10 Reasons Why Lil Wayne Should Leave Cash Money

Image via Complex Original

Is it possible it's time for Lil Wayne to take a break from music? It's no secret Weezy is a sports fanatic (although where his sports allegiances lie is a mystery—dude seems to cheer for whoever is winning), and his frequent appearances on ESPN show Weezy is both knowledgeable and well-positioned as a sports commentator. Think about it: How much more interesting would the NFL be with Wayne alongside Chris Berman?

Here's a list of the only things Lil' Twist has accomplished in his career: Making friends with Justin Bieber, getting Justin Bieber in trouble…wash, rinse, repeat. If you visit Lil' Twist's Wikipedia page, you will see that his biggest accomplishment to date is likely his guest appearances on Disney Channel's Fish Hooks where he voices a character called Brandon Bubbler. Apparently, the character is a teenage singing sensation modeled after Justin Bieber. We can't make this stuff up.

With Wayne's latest tweets and the continued rumblings about Cash Money's inability to properly pay its artists, there may be answers in looking again at Forbes' 2013 Hip-Hop Cash Kings list. As you'll see on the list, Nicki Minaj outranks even Birdman in 2013 income with $29 million (which makes sense because Nicki may have diversified more than any other Cash Money artist). However, Birdman's not too far behind with $21 million. Trailing Birdman is Wayne and Drake. Wait, Drake? Wasn't Drake essentially running the rap world in 2013? And, at this point in his career, shouldn't Wayne be outranking Wiz Khalifa by more than $2 million? The answer may be in the paperwork as it would appear Nicki started her financial relationship with the label on the right foot while Wayne and Drizzy may be playing catch-up.

Hot Boy$ in electric chairs, Big Tymers sitting down to a feast of riches, B.G.'s Chopper City in the Ghetto. One of the greatest things about Cash Money Records in the late 90s/early 2000s was their over the top Pen & Pixel designed album covers. And while Wayne managed to benefit from his share of Pen & Pixel covers, some of that Cash Money flavor was definitely lost when Wayne began putting baby photos as his album covers. Bring Pen & Pixels back!

Maybe Baby knew Wayne's run at Cash Money was a wrap because all year he's made Young Thug and Rich Gang his personal project. In fact, without Birdman we probably would have never even gotten Young Thug to show up to our cover shoot. Since then, Birdman appeared all over the “Lifestyle” video, all over the Rich Gang mixtape, and even went up to Hot 97 with Thugger and Quan. Can you imagine sitting through company meetings at Cash Money and having to hear Young Thug talk about his album rollout? Wayne, consider yourself lucky.

Beyond Thug, Birdman has been building quite a roster of artists for years now. If you look at the recent history of the label, you'll see that Birdman has always been trying to find new talent to build around: Drake, Nicki Minaj, Tyga, the list goes on. Over the past few years, Wayne's record sales have waned while acts like Drake and Nicki have emerged as hip-hop's biggest stars.

As the story goes, back in 2005 when Jay Z was the president of Def Jam, he wanted to bring then-free agent Lil Wayne to the historic label. The deal almost happened, too—in fact there's footage of Wayne claiming he left Cash Money and was rolling with Jay Z and Def Jam. But in the end, Wayne decided to stay with the label that raised him. Now that Wayne wants to leave Cash Money again, maybe it's time he finally teamed up with his idol. Jay is no longer the president of Def Jam but he does have this little powerhouse label called Roc Nation with artists such as Rihanna and J. Cole. We're guessing Wayne could benefit from a change of scenery and the opportunity to work alongside Hov might spark a new flame of creativity.

Cash Money somehow once thought it was a good idea for Weezy to release a rock album. Forget the fact that Wayne can't play guitar, Wayne's Rebirth album was a mish-mash of bad (“One Way Trip”) and worse (“The Price is Wrong”). The album still somehow managed to go gold becuase Wayne's fanbase was just that dedicated, but this is a perfect example of how Cash Money allowed Wayne to mismanage his brand.

Wayne's Tweet on December 4th about being a prisoner on Cash Money set-off a hip-hop firestorm. Wayne says his creativity is being held captive, but is his money being held captive too? These documents, from a deposition given by Wayne's manager Cortez Bryant, reveal how difficult it is for artists on the label to get paid royalties and other monies owed from Cash Money. And that's not the only time Birdman and company have been accused of this. Who can forget industry vet Wendy Day negotiating Cash Money's historic $30 million deal in the '90s with Universal and then Wendy needing to take legal action in order to get her cut?

In a recent interview with Miami's 99 Jamz, Mack Maine tried to do some damage control saying that Lil Wayne is “great” (Wayne sure didn't sound great when he was calling himself a “prisoner” on the label, but, hey, sure.). Another interesting tidbit was the fact that Tha Carter V will likely see the light of day in 2015 and that Wayne has a “special partner” who will help him release the album in a “special way.” This comment reeks of something along the lines of Jay-Z's Samsung deal. The reality is though, Wayne doesn't need Cash Money to help him do this. Wayne is a brand on his own. If J. Cole can move over 300K with little buildup, we don't see why Wayne can't do the same.