Master P Recalls Nearly Signing Eminem, Nas & T.I.
If you remember last month, Fat Joe revealed his biggest regret ever was not signing Eminem during the 1990s. In a recent interview with the great people at HipHopDX, Master P implied those sentiments in a nearly hour-long conversation to discuss his time with 2pac back in the day, managing Curren$y and Meek Mill, as well as who was calling No Limit Records to become a soldier. Surprisingly, the likes of Beyoncé, Nas, T.I. and Eminem were some of the artist that were on the New Orleans labels radar, but Marshall was one who stuck out to them than the rest.
Unfortunately, due to the climate at the time, No Limit planned to sign Em – but couldn’t figure out who to incorporate him into the mainstream world of hip-hop and the black listeners.
Take a look at P’s interview above, and Silk below giving an in-depth breakdown of the signings.
Silkk The Shocker Explains Why No Limit Didn’t Sign Eminem
There’s a conversation floating that you were talking about bringing Pac over to No Limit.
Let me tell you how that happened. You know I lived in The Bay. At first I’m out there hustling doing my thing. Everybody know who I am. E-A-Ski was signed to me. I had a lot of underground people. People seen what I did business wise so a lot of guys called me. Anybody you can think of called me for advice or thinking “What can I do to get with No Limit.” From Eminem, to T.I. to anybody you could think of, we done had that conversation where they wanted to be with No Limit.It was sad, but [2Pac] was thinking “What could I do?” Same thing with Snoop Dogg. People started checking for us because they knew we was making money. They know we was printing money. They making money now. We was printing money. Everybody want to be with the people that are winning. I don’t care if you’re an R&B singer or whoever, we had some kind of influence on you. Whether you was Beyonce, En Vogue, whoever. Everybody wanted to be a soldier.
Everybody reached out. Nas came. Everybody reached out. I did a song with Nas back then with me and Mac. I thought that was a beautiful record but Mac went to prison and we never got a chance to do a video. I might remake that song. I thought that was a real message record that I thought touched a lot of people and I still think it can touch a lot of people. It’s called “Where Do We Go From Here.” It’s like poetry. I think everybody did their thing on that record. I think everybody came relevant.
How’d those conversations go?
You gotta imagine, I started on the road. I started doing shows with them, but at first I was just making money. People knew me as the hustler. Just being around people, people know you good people. It’s building relationships. You know the good people. A lot of people just came at me wanting to know what’s up. Curious. A lot of people had contracts. I’m still an artist. People know I’m a boss, but I’m an artist, too, so I can talk to anyone from an artist’s perspective. People was infatuated with how we did business and how we was able to make money and buy things, which everybody couldn’t do. They was probably the best lyricists, like you said. Look at KRS-One, Eric B & Rakim and them—who could touch them? At that same time, they wasn’t making the same money we was making. I think it affected the whole industry. People were like, “Man, I need a deal like P. Want to do my own thing.” But it’s a lot of hard work. I had to hire a lot of good people to get out there and work to make this happen.
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