, I want my $10. I want all 10.

Don't try to give me $8. Don't try to give me $5. That's it. Give me all of what I've learned. Yeah, I mean, it is all about, you know, the principle is what matters. And I think that's the difference. And if you look at it, too, a lot of guys from the streets, you know, it was a chain of command back then.

We don't have that no more. Right. You know, now, you know, like even when I was playing basketball, even when I lived in the worst neighborhoods, they knew Percy Miller, a basketball player, man, y'all don't do nothing to him. Y'all let him know of something. Right.

Like, man, a lot of these kids dying, like they killing off all the greatest talent that we have. I mean, I seen a 6'11 kid get shot and killed down in Compton, a 6'9 kid. And it's like these kids were just in high school. These kids are going to be the future to come back to take care of the community. That's what I want to be able to pass that down. Like we got to preserve the kids in our blocks, in our communities. Like we can't keep killing the talent because who going to come back and take care. Right. It's kind of like, you see that in the, in the music industry industry. Yeah. You see it's big in Tupac and now you see all these young guys are like pop

smoking all these other guys. I'm like, wait a minute. Where did that was? That wasn't going on in the eighties. That wasn't, that wasn't supposed to happen. It's not supposed to happen. Like those guys are supposed to be the gold standard. You're supposed to look out for them. They're supposed to protected yeah they they gonna take care of everybody now you look at it even like the nipsey hustles who's gonna take care of the community now this guy put everything into taking care of the community and we just get rid of him and so that's my whole thing is about educating our culture so we can know we have to preserve the people that's

going to take care of the community and that's what they did back in the days you know that they did that back in the days you had to go talk to somebody before you could even think about getting into a fight with somebody right and you looked at you looked out for everybody in the community like if you knew somebody oh that's such and such grandma all right we're not i knew a lot of guys that did a lot of things but that's such and such grandma. I knew a lot of guys that did a lot of things, but that's such and such grandma. We can't break in her house. And that's such and such. We can't do, you know, we can't do things like that. Now it seems like this generation, they don't even care. I don't care who it is. Yeah. But you know what it is, Shannon? It's drugs, man.

Drugs is really took an open. We don't want to talk about this. And I was talking to a warden uh in the prison and he said 90 of these guys in here is over drugs and a lot of these guys are good people but they don't even know half of the stuff they was doing why they was committing these crimes i said wow it it really is it's a it's a it's a drug thing you mentioned that Tupac from E40, as a matter of fact, I'm going to have E40 on my show in the coming days. You mentioned that they came into your store

and somehow you became friends with Tupac and Tupac let you on the road and you opened up. How do you know that happened? I mean, you know what? I'm probably the only guy, the young guy in the community, they didn't even know it was my store. They're like, this your dad's store? Some people, they didn't believe me.

I'm like, yeah, this is my dad's store. You know, but I think the guys was just, I mean, even with E-40. So I really learned the music industry from E-40 uncle, St. Charles. So St. Charles ended up showing me how to distribute my music throughout the whole Bay Area. And I mean, it was just a lot of young people that had hustle back then in the Bay Area from Too Short to E-40. I mean, I could go on and on. I mean, Spice One. It was like there was a lot of young hustlers back then. And I think I was able to get my drive and hustle from them and having them around and I mean it was it was just that era it was that era that the Bay Area people

for his music they always thought out the bit out the box and always came up with their own language and everything I mean even 40 some of the stuff I didn't even understand. E-40, you know, E-40 was repping fast back then. Back then. But guess what? Everybody could sing it word for word. Everybody knew. If, P, you mentioned, nobody to this day has E-40

flow. You look at two stories. That bass style is very unique to that area. That area. And to this day, nobody has ever been able to comprehend and be able to show you. He's all to the goat, man. Let me show you something. So this is my dog.

So, you know, I had to put E-40 on these rabbits. Yeah, that's E-40. That's my dog. He's a good dude. He coming on. And he got Kanye, Tycoon. Yeah. He be doing cooking.

He got Parthen pan, the goon with a spoon. 40, he definitely a mogul. But you know what? 40 was able to diversify his portfolio. And I got a lot of respect for him for that, knowing that we're not going to be able to do this entertainment stuff forever and just like

you know you can't do football forever you know what I'm saying and I think that now we realizing that we need to get us something else to keep it going hey hold on you mean to tell me you ain't going to be Mick Jagger up on stage you ain't going to be 70 years old nah

I'm good to tell me you ain't gonna be Mick Jagger up on stage? You ain't gonna be 70 years old? Nah. I'm good. I'm gonna be selling these products. That's what I'm gonna be doing. You mentioned that debate and then you leave the debate and you head back to New Orleans. Why'd you go back to the booth? Because I realized that

I need to put my city on the map and that's why I went back. I went back to show these kids that we can do it. We don't have to say we from the East Coast or the West Coast. We could actually be proud to be from New Orleans, be proud to be from the South and be able to compete with everybody. And that's what I realized. When I realized that, I knew I had to go back home.

You mentioned it, and it's been very documented. And you spoke about it, that how you would drive around and you would sell CDs out the trunk of your car. Give us some of the stories. I mean, do you like, man, what the hell am I doing? Is this thing going to ever pay off for me? Or were you like, I'm going to make this work? Yeah. You know, I realized I went in one neighborhood. I went to South central and I was trying to sell all my tapes and CDs out the trunk of my car because Eazy-E had took me to the swap meet.

And I was able to sell CDs there, right? And so I'm hyped up now. But I end up in the wrong neighborhood. And I got the wrong cologne. It was like, man, what you doing, man? I said, I'm trying to sell these CDs. Little bitty guy, I say, sir, I don't want no trouble trying to sell these CDs.

He said, what kind of CD? You got to take that shirt off first. You know what I'm saying? I said, no problem with that. You know, I took the- They got you in a Feli-fidi with no shirt? Look, so, you know, I'm not used to the whole gang thing. So I'm not, you know, I took that shirt off quick though.

He said, how much you want for that? That CD? I said, I want $20. He said, I'll give you 10. I said, yes, sir. He said, it better be good. This guy, he had his gun in his hand. So I'm like, I'm already stuck.

Right. So I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, maybe I got to think about where I'm going before I get in these places. So that, that definitely taught me a lot, but it was good. He ended up liking the music, you know, he ended up liking the music. You, you, you mentioned that one time you ran out of gas, you got pulled over, you fell asleep. Well, I mean, cause I think the thing is now P is that everybody sees where you are but a lot very few people got an opportunity to see the journey

that helped get you where you are because all they see is this they never saw that yeah and i think i think that's what life is about you know people always think they know but they really don't know because they see you or not but i mean i come from a poor place. I come from not having nothing. I mean, I could remember going to the store with my family and just thinking, wow, if I could get me some Oreo cookies, you know, being hungry. And I think that people don't see that. But, you know, for the ones that understand, I want to show them that you could come out of nothing. But you got to keep working. You got to outwork everybody.

And that's what I did. I mean, consistency is what's going to get you to your dreams and your goals. I just kept going. It's like I know I'm not where I need to be at, but let me keep working. Let me get better. Let me get to my destination. And it's even bigger than what I could even imagine. It's just by keep working. Let me get better. Let me get to my destination, man. And it's even bigger than what I could even imagine.

It's just by keep going. The distribution deal with Priority Records. And I think you had Michael Jackson, an attorney working with you. And I'm looking at this. It's like, you got an 85-15 deal. Now, if you have success, like you think you're gonna have success they probably gave you that deal not thinking you were gonna be able to generate the kind of success and it's gonna be that 80 but lo and behold you generate millions and millions

hundreds of millions and now they're like oh what have we done yeah Yeah. Well, they thought that, you know, for one, I'm a kid from New Orleans. They thought with this kid come off the streets, what's going to happen? He probably going to live six months. So this is going to be a great deal for them. Right. And they know that I came to change my life. I came to be better. I came to leave that life behind and I was going to get out there and work and go market and do what I need to do to blow those records up.

And that's what I did. I was everywhere. I'm jumping on planes. I'm jumping in vans, driving. You know, sometimes, Shannon, I'm putting my own posters up. I was in New York. The guy was like, is that you? I said, no, dog.

What you think, Master P going to be out here? I'm putting posters up for this dude. I'm from the South. We all look alike. So, you know, you gotta go hard if you believe. You know, but nobody else believes. And you know, New York has an ordinance, no posted signs.

So you gotta be careful where you actually put your signs up at. Yeah, yeah. So let me ask you a question, Pete. Yeah. So how did you know to work this deal? So what was because obviously he's Michael Jackson attorney. He's been at this for quite a while.

And he understands because Michael ended up having some problems with Sony Records. And some of the bigger entertainers had issues with their record company. So you go in so you kind of had an idea where you wanted to go how you wanted this thing to be uh percentage wise yeah what i did was i went in humble and willing to learn and so that's what any artist that's listening to any entertainer or actor athlete and humble, go in to learn, get educated. This guy told me that Michael Jackson made the most money out of every artist in the world. And he had a 22% deal.

And so I said to him, well, what's the deal bigger than Michael Jackson? He told me, he said, you'll get 85% in a rec company, get 15% as a distribution deal. But I don't think they'll do that with you. But you're going to need 200,000 of marketing money if you're going to get that type of deal. So nobody goes into a record company willing to give up $200,000 to promote their product. And that's what I did. So once I knew that, that's why I started selling the CDs at the trunk of my car. When I made enough money, that's when I went at the deal, knowing that I can handle the marketing and promotion for this product. And plus, I was going to go hit the road myself. So once I was educated to that information.

So it's all about information, educating yourself, having the right resources. And I think that's where business starts. It don't start on the success of the business. You got to have a plan and you got to have a plan of action. So a lot of people, they don't have that. So they just think, you know, some people think, oh, I'm going to get this record deal. I'm going to sell millions of records. The record company told me after I came up with 200,000,

they told me they was going to be happy. If I sold 10,000 units, we're going to be popping bottles. And I'm like 10,000 units. I already put a lot of money into this. So I'm already thinking I got to go work harder. So I was like an athlete. So that's where the basketball thing come in from for me. So I'm like, I need to go out and work these guys. So I'm like, if you got Ice Cube, Jay-Z,

all these guys was on the label at the time, Eazy-E. I'm like, if you got them,, Jay-Z, all these guys was on the label at the time. Eazy-E. I'm like, if you got them, how many units they selling? And I'm trying to watch and see where they at. They out in the clubs? Are they out in the marketplace? What they doing? I'm saying, if they out one place, I need to be 10 places.

If they product is not in these places, my product need to be there but who gonna put it up i gotta go put it up i gotta go they gotta put the work in and so all the places they didn't want to go i'm going like all these little small towns i'm like no i got to hit these small town these small spots and that's basically how i did it not being afraid to to to outwork the next guy it's almost like sports. I got there from the whole, you know, playing basketball, that mentality. You got to outwork the next man. I got to outwork the next man.

The man might be more talented than me, but I can do something about that working. I mean, look at the people I had on the label. You had Eazy-E, you had Ice Cube, you had Jay-Z, you had Scarface and the Ghetto Boys. All these people was on priority records at that time. Wow. So after you start blowing up and you get bigger and bigger, did you ever have a problem with priority?

You tried to break it. It's like, oh, hold on, man. We might need to rework this deal. No, I never had a problem with it. I never had a problem with it. Like I had the best deal. Think about it. It's nobody had a problem with them. I never had a problem with them. Like, I had the best deal. Think about it. Because nobody had a deal like I had.

So I just had to keep on moving until I kept growing and growing and growing and getting better and trying to figure out other things. And I wanted to get into the movie business. I started putting my own films up where they told me you can't do that. One time I had 20 records on Billboard at one time. And they said, the most me you can't do that i won and one time i had 20 records on billboard at one time they say that i can't the most records you can put out is two i say no i own the company i put out however many i want and that's what i did so we made history at the time because we did stuff that they didn't think could happen and i think that i mean you got to think

out the box and that's so that's how you control your destination is through ownership. And so by me owning 85% of the company, I could do whatever I wanted to do. You mentioned, but also a lot of that has to do with radio airplay. How do you get DJs in these different markets to play your songs, your music? So I did what a lot of people should be doing right now i brought djs jackets i always brought the no limit jackets t-shirts i went into the marketplace appreciated them showing them that

i appreciate them i showed up showed up at day events i made their events bigger and i think a lot of artists don't they don't want to do that they just hide behind a computer like i'm actually going out touching these people in their marketplace doing free parties for them and now they are playing my music everywhere every time they come into the club because nobody else is going to do that think about it the other big stars are not going to come to these marketplace places for the dj the dj is the most important role in the music business to me. You mentioned the 85-15 split that you got, and there's something called a 360 deal. Can you explain that to the people at home, the difference between the type of deal you got versus the conventional deal that all the other artists were doing at the time? Yeah, I mean, if you got a deal like I made, then you control everything. A 360 deal, they eat off of everything you got and they control you.

And that's probably the worst deal that you could have, which a lot of artists have it. And I know a lot of people don't want to work and put the hard work that I was able to put in. But, you know, you got to decide. Do you want a distribution deal? Do you want to own your company? Or do you want to be a worker. A 360 deal, it makes you a worker. So you don't control nothing. And everything you do, they get a piece of it. And so that's why I try to educate our culture to that. And guess what? A distribution

deal is not for everybody. Like I said, being a boss is not for everybody. Because a lot of us come from the ghetto. You got to work, though. The deal is, you got to work. You got to hit the road. You got to work. You got to decide what you want to do. So you got to look at it. Even if you look at right now in the movie business, Will Smith and Denzel Washington make 20

mil a movie. And my thing is to them, I'm thinking, how come you don't make your own movies? But everybody, you know, they just starting to do that. But I'm just saying, when they was super hot, that, you know, you get cool at, okay, well, I'm good at making a 20-millimeter movie, but you

see what they done grew into. Imagine when they first started, and that's my thing. I was even trying to show Spike Lee that. I'm like, man, you know, you older than me, and you know the business, but imagine if instead of going to these people because you already have a fan base for these urban movies so if you just made the movies yourself imagine how much bigger I mean Spike Lee should probably

be like Disney or somebody but the black version you know what I'm saying yeah but we we don't we don't want to accept that it's going to take a lot of work. It's not going to be pampering. So the difference with my career, I didn't get all the nice trailers. I didn't get the private jets and all that stuff. I'm working. I'm in and out of planes, regular planes, because I got to get there. I've got to keep the budget down, all this type of stuff,

because this is my money I'm spending. These guys are spending other people money, but it also makes you lazy, too, at the same time. And so you've got to look at that. And like I said, being a boss is not for everybody, because you've got to take care of everybody. It's a difference. There's a lot more responsibility. And I get it.

Some people just want the pampering. It's like, but guess what? The pampering is going to stop when it don't work. So I was able to keep going, because I don't have nobody saying we got to drop feet from the label because he's not selling the records he used to sell no it's like i could grow move on get into something else and keep going but if you look at it this is like the entertainment where they dropping people all the time so when you're not good enough it it's like sports. That's why I say product always sound. Sports.

You was one of the best at it, but when you can't run and jump like you used to, you go on. They already look at five years. They're already looking for you. When you're the top dog, they looking for somebody else. I mean, this is what we're going to bring in for Shannon.

But if you knew that five years ago, you would have been thinking a whole different way. Right. And so that's the part we got to educate this culture to the ones that want to listen. Cause they got some, I'm thinking, Oh, well, you know what? I'm going to be bigger than Pete. It ain't about being bigger than me. Because think about it at the end of the day, if you just got a record deal or 360 bill, you never going to be bigger than me because the money you making is going to

be controlled by them. And they control them where you go and what you do. That's why they give you a big check up for it. Now you got to be, don't be worried about being bigger than Pete, be smarter than Pete. You got to understand. That's what I want you to do. And all you got to do is stop and ask me for that information. I'm going to give it to you because I want you to be, I want you to not have to make the mistakes I made made but i can't do nothing if you just want to

go on your own as a lot of these artists let me tell you something so i was trying to show these guys like right now that if they did the right deals with the way social media and all this stuff is going these guys would be bigger than me, but they got the wrong deal. So they're going, instead of putting the work in, the same work you're putting in for the record company, imagine if somebody put that in for their own company, what it's going to be. Because you have the power.

Once you got a hit record, you can sell anything. Right. Right. How did you go about negotiating to getting your your music in like walmart kmart circus how did you do with that because it is it's not easy to deal with corporate america yeah in the business that you're in selling what you're selling yeah well you know what you have to go in there on a diversity side first, but then showing them that your product is bigger than just black America.

Like you have product for the world. Like I make music and product for human beings. So once I got in, I had to explain that to them. Like, don't just put me in a box because I'm like any other businessman that comes in there. Like my product is for the world. My product is not just for African-Americans. My product is for everybody.

And when I make my music and I make my product, but it's owned by me. So the imbalance is that you guys should want to add some diversity into Walmart, into Target, into all these other stores, the Kroger's. And by doing that, you got to give us an opportunity and I think that's the way we got to think like we also have to educate those buyers because they just don't know and I think that's what I was able to do I was able to educate them to show them my strategy and my plan and then where we at right now in the world I mean I feel like we have to take advantage of these times right now to get product into these stores, to add some balance and some diversity.

P, if you own your own company, so you got to set up these meetings, right? Yeah. Yeah, I got to set the meetings up. I got to be on time. I got to do the Zoom calls. I got to show up. And when you own your company, I mean, that's what it's going to be. Now, if I just wanted to go work for somebody, I could just chill. But I don't get no time to chill because I want to build generational wealth. Right.

Snoop Dogg. Tell the people the difference between negotiating with Suge Knight and negotiating with corporate America. You know what, to be honest with you, though, I think it was easier negotiating with Suge Knight than negotiating with corporate America because he already knew what he wanted. In corporate America, you got to sit around the table with 20 different people that has their own idea or an expectation. So it was a challenge because at the time going in there, you know, I was able to show Suge that, you know, you're going to sell this artist anyway.

And so what I learned from being from the streets, I'm like, you know what? I asked Suge, like, how much are you getting for snoop he told me the number and I said okay let me put an extra 200,000 on it it made sense it's like okay you're gonna you're gonna do this anyway but now they gave you something extra with it and I think that was the difference but you know in corporate America it's it's like it's a situation to where they sit in you sit at these tables with all these different people and they have a strategy and if your strategy work with their strategy then you get the deal if you know because a lot of us think we got our own strategy my thing my thing is if you want to be successful in business when you

go and look to do a deal make sure your strategy is up to par with with what the deal you're doing so you go in there you get the deal with with snoop and by this time snooping and and sugar's had a falling out and she'll want to do a diss track he want to do a diss album like elf death row elf sugar whoa whoa whoa no we can't nah bro we're not gonna do that yeah yeah now my whole thing was i i told snoop was you got to have some integrity and uh you know you can't keep fighting fire with fire unless you you're ready to burn and uh you know this guy had opened some doors for you so you gotta at least be thankful for that so you know, this guy had opened some doors for you. So you got to at least be thankful for that. So, you know, us black men going against black men, like we have to change that narrative.

And I was able to to show him that, show him that with love and saying, look, man, this is the right way to do this. And he agreed and look with his career. Now, look what he's able to do. I mean, we we end up being the best of friends because you know his mentality changed you know and and his growth and uh he just kept growing and getting better and and you know he was able to build an empire and i think that's what this is about for me to being able to create more millionaires and hopefully billionaires and

and and have people come through I call no limit the university you come through here get the game and go do what you got to do and that's what Snoop was able to do and I'm proud of him I'm proud of the man he became and uh and and what and what he's doing mostly I'm proud of what he's doing in the community with the football league and uh me and Snoop, just matter of fact, we just did the basketball game. So I brought all my kids down and we had a we had a three on three high school, the best high schoolers in the country. And so that's what I love, that Snoop Hart is in the right place. Like he want to give back. He want to do what's right. And a lot of us, we lost a lot of kids in the program. So, you know uh my my

my program been in Los Angeles for a while and so people don't know I started out uh me and Janelle we created Urban Born and one of our first students at Urban Born people don't know this was Nipsey Hussle and and we was all about getting gangs off the street. And I used to tell Nipsey, even like going to high school, like, look, man, you stop gangbanging. I'm going to give you a couple of dollars. So I give him some money and he come back. Well, I'm trying. They always call me Coach P. Yeah, Coach. You know, I'm not going to hang out with those guys no more. And then we built a great relationship. And that. I mean, it's still going to today. And that's what I mostly love about Snoop

and what we was able to do, you know, still being a part of the community and giving back and being able to reach kids like that, you know, in their youth and being a part of their world, man, because we got so much talent in the hood, but we just get wasted by the violence and the negativity. So, yeah, I just think that, you know, more people like Snoop and more entertainers doing that, like, we're going to save a lot of kids.

Late 90s, you're on top of the world. Make them say, huh, I it about it wobble wobble how you do that there was there anything that you couldn't do i don't think i could have did anything but you know what i'm i'm i'm thankful and blessed that i've always remained humble you know because they always say money change but also money just enhance who you really are. And so I'm just glad that I was humble and I wasn't into just doing all kinds of crazy stuff to where I just like, you know what?

I want a better life for my family. So I just kept working. So it's a blessing, man, to be able to have all those big records and everything, but that never was the end for me. That wasn't like, you know how some guys be like, yeah, you know, I do this, this is all I want. Nah, I was always like, we need to figure out something better.

And I need to get better. I wanted to get better with my music. I wanted to get better in my thinking, you know, what I was rapping about, everything. Because when you're there on the front line, that's all you hear. That's all you see. But I also wanted to figure out how can I grow and one day I could be a part of corporate America because that's how I could really feed my people. It's always been about trying to feed my people with education or just actually feeding my

people. We don't have to go ask nobody for nothing. But I knew i had to get better i had to grow because most people i look at a lot of my friends now they're still the same but i'm like i can't mess with you because your mentality is still in the project your mentality is still on the corner that ain't me like you can't get mad at me because i want more out of life and you might say oh man you changed you changed. I did. I got better. What's wrong with getting better?

I mean, think about it. You have a baby. The baby goes through a progression. It grows. That baby don't stay a baby forever. So you're supposed to change. You're supposed to grow. Growth is natural. Yeah. And people don't realize being

broke is a mindset. Like, even when I was poor, I never thought I was broke. I've always said, like, I got to do something. You know, I'm waiting on a lawsuit, my check in the mail. I'm thinking like that while everybody else thinking, oh, I don't have nothing. I'm hurting. And they speak that negativity. Like, so even when you go back and see your... So I was telling, so this is the funniest thing happened to happened to me right they had this kid in middle school with me he was five six he was like the

biggest kid in our in our class so i pull up on facebook this kid say yeah y'all you know y'all looking up to master p but i beat him up in middle school. And some girls say... That's his claim to fame. You beat him up in middle school, and so you know how they go on your Facebook and tell you how tall you is and whatever, right? So he's still 5'6", Shannon. So I go on now and say, beat me up now.

Come on, Pete. I had to do it, Shannon, for real. Man, I'm looking at your artists. You had Mystical, the 504 Boys, Soldier Slim, Silver Shocker, C-Murder, Romeo. Hey, I love all the guys, but Mystical, Mystical was, Mystical could have been, he was, Pete, what happened, Pete?

Yeah, you know, Mystical got caught up, but Mystical, he's getting together now, man. I'm proud of him and he getting a second chance. Oh, you're gonna work together again? Are you looking to work with him? Oh yeah, we definitely going on tour together and we doing stuff. I mean, Mystical, Mia x uh mac about to get out of being incarcerated this there was another

guy that was just he his career could have been so big he probably was the most talented guy uh probably even more talented than mystical but he went to jail at like 19. Yeah, Mack. Like this guy, this guy was talented and he just lost his whole career. And that's what I'm saying. Like you got to do the right thing and stop being around the wrong people, you know? And I feel like that's what we're going at now. Like being able to show this generation.

Y'all don't have to make the mistakes we made. So now I'm in mystical was yeah. Talented brothers, mystical soldiers, slim, mere X, fiend, still see Mac. I could go on and on, man. We, we, we had some talent on that label, man. You had it. Yeah. You live every person's dream, not just black. Obviously you're black and and that's the but you've lived a dream, a life of life.

Growing up in poverty, not having and rising and people get an opportunity to see. What advice would you give this generation? How can there be more masterpiece? I could say, don't be afraid to work. Don't be afraid to where nobody don't believe in you. You have to believe in yourself. Put your trust and faith in God and have a dream and a goal and stick with it. Like it's not a race, it's a marathon. Like even when them curveballs come or the destination, you know, even though it look like you're not getting there, if you're doing something every day consistently, you're going to get to your dreams and your goals.

And don't be afraid to fail. I'm just saying, don't be afraid to try to get better. And don't be afraid to work. And if I did it, I know you could do it. What financial advice? Because you've been very financially responsible. What financial advice would you give young America? Educate yourself.

Don't work for money. Don't pray for money. Don't pray for money. Pray for wisdom. When you work, work because you love something. It's your purpose. And it's your passion. Before we wrap up, I want to ask you this. And you're the best person to ask this.

I need your five top rappers that could hoop, and I need your five top hoopers that could rap. I'm going to say J. Cole. Okay. 2 Chainz. Okay. 2 Chainz.

Okay. Quavo. Okay. The Gang. Okay. And Romeo. Damn, you left Chris. So you don't look at Chris Brown as a rapper?

No. Okay, Chris. Chris Brown, the R&B singer. Kenny who? No. damn you left so you don't look at chris brown as a rapper no okay chris brown the rmb thing can he hoop though yeah chris brown who i hope with chris brown before he could hoop okay okay okay i believe okay now give me the hoop give me the hoopers that could be rappers i want to know who who is the top nba hooper or the no you know i will let you include football players too i want to know who's number one because there were a lot of beat there's a lot Who is the top NBA hooper? No, you know what? I'm going to let you include football players, too. I want to know who's number one because there's a lot of going on speculation that, you know, the guy up in Portland and there's a guy that played in Orlando and Miami Heat and the Lakers.

There's a lot of guys that say they are the best. The guy in Portland has got to be the best. D. Little got to be the –... He gotta be the... From what I see, I'll go with him. I'll go with Shaq. Okay. I mean, who else in basketball is that?

So that's it? Look at you. What am I saying? Can Le'Veon Bell rap? Who? Le'Veon. Le'Veon Bell. I mean, he's good.

You can't knock that. Also, I got to go with what his name is. He got some nice songs, too. He married to, what her name is, got some nice songs to uh he married to um what her name is the uh the singer yeah so that's four yeah and um i gotta go with huh how you gonna leave you off you gotta off? You got to be the godfather. You know what? I did both. So you got to leave me out.

You can't put me in there. Yeah, you got to be the number one slot. You got to be the number one in both of them. You know what? I'm a humble man. You know, keep me out of it. I'll just, I'll let everybody have their fun. But then I got to, I'm going to go with AI.

Okay. So that's fine. We're not counting me. We don't have to put me in none of those mixes. How about, okay, I'll tell you what. I need Mount Rushmore rappers. Give me your Mount Rushmore rappers. You get four.

That's it. Any era. So from JV to KRS-One to Too Short to Too – whomever. Ice Cube, Tupac, Biggie, give me four. All right, two first. I'm going to give you Tupac and Biggie. Okay, okay. That's two.

Uh-oh, we only got two left. Somebody get left out. Uh-oh. Guess what? You know, that's life. That's how it go. I'll give you Tup five, and biggie. Okay.

Give me your four of my Rushmore Hoopers. Michael Jordan. Okay. LeBron James. Okay, okay. Magic Johnson. Magic. And Larry Bird.

Man. See, everybody get mad at me because Larry Bird was my favorite player growing up. I had all the fun. Larry Bird, for a white boy back then, I'm just telling y'all, you could cut him up, scratch him, whatever. You're not going to stop him. I'm just telling you, you're not going to stop him.

P, I want to thank you for stopping by, giving me a few moments of your time. Congratulations on all your success. I want to give you your flowers while you can hear me praise you. Because a lot of times we give people flowers and they can't smell them. A lot of times we praise people and they can't hear it. So I want to give you flowers. I want to praise Master P

for what he's done for his community while he can hear it, while he can smell the flowers. I appreciate you, my brother. Salute. Thank you, man. Have a good one. I've been grinding all the big guns from NFL media like Colleen Wolfe. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.