They used footage I had for this documentary. I had a long talk with one of the producers when they asked me for it in January.
This docuseries was mainly done mainly by eOne Entertainment and they controlled the editing, not Master P. Remember he doesn't own the catalogue, but that's another story. That's why this series actually as close as non-biased as we might get by showing some of the not-so-good aspects.
Thus, they couldn't really thoroughly fact check everything said and had to take some people's words at face value. Especially if it isn't easily verifiable by a Google search. Much of the late 90's stuff isn't. So yes, there's gonna be some exaggerations throughout the series. Artists and label execs especially.
I was shocked when they told me that Viacom doesn't have much of the 90's BET footage digitalized. Lots of it is just sitting in the storage that they show at the beginning of the Chronicles episodes.
Yes, No Limit sold lots of records. They shipped gold & platinum on the first day for many albums. Problem was many didn't actually Soundscan aka sell that much. That's exactly why P would up losing the catalogue to Priority and later Beats by the Pound.
Remember: shipping certifications (RIAA) were basically only for vanity in the analog days. You get paid based on actual sales, which Soundscan documents.
So yes, No Limit could convince enough stores to preorder 500k copies of Steady Mobb'n. They get a Gold plaque the first day but are liable to only sale 150k after 6 months.
From the early days, P's greatest strength was always his ablity to leverage large advances based on high pre-orders. He knew how to talk to convince stores to carry his music.
Again, I'm not trying to downplay P's success at all. But, we just can't romanticize the story. There's also much to learn from NL's downfall.
PLEASE DO NOT GO BY WIKIPEDIA NUMBERS THAT DON'T SITE ANY SOURCES!
By no means am I attacking you:
But going by your logic, P is shipping 3 million copies of I got the hook up to stores?? Why would someone ship 3 million copies for a soundtrack?
Why didn't P ship 3 or 4 million copies of I"m bout it or Ice Cream man?
By going by your logic and saying No Limit is convincing stores to ship an x amount of copies of an album doesn't make sense.
Also, the dude who said that IGTHUP sold 3 in 3, wouldn't know anything about this, he's on the "outside" of the company.
When Ice Cream man came out, the "single" was huge at the time.
By going by your logic, with a huge single, P is only going to ship 500k albums around the world? And only 500k sells?
That doesn't make logical sense to anybody, that's why I'm calling cap on these websites that put these numbers out.
