B.G.

Born Christopher Dorsey in New Orleans, Louisiana, on September 3, 1980, B.G. entered the Cash Money roster as one of its earliest rappers and cut his first tracks for the 1995 album True Story when he was only 14, sharing space with an 11-year-old Lil Wayne and in-house producer Mannie Fresh. Although he later struck out on his own, the New Orleans rapper stayed linked to the label that had brought him his biggest success, above all through the landmark 1999 single “Bling Bling.” Three solo projects—Chopper City (1996), It’s All on U, Vol. 1 (1997), and It’s All on U, Vol. 2 (1997)—plus the Hot Boys’ debut Get It How U Live! (1997) appeared before Cash Money secured major-label distribution through Universal Records.

Chopper City in the Ghetto (1999) became one of the first Cash Money releases to ride that Universal pipeline, yielding the nationwide hit “Bling Bling,” which helped embed the phrase in popular speech, and eventually earning platinum certification. The second Hot Boys album, Guerrilla Warfare (1999), followed quickly and also reached platinum, powered by the singles “We on Fire” and “I Need a Hot Girl.” At the peak of its commercial moment, Cash Money also reissued earlier catalog titles such as True Story and Chopper City. B.G.’s Checkmate (2000) marked his final album for the imprint after a financial disagreement prompted his exit.

He started Chopper City Records in 2002 under a Koch distribution deal and used the new outlet to issue Livin’ Legend (2003), a pointed release that detailed his conflicts with Cash Money figures Brian “Baby” Williams (aka Birdman) and Lil Wayne. Further Chopper City projects arrived in steady succession: Life After Cash Money (2004), The Heart of tha Streetz, Vol. 1 (2005), The Heart of tha Streetz, Vol. 2 (2006), and the 2007 collaboration We Got This with his affiliate crew the Chopper City Boyz. By the time the group’s second album, Life in the Concrete Jungle, surfaced in 2008, the lineup had been reduced to a duo.