No Limit Records Stories

[heart]

Shell Shocked was great, but had some filler and unnecessary cuts on there (Meet Me At The Hotel, Soldier Song), but you could already tell Mac is a different cat, more original concepts (Callin Me), more lyrical (The Game, Empire), more profound (Be All U Can Be, My Brother, Slow Ya Roll)

WW3 was MORE of that different type of NL spitter, lots of deep shyt (Father's Day, Genocide, Can U Love Me), great storytelling (Best Friends), hard verses, nice beats (Paradise, Lockdown RMX, U Never Know), good guest spots (C-Murder, Mia X, Popeye, Samm, DIG)

Great thread.

I always thought Mac was the truth, he actually turned down a Def Jam deal to sign with NL exclusively. I thought Shell Shocked was a great album but like you said the latter part of that album had a lot of underwhelming cuts. Shouldn't have been 21 tracks, if he had cut that down to maybe 13, it would be contender for the best album on the tank.

But that seemed like a NL motto, all their albums had atleast 17 cuts or more. C-Murder first two albums had 26 tracks a piece I believe.

I remember around late 99 and I hadn't been in Dallas that long off and on and NL came to the starplex in south dallas. My older brother who was in the industry started doing street team work for NL all through northern Louisiana(shrevport, Monroe) and texas. I got to be behind the scenes for the first time that night.

Mercedes was fine as fukk, everyone was there except Skull, Kane & abel, soulja slim. Got to chop it with Mac, Big Ed(dude was built like a fukkin NFL LB), Snoop, and everyone. They also had some super short midget esq looking dude name Lit Italy. But the thing that ALWAYS stuck out to me was C-Murder.

I don't what happen but he got mad at some member of the crew and he just lashed out and got to cursing, and just belittling the dude and the guy just stood there and took it. You could hear a damn needle drop and I saw P try to calm him down and he went off on him too. I said to myself as a teen that nikka was crazy.

I saw them all again in NO, and every dude was shining driving beamers and benzes. My older bro has mad stories about NL, but my biggest take away was P tried to be the "anti suge knight". He moved from Richmond and gave a lot of dudes opportunities and gave them 100% creative control on their projects.

Granted he took their publishing but they got frontloaded signing bonuses and points on their albums which meant a lot of dough considering even underperforming albums still sold 100-300k pre piracy and P had a 85-15% deal with priority so P still has a lot of old money and his artist ate. Some managed their money well while others didn't...

 

[Carr]

O'Dell was telling me it turned into a factory at one point. He would work on a beat, then leave it unfinished to revisit it at a later time...the next day or later he would come to the studio and there would already be a finished song made to his unfinished beat.

Crazy/legendary times

 

[bigbadbossup2012]

what album was that?

Lmao

 

[OHSNAP!]

Great thread.

I always thought Mac was the truth, he actually turned down a Def Jam deal to sign with NL exclusively. I thought Shell Shocked was a great album but like you said the latter part of that album had a lot of underwhelming cuts. Shouldn't have been 21 tracks, if he had cut that down to maybe 13, it would be contender for the best album on the tank.

But that seemed like a NL motto, all their albums had atleast 17 cuts or more. C-Murder first two albums had 26 tracks a piece I believe.

I remember around late 99 and I hadn't been in Dallas that long off and on and NL came to the starplex in south dallas. My older brother who was in the industry started doing street team work for NL all through northern Louisiana(shrevport, Monroe) and texas. I got to be behind the scenes for the first time that night.

Mercedes was fine as fukk, everyone was there except Skull, Kane & abel, soulja slim. Got to chop it with Mac, Big Ed(dude was built like a fukkin NFL LB), Snoop, and everyone. They also had some super short midget esq looking dude name Lit Italy. But the thing that ALWAYS stuck out to me was C-Murder.

I don't what happen but he got mad at some member of the crew and he just lashed out and got to cursing, and just belittling the dude and the guy just stood there and took it. You could hear a damn needle drop and I saw P try to calm him down and he went off on him too. I said to myself as a teen that nikka was crazy.

I saw them all again in NO, and every dude was shining driving beamers and benzes. My older bro has mad stories about NL, but my biggest take away was P tried to be the "anti suge knight". He moved from Richmond and gave a lot of dudes opportunities and gave them 100% creative control on their projects.

Granted he took their publishing but they got frontloaded signing bonuses and points on their albums which meant a lot of dough considering even underperforming albums still sold 100-300k pre piracy and P had a 85-15% deal with priority so P still has a lot of old money and his artist ate. Some managed their money well while others didn't...

Great post. Yeah some of the former NL artists that dissed P (Magic, Slim, Steady Mobb'n) were way spoiled. Instead of using/investing the money wisely they prolly blew it all away for cars, hoes & drugs, then flopped with their shyt independently (good chance that P blackballed them tho)

I see C had some real temper issues. NLR business going downhill in 99 prolly took a toll on him

Slim (jailtime), Skull, Kane&Abel and Steady Mobb'n were already gone by mid-/late 99 when they had their big US tour. Was Snoop there? Shortly after this tour Fiend, Big Ed, Serv, Mercedes, Lil Italy and a few others were gone too...

 

[heart]

Great post. Yeah some of the former NL artists that dissed P (Magic, Slim, Steady Mobb'n) were way spoiled. Instead of using/investing the money wisely they prolly blew it all away for cars, hoes & drugs, then flopped with their shyt independently (good chance that P blackballed them tho)

I see C had some real temper issues. NLR business going downhill in 99 prolly took a toll on him

Slim (jailtime), Skull, Kane&Abel and Steady Mobb'n were already gone by mid-/late 99 when they had their big US tour. Was Snoop there? Shortly after this tour Fiend, Big Ed, Serv, Mercedes, Lil Italy and a few others were gone too...

Yeah Snoop was there, this was around the time Top Dogg came out. Also people don't realize how tall the Miller Boyz are but Mac is tall as hell too.

When I heard C went and got an apt in calliope I knew he had officially lost it. Another thing that caused a rift between P & C was magic's contract.

Tru records was supposed to be C's but it was the equivalent of Wayne being CEO of young money= cool to shout it out but the paperwork says different. Tru records was under the umbrella of NL but P was the real CEO of that too.

That beef was around the time C shot into the club & maybe a few months before that kid they say he allegedly killed.

I remember a lot of people saying Mac's "best friends" was about BG because they were tight at one time & Bg's "he used to be a man" off of checkmate was about Mac.

That song BG did came after Mac was already locked up. All them dudes from both camps knew each other. N.O ain't that damn big. Mia & Mannie were like brother & sister and went 2 HS together.

A prime NL/CMR tour would have been dope. To me of all the artists NL ever signed, Curren$y is probably doing the best and he was "new NL". He carved out a nice lane for himself.

Also P did a symposium a few years back and he said the Tank doggs album DID get finished as well as other unreleased projects.

Priority folded and he went to universal so I don't know who is in control of his catalog of released and unlreleased material. Fiend also said the same thing before too, there is a lot of unreleased material from that 97-99 era.

Mac was working on his 3rd album, serv-on, tank doggs, Snoop redid the last meal album so it's unreleased sessions with that.

Mystikal turned in a different album to jive but he still has tracks for the same album he was gonna release on NL(let's get ready)and probably tons of other material we probably will never hear.

 

[1-8-7-Skillz]

Great thread.

I always thought Mac was the truth, he actually turned down a Def Jam deal to sign with NL exclusively. I thought Shell Shocked was a great album but like you said the latter part of that album had a lot of underwhelming cuts. Shouldn't have been 21 tracks, if he had cut that down to maybe 13, it would be contender for the best album on the tank.

But that seemed like a NL motto, all their albums had atleast 17 cuts or more. C-Murder first two albums had 26 tracks a piece I believe.

I remember around late 99 and I hadn't been in Dallas that long off and on and NL came to the starplex in south dallas. My older brother who was in the industry started doing street team work for NL all through northern Louisiana(shrevport, Monroe) and texas. I got to be behind the scenes for the first time that night.

Mercedes was fine as fukk, everyone was there except Skull, Kane & abel, soulja slim. Got to chop it with Mac, Big Ed(dude was built like a fukkin NFL LB), Snoop, and everyone. They also had some super short midget esq looking dude name Lit Italy. But the thing that ALWAYS stuck out to me was C-Murder.

I don't what happen but he got mad at some member of the crew and he just lashed out and got to cursing, and just belittling the dude and the guy just stood there and took it. You could hear a damn needle drop and I saw P try to calm him down and he went off on him too. I said to myself as a teen that nikka was crazy.

I saw them all again in NO, and every dude was shining driving beamers and benzes. My older bro has mad stories about NL, but my biggest take away was P tried to be the "anti suge knight". He moved from Richmond and gave a lot of dudes opportunities and gave them 100% creative control on their projects.

Granted he took their publishing but they got frontloaded signing bonuses and points on their albums which meant a lot of dough considering even underperforming albums still sold 100-300k pre piracy and P had a 85-15% deal with priority so P still has a lot of old money and his artist ate. Some managed their money well while others didn't...

Damn you got anymore stories ?

 

[Xerces]

I fukk with Shell shocked. I never listened to WW3 either. I'm surprised Give It To Em Raw isn't getting much recognition. That's top 3 NL for me. You can really play that album from beginning to end except for like 2 songs which isn't bad

Mystikal kills this..... I mean they all do

 

[bigrodthe1]

It was even heavier on this album with Paul & Juicy. Hard ass shyt, my favorite cut

My lil cousin(rip) turned me on to this album and this was our favorite track from it...dope shyt

 

[OHSNAP!]

My lil cousin(rip) turned me on to this album and this was our favorite track from it...dope shyt

Ignant music at its finest

 

[No Hook]

Mystikal kills this..... I mean they all do

Slim like Fiend could switch his flow up. He did it on Law Breakaz also.

 

[Xerces]

Slim like Fiend could switch his flow up. He did it on Law Breakaz also.

I even liked his years later... few months after project, Slim was jammin

 

[Bigblackted4]

IM going to go on a deep dive of Slim. After, I will revisit Fiend because I think I’m missing something.

 

[NO-BadAzz]

I think I read the format that P gave all his artist when they did their album.

I think Serv-On stated that P stated that his artist, do a song for their mama (which almost every artist that dropped a song had a song dedicated to their mama) a song about a love or something, a club song, and another song about R.I.P someone. If I can recall that was the format so that's about 4-5 songs P wanted on the album, Serv-On or whoever I was listening to telling the story said P really let you do the rest of the album how you wanted to.

Just give him those 4-5 songs and you had creative freedom to do whatever. P really let them boys do them, especially around the time that the artist got a chance to put out a 2nd album.

 

[OHSNAP!]

I think I read the format that P gave all his artist when they did their album.

I think Serv-On stated that P stated that his artist, do a song for their mama (which almost every artist that dropped a song had a song dedicated to their mama) a song about a love or something, a club song, and another song about R.I.P someone. If I can recall that was the format so that's about 4-5 songs P wanted on the album, Serv-On or whoever I was listening to telling the story said P really let you do the rest of the album how you wanted to.

Just give him those 4-5 songs and you had creative freedom to do whatever. P really let them boys do them, especially around the time that the artist got a chance to put out a 2nd album.

You can easily hear those NL formula songs on the 98 albums, f.e. Am I My Brothers Keeper, Assasin or Black Mafia. Many times P was featured on exactly those tracks, f.e. Call Me When You Need Some and Time After Time (AIMBK), Ghetto Life (Black Mafia), I'm Yo Soldier and Shake Em Up (Assassin)
Then you have the songs that those guys clearly took to heart and build the concepts themselves, like Life and Scriptures (Assassin), Plead My Case, Light Green N Remy, Crosses Artist (Black Mafia), Stress, No Turning Back, Better Kill Me (AIMBK)

 

[TheRtist]

You can easily hear those NL formula songs on the 98 albums, f.e. Am I My Brothers Keeper, Assasin or Black Mafia. Many times P was featured on exactly those tracks, f.e. Call Me When You Need Some and Time After Time (AIMBK), Ghetto Life (Black Mafia), I'm Yo Soldier and Shake Em Up (Assassin)
Then you have the songs that those guys clearly took to heart and build the concepts themselves, like Life and Scriptures (Assassin), Plead My Case, Light Green N Remy, Crosses Artist (Black Mafia), Stress, No Turning Back, Better Kill Me (AIMBK)

that format brought out the best in some of the artists we may have never got