Just days before a performance at the Essence Culture Festival, the New Orleans rap legend and mastermind announced that the set would be his last. After more than three decades setting the standard for independent rap buzz with his No Limit Records label and classic songs like “Ghetto D” and “Make ‘Em Say Ugh,” the man born Percy Miller will hang up his microphone to accept a position coaching the basketball team at his hometown University of New Orleans.
With Master P moving on from music, it’s a great time to reconsider his substantial musical legacy —and perhaps speculate a little on his future, which ties into all the things he’s done outside of music. You know how J. Cole played pro in Africa and Canada? As we’ll discover throughout this retrospective, as with so many things, he was simply following in Master P’s footsteps.
It’s a fitting career pivot for the veteran music entrepreneur, who already had at least a couple of side stints in the sports world. In 1999, he was invited to play in the Charlotte Hornets’ training camp; although he didn’t make the roster, the opportunity turned into a second NBA stint with the Toronto Raptors the following season. He also diversified into sports management without limits, representing Ricky Williams of the New Orleans Saints in his 1999 contract negotiation.
While other rap impressionists like Jay-Z and Dr. Dre seem to get more press these days, it’s pretty safe to say that hip-hop simply wouldn’t look or sound the same without Master P.
No Limit was spun at No Limit Record Shop in Richmond, California, where P first sold tapes by himself and his small cadre of initial signees, which included Big Ed, Dangerous Dame, and Kane & Abel. No Limit’s direct-to-market success led to his priority deal and relocation to New Orleans, where P signed many of the artists who eventually became one of Southern rap’s most iconic rosters: Mystikal, Mia X, Mac, Mercedes, Silkk the Shocker, C-Murder Fiend, and Sne Snoop Doog, fresh from his brush with death.
Besides putting New Orleans on the map as one of Hip-Hop’s most productive hubs, it also pioneered the borderline-insane level of output we expect from today’s rappers. Every time the label released an album, its jewel case booklet featured advertisements for at least four more listed as “Coming Soon.” Any printed discography online is almost certainly incomplete, as even the most ardent fans probably couldn’t tell if all of these projects were released as planned.
Then there are the covers. There have been extensive stories written about Houston-based Pen & Pixel Graphics Inc., the design firm that Photoshopped bling, flames, military tanks, strippers, and brown bears onto album covers, generating some of the most ridiculous and legendary covers in hip-hop history. This isn’t scientific, but there’s a non-zero chance that some of No Limit’s awe-inspiring sales figures in the late ’90s and early ’00s were at least partially inspired by the covers alone.
The label’s success allowed P to enter a diverse portfolio of industries, including low-budget film (a tradition that continues today with labels like Buffalo, Griselda of New York taking the torch), television production (Hello, 50 Cent, and G-Unit), an advertising agency, fast food (Roup Snacks!), Real Real, Real Real, and Relief, and even a unit of G-Unit), publishing agency, fast food (Rislows!). There should be little doubt that P’s broad, omnivorous appetite for business laid a blueprint for so many rappers who saw monsters to follow—and a map of pitfalls to avoid in the process.
At Essence Fest, P seemed reluctant to reflect on those days, choosing instead to highlight his ongoing and future ventures, as well as partners like former Pretty Ricky Spectacular member Smith and Smith’s online business school, Spectacular Academy. The two also apparently have a shared interest in technology. He passed the microphone to entrepreneur Jack Hutton, who gave away pieces from his designer eyewear collection to attendees. And he was careful to direct attention to Syrita Steib, founder of Operation Restoration, a nonprofit focused on reintegration for incarcerated women, offering education, housing, and employment resources.
And as for P’s future employment: while I’m sure his experience playing professional and semi-professional basketball and coaching AAU will serve him well at U of New Orleans, it’s his killer instinct that will likely ultimately determine his success there. During a weekend celebrity basketball game hosted by Jollof Battle, in which P coached the Jambalaya team, he displayed some real hoops psychopathy, instructing his team to press the opening court. Again, this was in an exhibition game featuring teams named after diaspora rice dishes, stocked mostly with actors and influencers. Kobe Bryant was definitely looking at that ear-to-ear grin.
So if the next few years see a slew of rappers suddenly jumping into coaching or commissioning their own basketball leagues, you can thank Master P. He may not get the credit for being the pioneer that he is, but remember: if a rapper is nowhere near anything other than rapping, the master probably did it first.
