June 1993

Adopting the name B-32, for his 32 gold teeth, Williams puts out his own album, I Need a Bag of Dope, which should really be considered a compilation; half of the tape is just Mannie Fresh and Pimp Daddy messing around. B-32 is a short-lived nickname, only seeming to exist for this one tape. In 2012, an original pressing cassette is listed on eBay for $7,000.

September 1993

Dwayne Carter Jr. signs to Cash Money as Baby D. His age at the time is a matter of some dispute. In years to come, various versions of his origin story—some spread by Wayne himself—claim he was 7, 11, 12, and 15 upon officially signing. This appears to be strategic. In 1998, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports, “The baby-faced Li’l Wayne typically states his age as 15, but that’s a showbiz white lie. He just turned 17; Williams wants him to keep saying he is 15, to maintain his image as the preternaturally talented youngster of the clique.”

November 1996

Juvenile, who has already achieved regional fame with 1992’s “Bounce (for the Juvenile),” is working in New Orleans as an asbestos remover. According to a 2000 story in Vibe, he steps off the bus one day, still wearing his flame-retardant work suit, and runs into Baby and Slim. He raps for them. They want to sign him. Juvenile asks for a salary of $2,000 a week, to which Baby responds, “Not a problem.” Juvenile quits his job the next morning.

November 1997

Williams returns to the mic for the first time in four years as Baby, one half of the Big Tymers, a duo with Mannie Fresh, for a guest verse on B.G.’s It’s All on U Vol. 2. According to a press release, “The fellas went into the booth and started clowning around on the mic for an intro to the album. The result sounded so good that the two decided to do a whole verse, and thus the Big Tymers were born.”



January 1998

As Cash Money releases spread throughout the South, other labels start circling. Vibe reports that Priority Records had hoped to partner up, but Master P—whose No Limit is already an imprint there—threatened to walk if the deal went through. In 2012, Williams tells Billboard, “We wasn’t really tripping on being with a major. I was making a million dollars a month, shipping 100,000 [of] each album—that’s at $10 [each]. And I dropped three or four of them a month.”