Cash Money Records co-founders get Central City corner renamed in their honor

Since launching Cash Money Records, brothers Bryan Williams, better known as Birdman or Baby, and Ronald “Slim” Williams have made many tens of millions of dollars. They’ve treated themselves to every sort of material extravagance imaginable.

But on Wednesday afternoon, they returned to the Central City neighborhood where it all started for the sort of hometown recognition that money can’t buy.

During a brief ceremony, the corner of Saratoga and Erato streets, just steps from the ramshackle building where they once lived and where a neighborhood bar still bears their late mother's name, was officially designated Williams Brothers Way.

This was not a full-fledged street renaming, as when Robert E. Lee Boulevard became Allen Toussaint Boulevard. Instead, it was an “honorary” designation, similar to when two blocks of Valence Street were rechristened “Neville Way” in April in honor of the Neville Brothers. Such honorary designations are denoted by a red street sign, rather than the standard blue.

And in the case of Williams Brothers Way, it played out to a soundtrack of New Orleans rap.

Humble beginnings

In the early 1990s, the Williams brothers sold cassettes and CDs out of the trunk of their car and on consignment at Odyssey Records, Peaches Records and other local stores. Several years later, they signed a multi-million dollar distribution deal with music industry powerhouse Universal Records. Cash Money grew into one of the most successful independent record labels of all time.

The label’s moneymakers included Terius “Juvenile” Gray, whose 1998 release “400 Degreez” sold more than 4 million copies and yielded the enduring cultural touchstone “Back That Azz Up.” Dwayne “Lil Wayne” Carter released a string of million-sellers for Cash Money and remains one of rap’s most bankable acts.

Gregory “Geedy P” Earls, who has worked as a talent scout for Cash Money, teamed with politically connected Civil District Court employee David Hudson to make Wednesday’s renaming a reality.

They scheduled it to coincide with this weekend’s 30th anniversary Essence Festival of Culture. A celebration of Cash Money’s 30th anniversary led by Birdman will close Friday, the first of three nights of Essence concerts at the Caesars Superdome.

Who will join Birdman onstage has not been announced. But both Juvenile and Christopher “B.G.” Dorsey, two of the four members of Cash Money’s all-star Hot Boys quartet, turned up at Wednesday’s ceremony.

That ceremony did not go exactly as planned. The guests of honor, rolling in a convoy of black SUVs led by a police cruiser, arrived more than an hour after the scheduled 2 p.m. start time. By then, Sheriff Susan Hutson and the TV news crews had already left.

More minutes ticked by without any of the honorees emerging from the vehicles. At 3:20, a thunderclap and crackle of lightning sent a charge through the crowd.

Finally, the security team opened a narrow path through the scrum of onlookers so Slim Williams could squeeze between barricades and a gold backdrop, flanked by balloons, set up on the cracked street. Baby Williams, his shaved head covered with tattoos, soon followed.

State senator Royce Duplessis made some remarks. But without amplification, they were drowned out by the boisterous crowd of a couple hundred friends, fans and onlookers.

The Williams brothers, never prone to public speaking, didn’t say much. No one could have heard them anyway.

They exchanged hugs with Juvenile and B.G. and smiled as the paper covering was removed from the new, red street sign.

'Visionaries, not hustlers'

Afterward, the brothers made their way to the nearby Gladys Bar. Slim stayed outside, posing for pictures and acknowledging well-wishers. He conducted a brief interview for the hip-hop show “Phat Phat N All That” next to a row of garbage cans abuzz with flies and the smell of rancid seafood.

He chatted briefly with Don Bartholomew. Bartholomew's father, Dave Bartholomew, produced and co-wrote most of Fats Domino’s hits. Carrying on the family tradition, Don Bartholomew recorded and engineered many of Cash Money’s earliest releases in his studio on North Galvez street, in the same building where his father and Domino once rehearsed.

“They’re called hustlers, but they are visionaries,” Don Bartholomew said of Bryan and Ronald Williams. “Artists come and go. You have to know how to keep a record label together. They did that.”

Trishell “Ms. Tee” Williams, who is not related to the brothers, was the first female artist signed to Cash Money. She released her EP “Chillin’ on tha Block” in 1993.

She recalled how, in the label’s early, hard-scuffling days, Baby Williams would point to a picture on his office wall of a million dollars cash and say, “That’s going to be me.”

“He manifested that,” Ms. Tee said. “To come out of the projects and to reach those heights – who can dream that?”

Designating the corner of Erato and Saratoga as Williams Brothers Way is “good for the culture of New Orleans,” she said.

“And the youth can understand that you can start off one way in life and end up getting a street named after you.”

Note: An earlier version of this article misstated the year Juvenile's "400 Degreez" was released. Also, it is the Williams brothers' stepmother who now runs Gladys Bar.