Arguably the greatest hustler in Hip Hop history, Master P revealed to HipHopDX yesterday (January 31st) that, had it happened, his most impressive score would have been adding the legendary Tupac Shakur to his once mighty No Limit Records roster.
“To be honest wit’chu, at one time, I was thinking about signing Tupac,” replied P when asked by DX if there were any other big-name free agents, in addition to Snoop Dogg, that The Colonel tried to bring over to Hip Hop’s most successful label of the 1990s.
According to Master P, he attempted to sign the Oakland-based Tupac several years before No Limit’s commercial explosion, when the label had yet to center its operations in P’s native New Orleans, Louisiana and was still headquartered in Richmond, California as one of several up-and-coming Bay Area independent labels.
“[Tupac] was liking the movement of what we was doing,” explained P, “but we wasn’t fully there yet. … That was one little piece that I was looking at like, ‘You know what? This could be alright.’”
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While there is no known video footage or photos of Master P and Tupac together, the head honcho of the rechristened No Limit Forever label revealed that he and his currently incarcerated brother C-Murder were once opening acts for the future icon of Reality Rap, and additionally confirmed to DX that he subsequently spoke to Tupac directly regarding Interscope Records’ then biggest Hip Hop signee possibly joining “the tank.”
“Everybody was interested in No Limit,” replied P when asked if ‘Pac personally expressed interest in enlisting as a No Limit soldier. “I don’t think there was one person in the music business that wasn’t interested in being a part of that movement.”
Stay tuned to HipHopDX for Master P’s full feature interview, in which The Colonel explains the stray shots at dress-wearing, skateboard-riding youth culture included on his just-released Al Capone mixtape, his parental relationship to Chief Keef and why he “can’t change” who he is and was forced to abandon his attempt at curse-free, positive Rap. The man who was once responsible for over 75 million albums sold also revisits No Limit Records’ past – including if P’s hoop dreams destroyed the tank, why he refused to negotiate with Beats By The Pound and what the real origins of “Bout It” are, contrary to Mannie Fresh’s version of events.
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