Money Man Image:
Daniel Aziz
Money Man has consistently impressed fans with his dedication to releasing new music. Not only has he gained a loyal following, but he has also become known for dropping financial gems through his lyrics. His track “LLC” and “24,” featuring Moneybagg Yo and Lil Baby respectively, have both achieved Gold certification, solidifying his name in the industry.
In 2019, Money Man made a bold move by buying himself out of his contract with Cash Money Records so that he could become an independent artist. This decision allowed him to take full control of his career and launch his own label, Black Circle. Following the success of his recent album Catch Me If You Can Money Man is back with yet another his latest album, Croptober.
Money Man joins EBONY for a conversation about the new album, only touring one time throughout his entire career and not selling his music catalog unless the price is right.
EBONY: There have been a lot of popular artists that have chosen to sell their music catalogs lately, for great profit but you have reportedly declined to sell yours. Why is that?
Money Man: Well, the evaluation of a catalog, if I’m not mistaken is, six or seven times your catalog streams per year. On Apple Music alone I do 300 or 400 million. Spotify, the same thing. I got gold records, platinum records, things of that nature. If people do their research they’ll understand why my catalog is valued at that amount of money. Paranoia is gold or about to go, Epidemic is gold. Those are whole albums that are gold. 24 is three times platinum and I’m independent. I get a bigger percentage of my money. I’ve been offered for somebody to buy my catalog a few times, but there’s no point in selling my catalog because I don’t need the money. I can leave my catalog for my kids. Now if an offer comes that I can’t refuse, then maybe we could talk about something. But I don’t really have to sell my catalog.
Is there a specific story or meaning behind the album title Croptober that you would like to share?
Croptober is really the harvest season with the exotics. So really, it’s plentiful around now and the price is low. I’m out west a lot and I connect with different people. I grow my own strains, I got the purple heart strain coming. Croptober was really just getting back to that, to that grow life because I had Grow God and Harvest Season mixtapes, and it’s just a continuation from there.
What were some of the lessons you learned during your time with Cash Money Records/Republic in 2019 and how were you able to buy yourself out of the contract?
What’s crazy [is] my lawyer at the time talked me into doing that and I didn’t see a point in doing it — just to be honest. … I called Stunna and was like, “I want to go back independent. I will give you double what you gave me. Just let me out the contract,” and Stunna was a real one. Love him to this day for letting me out.
I went on tour one time in my whole career and I got banging records, but I don’t have to because most artists have to constantly tour because they’re not making a revenue stream.
Money Man
Growing up in Georgia, a city that played a big part of Hip Hop and celebrating its 50th bday, who do you think is the originator of trap music?
I’m giving T.I., Jeezy and Gucci all their props because a lot of folks front on Jeezy these days but Jeezy had his time too. People were listening to Jeezy but Gucci was trap for sure he was gutta trap. T.I. was the first one to say it because his album was called Trapmusik.