MASTER P’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT
MUSIC MOGUL TURNS LASER-LIKE FOCUS TO POPULAR LINE OF GROCERY STAPLES
After selling millions of records on his own independent label, No Limit Records, rapper and music mogul Percy Miller (a.k.a. Master P), 54, is now the chief executive of P. Miller Enterprises, which has launched a popular line of grocery products including chips, ramen, flour, rice, breakfast cereal, frying mix and other pantry staples. He lives in Los Angeles. (This interview has been shortened and condensed.)
Q Through No Limit Records you were already legendary for your hustle in the music business, but you’re starting these small brands and have become something of a guru of small-business ownership. Why the shift?
A I let people know that I come from hip hop, but that was one part of my life. I view that like my childhood. This is new. I want to create thousands of me. I feel like the only way to get justice and change now is through economic empowerment, and the more African Americans and Latinos that we educate and show the importance of entrepreneurship, this will be the only way we eliminate poverty and a lack of education.
For us to put money back into our communities, we need to be successful on the ownership side: owning property in our community, owning products, building cultures of economic empowerment through training our culture about that. That’s why we’re so far behind, dwelling on the past and not looking at the future. We can’t change the past, but we can change the future by starting now. You don’t have to be perfect. But really, understanding the importance of ownership, this is way to solve our problems. Educating our peers and our kids. It’s all about the next generation to me.
Q I don’t want to pigeonhole you as just a “celebrity,” but plenty of celebrities have used their platform to promote the concept of wealth-building in the Black community. You seem to be taking a very specific approach with creating consumer products, however. What’s the philosophy behind that?
A Well, when you look at the big picture, product outweighs talent. Look at Michael Jordan. Where does he make most of his money for real now? Through product. George Foreman? Through product. These guys were super-talented, but those careers just sparked their business. If you look at Shaq (O’neal) now he’s on every commercial on TV — it’s all about product. If we’re going to build wealth, it’s about product. Look at “Famous Amos.” (Wally Amos) was on the right track with his product, but he sold for a couple of million
WE CAN’T CHANGE THE PAST, BUT WE CAN CHANGE THE FUTURE BY STARTING NOW. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE PERFECT.
dollars. They sold that brand later for $1.4 billion. His family should be eating off that right now.
I’m talking about building generational wealth. It starts with product, and we have so many great entrepreneurs in our culture who never get a chance to take their products and pass that down.
I think we need to start looking at that process.
Q What most intrigues me about your products is that they are basic household staples, the things our mothers made us run to the corner store to get — not the fancy tequilas, vodkas, fashion lines, the things that other stars are associated with. Everyday stuff.
A As a kid I grew up buying and eating these products, the snack foods, and none of us ever owned them.
People make billions of dollars off of us. We spend a trillion dollars a year, and we never own the simple things: the chips, the cereal, ice cream, noodles, rice, pancake mix, syrup.
You look at Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben — these are pure mockeries of us. Our grandparents made us buy these products because we thought it was Black-owned.
I started small. I started in the corner grocery stores, the mom-and-pop stores, and showed them love and built my brand. Even now that I’m getting into the Krogers, Target, the Walmarts, I’m still showing that love to the mom-and-pop stores and making sure they have my product. I’m in this lane by myself, but I’m also helping other African-american product owners get their products on the shelf, too.
I was just studying Louis Vuitton, how his family went through so much hardship, but they were able to pass the brand down from generation to generation. Why can’t we do it, and be able to give opportunity, employment and executive positions to people who look like us?
I want to change that narrative and show people that I built something from the ground up and built a successful brand. I know that’s not sexy. It’s not the music business.
I just appreciate people like you recognizing this, and if we’re going to change the narrative, we have to celebrate this.
We only celebrate the negative, not the positive things we can make a change with.