Cash Money, Mannie Fresh, Master P, Birdman, Fiend, Silkk the Shocker, Mercedes, Mac, Mia X, Lil Boosie, et Mr serv on

Byron O. Thomas, aka. Mannie Fresh, has been blowing me away since I first saw him live back a few years ago. I didn’t know his music at all really, and saw him perform a short hip hop set at a charity street show. From those few tracks, I was compelled to go and buy his music, and I’ve been following him ever since, and the recent show I caught was something else entirely. It’s evident from his performance the Fresh has been performing and creating music for a long time, and the way that he commands the stage with ease and grace is remarkable.
He walked out on stage with his microphone in the air to catch the screaming and cheering from the crowd, and power it out through the monitors. He introduces himself innovatively with a rap, and then launched straight into the title track from his second solo album. Return of the Ballin. I, along with everyone else it appeared, knew the track really well, so everyone was singing along at the top of their lungs.
He played a great selection of his music, and worked really well with his DJ working the decks behind him. He maintained a high energy throughout the show, and had everyone cheering for an encore at the end, which he provided in style.

Just like any other musical movement, hip hop in the nineties was dominated by a sound that was very much of its time; whilst many of the genre’s biggest acts, like Nas and Jay Z, adapted to the fact that the noughties saw a real shift in sonic terms - others, of course, like Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. never made it out of the decade - it wasn’t the case for plenty of other nineties artists. Master P is a fine example of what I’m talking about; a massive success in the nineties, he saw his star begin to wane once the decade was over, but his business dealings have guaranteed him the title of the world’s third richest hip hop figure, with a net worth of $350 million. His focus on the world of business these days has prevented him from touring to the same degree that he used to during his multi-platinum days, but he still makes sporadic performances from time to time, such as a slot at Insane Clown Posse’s Gathering of the Juggalos festival in 2012; he played a quickfire, twenty-minute set that was thrillingly energetic, with a DJ dropping P’s iconic beats and the man himself ripping through a slew of his own nineties classics; when you hear this man rap about money, you know he knows what he’s talking about.

To give you an indication of the degree to which hip hop and the business world now cross over, consider the fact that Birdman - or Bryan Williams, when he’s at home - has released four solo records, all of which met with a lukewarm critical reception and did reasonably well commercially; the highest chart peak for one of those records was at number nine in the U.S. Now consider the fact that he is worth an estimated $160 million. This is a man so rich that once gave Lil Wayne a million dollars in cash for his birthday. Quite rightly, too, though, because Wayne is a big part of why Birdman is so wealthy; he’s the founder of Cash Money Records. Accordingly, he’s spent more time recently working on his label and on the music of the label’s stars than his own material, but plans to release a new record of his own, Bigga Than Life, in the not-too-distant future; similarly, he only makes sporadic live appearances, and is often accompanied by some of his Cash Money proteges in order to augment his own back catalogue. The chances of new UK dates soon, then, are slim, with anybody lucky enough to catch his Shepherd’s Bush show with Drake in 2010 left to cherish the memory.