Birdman (rapper)

• 1. Introduction

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  Birdman was born Bryan Christopher Brooks on the 15th of February 1969 at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, without a given first name. For nearly a month, hospital staff and family simply called him "Baby". That name stuck, and it would follow him through a childhood defined by loss, legal custody battles, and years in foster care, all the way to the executive offices of one of hip-hop's most commercially dominant record labels.

  By 2015, Forbes ranked him fifth among the wealthiest figures in the music industry, with an estimated net worth of $155 million. Yet the path from a nameless infant in New Orleans to a hip-hop mogul runs through the Magnolia Projects, a correctional facility, and a record label launched from the trunk of a car. What drove a man who lost his mother at age five, spent time in foster care in British Columbia, and served time in prison to build something so large? And what does it mean that the empire he built nearly collapsed in a bitter, very public feud with the artist he called his son?

• 2. A Childhood Interrupted

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  Gladys Brooks, born on the 29th of August 1935, died on the 21st of January 1975, when her son Bryan was just five years old. That loss set in motion a sequence of upheavals that would define Birdman's early life. After her death, Bryan and his siblings, Kim, Ronald, and Ray, were taken in by their uncle.

  The family then spent two years living in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada, far from the streets of New Orleans. When they returned to Louisiana, they entered foster care. Their father, Johnnie Williams, born on the 20th of September 1920, fought a lengthy legal battle through the mid-1970s to reclaim custody. He eventually won, and Bryan's surname changed from Brooks to Williams as part of the process.

  Johnnie Williams owned a number of small businesses in the New Orleans area, including multiple bars and a laundrette. The family settled in the Magnolia Projects in Central City, in the 3rd ward of Uptown New Orleans. Bryan's step-brother Eldrick Wise became his closest companion in that neighborhood. The two began committing robberies together and sold heroin. Both were arrested at age 16. At 18, they were arrested again on drug possession charges and sentenced to three years at Elayn Hunt Correctional Center. Williams served 18 months before being acquitted of all charges. Eldrick Wise would be killed in an unsolved murder in 1991, the same year Birdman co-founded Cash Money Records.

• 3. Building Cash Money

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  After his release from Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, Bryan Williams turned his attention to a new sound spreading through New Orleans nightclubs: bounce music, a sub-genre of hip-hop with deep local roots. In 1992, he came up with the idea for a record label called Cash Money Records, co-founding it with his older brother Ronald "Slim" Williams.

  The brothers drove across Louisiana, visiting nightclubs to scout and recruit artists. Their first signed artist, a local rapper named Kilo G, released the label's first project in 1992, a horrorcore album titled "The Sleepwalker". Bryan persuaded his friend and local DJ Mannie Fresh to become the label's in-house producer, a partnership that would define the label's sound for years.

  In 1995, a pivotal introduction took place at a local block party. Cash Money artist Lil' Slim met a 12-year-old named Dwayne Carter and brought him to Baby's attention. Carter was signed as the youngest artist on the label and placed in a group called The B.G.'z with another young rapper, 14-year-old Christopher Dorsey. The mid-1990s brought heavy losses. Kilo G, Pimp Daddy, and Yella Boy were all murdered. Several first-generation artists left, citing financial disputes. Only Carter and Dorsey remained, renaming themselves Lil Wayne and B.G. in 1997. That same year, the label added Turk and Juvenile, assembling the Hot Boys. The Hot Boys' rise enabled Cash Money to sign a $30 million deal with Universal Records in 1998.

• 4. Big Tymers and the Platinum Years

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  Following Cash Money's nationwide breakthrough in 1998, Bryan Williams and Mannie Fresh formed the duo Big Tymers and released their debut album, "How Ya Luv That?", that same year. The partnership produced three more albums in quick succession. "I Got That Work" arrived in 2000, containing the singles "Get Your Roll On" and "#1 Stunna". Though neither single cracked the Billboard Hot 100, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for surpassing one million copies sold in the United States.

  "Hood Rich" followed in 2002 and contained the single "Still Fly", which earned a Grammy nomination and peaked at number 11 on the Hot 100. That album also went platinum in the US. "Big Money Heavyweight" in 2003 achieved Gold certification. The group went on hiatus after Mannie Fresh departed from Cash Money Records, though the two reunited for live performances as recently as 2017.

  With Juvenile and B.G. eventually leaving the label, Williams repositioned himself as the public face of Cash Money and released his major-label solo debut, "Birdman", on the 26th of November 2002. By the 15th of January 2003, the album was certified gold by the RIAA for shipments of 500,000 copies. It peaked at number 24 on the Billboard 200. The album's broad guest list included Toni Braxton, T.I., Cam'ron, Puff Daddy, and Jermaine Dupri, among others. The album's commercial reception prompted Williams to formally adopt "Birdman" as his primary stage name.

• 5. The Wayne Partnership

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  When Lil Wayne's critically acclaimed album "Tha Carter" broke through in 2004, Birdman appeared on it multiple times. Wayne became the undisputed flagship artist of Cash Money, and Birdman and Wayne came to be viewed together as the two public faces of the label. Their bond went beyond the professional. Birdman referred to Wayne as his "other son", a parental-like relationship that became central to how both men spoke publicly about Cash Money.

  In 2006, the two formalized the relationship on record with "Like Father, Like Son", released on the 31st of October 2006. The album peaked at number 3 on the Billboard 200, was certified gold, and produced the single "Stuntin' Like My Daddy", which peaked at number 21 on the Hot 100, won the 2007 BET Viewer's Choice Award, and was named the 94th best song of 2006 by Rolling Stone magazine.

  Birdman's third solo album, "5 * Stunna", arrived on the 11th of December 2007. It debuted at number 18 on the Billboard 200, selling 80,000 copies in its first week, and spawned the Wayne-featured single "Pop Bottles", which reached number 38 on the Hot 100. The album had sold 372,000 copies in the United States as of the reporting in the source. Through Wayne's label Young Money Entertainment, which operated as a Cash Money imprint from 2005 until 2018, the broader Cash Money family expanded to include Drake, Nicki Minaj, and Tyga, all under the branded partnership known as YMCMB.

• 6. The Lawsuit and the Fallout

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  On the 4th of December 2014, just five days before "Tha Carter V" was scheduled to be released, Lil Wayne issued a public statement announcing the album would not come out. Wayne said Birdman had refused to release a completed record, and he described himself and his creative partner as being held "prisoner". In late January 2015, Wayne filed a $51 million lawsuit against Birdman and Cash Money.

  On the 20th of January 2015, Wayne self-released "Sorry 4 the Wait 2" as a partial stand-in for the delayed album, and the project contained multiple references to Birdman and Cash Money that Birdman was reported to find deeply upsetting. Wayne also stated that if he left Cash Money, Drake and Nicki Minaj would follow.

  Documents filed by Wayne alleged that Birdman and Cash Money had mismanaged Young Money, failed to pay artists and collaborators, and that the phrase "Free C5" had become a rallying call from unpaid creators. On the 16th of July 2015, Birdman retaliated with a $50 million lawsuit against Jay-Z's Tidal streaming service, arguing that Cash Money exclusively owned the rights to Wayne's music after Wayne released his "Free Weezy Album" through the platform. Prosecutors separately alleged on the 15th of July that Birdman and Young Thug had conspired to murder Lil Wayne and were involved in an April 26 shooting. Wayne tweeted in 2016 that he planned to retire, describing himself as "mentally defeated". Artists including Kendrick Lamar, who had been a featured performer on the long-delayed album, publicly pleaded with Wayne not to quit.

• 7. Beyond the Music

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  In early 2010, Birdman formed an oil and gas exploration company with his brother Slim called Bronald Oil and Gas, LLC, a portmanteau of their first names Bryan and Ronald. Birdman told Ozone magazine in February 2010 that he had been in the oil business for four or five years and was making good money from it. He also had a pumpjack tattoo on the side of his head as a visible symbol of the venture.

  By March 2010, the pumpjack tattoo had been almost completely covered. An investigative report by Bloomberg found that official regulators responsible for oil and gas permits had never heard of Bronald, and evidence of the company's actual business operations was limited primarily to a website. Birdman also co-launched the streetwear brand YMCMB with Lil Wayne in 2006 and has invested in a spirits company called GTV Vodka.

  A more accidental venture arrived in April 2016. During a live interview on the hip-hop radio show The Breakfast Club, Birdman told the hosts to "stop playing with my fucking name". The clip went viral. Host Charlamagne Tha God awarded Birdman the "Donkey of the Day" designation, and Birdman issued a public apology. Five days after the interview, on the 27th of April 2016, he launched a merchandise line called "Respek", built around catchphrases from that exchange. By 2017, Forbes estimated his net worth at $110 million, placing him fourth on its list of the wealthiest music industry figures that year.