Master P: raps about his rapper son, his $500 million empire and why he cleaned up his act - Interview - Cover Story

Ebony, June, 2002 by Kevin Chappel

And while Master P is now credited with creating a market for Southern rap, at the moment hip-hop's hottest segment, he realizes that his strength is not in his lyrics but his business savvy.

It's his business sense that led him to make smart distribution deals with major record labels, and it is his business sense that he hopes will carry the New No Limit Records (which recently signed a distribution deal with Universal Records) to even bigger and better things in the future.

What motivates Master P more than anything is his desire to leave a legacy behind that his family can benefit from for generations. "If I stop right now, my family could live good, the next generation could live good, and maybe the next generation. But somewhere along the way they're going to have to start all over again," he says. "It's important to pass down money. But it's more important to pass down a good name, a legacy. White folks have been passing down their name from generation to generation. I want to have a name powerful enough to pass down. I want people to say about my great-great-grandchildren 200 years from now, `Oh, those are the Millers. They are good people.' More than a car, more than a house, more than a business, to me, a good name is the most important thing I could leave behind."