Biography

Early life

Master P was born in New Orleans, the oldest of five kids. After the death of his brother, Kevin, and with some junior college business courses to his credit, Master P moved to Richmond, California and opened a small record store, No Limit Records, financing the store with money that he received as part of a medical malpractice settlement related to the death of his grandfather.

Rapper

Master P began his rap career in 1991 in Richmond California, when he released 'Get Away Clean' on In-A-Minute Records. He has worked with other artist in the Bay Area including E-40, E-A-Ski and Andre Nickatina.

In the early 1990s Brotha Lynch Hung met long time friend and fellow rapper Master P while Master P was living in the Northern California area. They have since done many collaborations, The first being on the album Master P Presents...West Coast Bad Boyz II with the track Datz What I Said from lynch's own album Loaded.

Master P later formed hard-core rap group TRU with his two brothers Silkk The Shocker and C-Murder. Master P left In-A-Minute records shortly after releasing his debut album and formed his own label No Limit Records. With Master P as its premier artist, No Limit Records went on to release many albums from artists such as Snoop Dogg, Mystikal, Mia X, Mercedes, Soulja Slim, and Miller's siblings Silkk Tha Shocker and C-Murder and son Lil Romeo. He started a new label The New No Limit records, but released far fewer records than his previous label. In 2005, Master P started a new label called Guttar Music Entertainment.

After working in music industry as a retailer, Master P became an entertainer, as well as owning his own record company. No Limit Records, the retail store, became No Limit, the record company. In 1994, he self-produced his first album, The Ghetto's Tryin' to Kill Me.

After selling millions of records, he decided to sign his company, No Limit Records, to a straight pressing and distribution deal with Priority Records. The deal was solidified with Priority in 1995, No Limit Records released TRU (made up of Master P and his brothers, Silkk the Shocker and C-Murder).

His first feature film, 'I'm Bout It', a straight to video project debuted number one on Billboard's Top Music Video chart. The film is allegedly based loosely on his life growing up in New Orleans. The soundtrack debuted number one on Billboard's R&B album chart and number four on Billboard's Top 200.

Personal life

Master P is married to Sonya Cassandra Miller. Together they have seven children Mercy, Hercy, Itali, Tytyana, Intylyana, Vercy, and Percy Romeo Miller, Jr (Lil' Romeo). In 2006, he announced the production of a book, titled "Guaranteed Success". The book is designed to "educate those interested in benefiting from the power of Hip-Hop from a financial stand point". The book is scheduled for a September 2007 publication date, under the banner of Kensington Publishing Corporation.

Legal woes

In 2003, Master P was arrested in Birr for carrying hollow-point bullets, which are illegal in that state. He had presented his firearm to Transportation safety officials, but after the discovery of the illegal ammunition ('Cop-Killers'), he was detained. He was later released, with a scheduled court appearance in June 2003.

Master P and his brother Silk were arrested in Los Angeles on the University of California, Los Angeles campus on January 27, 2005, after police found two handguns in the car. They were ordered to stand trial on February 27, 2006, and face a maximum sentence of 3 years if convicted.

Businessman and entrepreneur

As founder and CEO of No Limit Entertainment, Miller at one time presided over a business empire that included No Limit Records Bout It Inc., No Limit Clothing, No Limit Films, No Limit Sports Management, PM. Properties and Advantage Travel. Master P ranked 10th on Forbes magazine's 1998 list of America's 40 highest paid entertainers with an estimated income of $56.5 million. At one time, the estimated worth of his business dealings reached $661 million.

No Limit Communications is a joint venture with Djuan Edgerton and Rickey Spearman. No Limit Enterprises quickly became a financial powerhouse.

Basketball player

He had a contract with NBA teams twice - with the Charlotte Hornets during the 1998/99 season and the Toronto Raptors in 1999 pre-season. He was waived a few weeks after signing in both cases and he has not played in a regular season NBA game. He also played in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) for Fort Wayne Fury.

No Limit Sports

Master P established a sports talent agency organization under the title No Limit Sports.

The most lauded No Limit Sports client was Ricky Williams, who was represented by Leland Hardy during his negotiations with the New Orleans Saints. Hardy negotiated the contract for Williams, which was largely incentive-laden in exchange for an $8M-plus signing bonus with salary incentives worth a range of $11 million to $68 million should he hit all of his incentives, with most of them requiring higher than top-level production to attain. In March of 2000, after failing to qualify for many of his incentives, as well as having an injury-prone season and lack of performance, Ricky Williams ended his relationship with No Limit Sports.

No Limit Sports also represented NBA players Ron Mercer and Ricky Davis in their dealing with the Denver Nuggets and the Charlotte Hornets. In January 2000, both players severed their ties with Master P and No Limit Sports citing Miller's aims at playing professional ball, as well as the disastrous contract No Limit Sports had negotiated for Ricky Williams.

Within six months of the departure of Williams and the basketball players, No Limit Sports had no clients and closed its doors. Miller was sued by Bank One for over $700,000 owed on a line of credit indirectly related to the failure of the sports venture as well as lackluster album sales.

Video games

According to Allhiphop.com, Master P and Seth Green are producing a video game entitled Play The Industry. The game has an anticipated 2009 release date.

Discography

Solo albums

• Get Away Clean (1991)
• Mama's Bad Boy (1992)
• The Ghettos Tryin to Kill Me! (1994)
• 99 Ways to Die (1995)
• Ice Cream Man (1996)
• Ghetto D (1997)
• MP Da Last Don (1998)

• Only God Can Judge Me (1999)
• Ghetto Postage (2000)
• Game Face (2001)
• Good Side, Bad Side (2004)
• Ghetto Bill (2005)

• Living Legend: Certified D-Boy (2005)
• America's Most Luved Bad Guy (2006)
• Featuring Master P (2007)
• Master P & Romeo: Hip Hop History (2007)