(Long thread) the complete history of Young Money Records:

Young Money was always an idea that Lil Wayne had in his head from the early days of his career. Ranging back to 2000-2002 you would hear him say lines such as-

“It’s Cash Money/Young Money, never no money”. After years of dreaming of it being a reality, he finally officially founded it in 2005 as an imprint of Cash Money. The early roster was pretty small and only included two artists. Curren$y and Mack Maine.-

Young Money was an official label but in their early years they really didn’t do much. They released a mixtape in 2005 that consisted of only Wayne, Mack and Curren$y which didn’t do much traction, as well as other random songs every now and then. It-

Wasn’t until about 2007 when YM really started to grow. As Wayne got more popular he began looking for young talent, finding the likes of Tyga, Lil Twist and Lil Chuckee. Soon after, Wayne had come across a video from SMACK DVD.

Smack DVD was a popular hip hop outlet at the time that Wayne followed. The video was a young woman rapper from New York by the name of Nicki Minaj. Wayne admired her skills right away and had his people reach out to find her. It took a long time to-

Sign her, even prompting her to make songs about it; but finally they finalized the contract, officially bringing Nicki Minaj into Young Money.

In 2008, the historic year when Lil Wayne dropped Tha Carter III Young Money continued to grow.-

Lil Wayne signed new artist and old friends of his alike until he came across one artist that would change everything. A friend of Wayne’s names J Prince sent him a record of a local Canadian artist named Drake remixing one of Wayne’s old tracks.

Wayne was already intrigued by his pen game and even more eager to sign him when he learned he could sing too. Wayne immediately flew out to Houston to schedule a meeting with Drake. The meeting went well and Drake was invited to join Wayne and the rest-

Of the YM crew on tour for C3 (I am music tour). Wayne and Drake recorded multiple songs throughout the tour and drake was repping YM but wasn’t officially signed.

Mid 2009 a bidding war had started for Drake after he dropped his-

“So Far Gone” mixtape. Lil Wayne officially signed drake later and won the bidding war, making history. The Young Money roster now included Lil Wayne himself, Nicki Minaj, Drake, Tyga, Gudda Gudda, T-Streets, Lil Twist, Lil Chuckee, Shanell, Jae Millz

And Mack Maine. That summer they went on to release hits such as Bedrock, Every Girl in the World, Roger That, and more! Finally they dropped an album December of 2009 which debuted at #9 on the billboard hot 200 as a collaborative effort.

In 2010-

Lil Wayne went to jail due to gun charges. Drake and Nicki made sure to keep repping and keep the label afloat, both dropping albums that broke records. Thank me Later and Pink Friday. Lil Wayne got out in November 2010 and thanks to Drake, Nicki and-

The others, YM was still running like it never stopped. 2011-14 YM thrived, signing new talents such as Euro, as well as keeping the OG’s and released another compilation album which debuted at #7. Lil Wayne was truly proud of what he created. Soon things

Began to take a turn for the worse though. Tyga left due to unpaid royalties and some artist on the label began to beef, making it less of a family.

Things reached an all time low in December of 2014 when Lil Wayne voices his displeasures-

With Cash Money. He claimed that Birdman hadn’t been paying him as well and that he wasn’t able to release his anticipated album Tha Carter V. This led into a 51 million dollar lawsuit between Wayne and Birdman. During this lawsuit Wayne refused to release-

Anything under the Cash Money imprint, and since YM was an imprint of Cash Money it began to halt too. Only artist who were still dropping music during this lawsuit were Drake and Nicki, which was basically the only thing keeping the label alive.-

Even though it was a tough time, they made sure to support as much as they could during this lawsuit and they always acknowledged him as the reason they are where they are today.

Finally after a rough 3 1/2 years, Lil Wayne won his lawsuit. He was now-

Released from his contract with Cash Money, as well as winning an undisclosed amount of money. Another thing he was awarded was full ownership of Young Money. No more Cash Money to hold the label back. Things finally started looking up for the label.-

After drake’s 2018 album Scorpion, he DID leave the label but that’s still family to him and he still shouts YM out on many records. The current roster includes Euro, Gudda Gudda, Jay Jones, Hoodybaby, Vice Versa, and Nicki Minaj who’s contract ends-

After her next album. Unknown if she’ll re-sign after. (If I missed any others of the current roster). Now that Wayne is free, it was announced at last years Weezyana Fest that a new YM compilation will be coming soon and Mack Maine said in an interview-

Earlier this year that YM is going to begin to make its full comeback this year. We can’t wait to see what else this historic label can accomplish.

(That was the full history of Young Money! If I missed anything please comment below and/or if I got anything wrong about any of these artist please correct me. Thank you!!)