Rap Moguls Go From Lil’ Wayne to Oil, Keep It Real With Tattoo
2010-02-12 06:00:05.0 GMT

By David Wethe
Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) — An oil well tattooed on the shaved
head of Bryan “Birdman” Williams and a Web site for a company
called Bronald Oil & Gas LLC indicate that two men known for
their gushers in rap music are getting into the energy business.
Williams and his brother Ronald “Slim” Williams founded
Cash Money Records, the music label behind such artists as Lil’
Wayne. Their foray into energy with Bronald, a name that blends
Bryan and Ronald, prompted Houston investment bank Tudor
Pickering Holt & Co. to quip that this may be a sign of the end
of an oil-market rally.
“Doctors and dentists investing in oil wells was sign of
top in 1980s,” the bank said last week in a note to clients.
“Rappers the sign this cycle?”
As for what Bronald is doing in the oil and natural-gas
business, the Williams brothers declined through their
publicist, Kia Selby, to comment. Selby said she was unable to
provide information about the oil company. Bronald doesn’t have
a listed telephone number. Numbers for residences in New Orleans
and Florida that are linked to Bronald in state records don’t
take incoming calls.
Bryan and Ronald Williams are the only people listed under
the management and director headings on Bronald’s Web site.
Under “technical staff,” the site says “to come.”
Bronald describes itself on the site as an independent oil
and gas company focused on exploration and development of assets
in several U.S. Gulf Coast states and Oklahoma’s Osage County.

Buying Leases

“Its initial efforts have been to acquire oil and gas
leases covering areas with historical production and the
opportunity for re-entry drilling as well as new drilling
opportunities,” according to the Web site. “Bronald also hopes
to partner with other developers to jointly exploit significant
additional assets by leveraging Bronald’s infrastructure.”
Oklahoma City-based Chaparral Energy Inc. operates about 40
percent of the wells in Osage County, said Jim Miller, the
company’s senior vice president for operations. He said he
hadn’t heard of Bronald or been contacted by the company.
The address listed for Bronald with the Oklahoma
Corporation Commission is a beachfront condominium in Florida. A
New Orleans residence was listed for Bronald with the Louisiana
Secretary of State. The Williams brothers are listed as
Bronald’s officers in those filings. Regulators that handle oil
and gas permits and operator licenses in Texas and Louisiana
didn’t have records of Bronald’s existence; nor did Secretary of
State offices in Texas and Florida.
Because oil and gas wells are so expensive, Bronald would
likely be a non-operating partner in drilling projects, said Dan
Pickering, president of Tudor Pickering Holt.

Music Moneymaker

“Which established operators they partner with will likely
be a key factor of success,” Pickering said. “One thing about
being stars, they will have a higher profile than a regular
energy start-up.”
Lil’ Wayne ranked 12th last year on Billboard Magazine’s
moneymaker list after pulling in $57.4 million in 2008. The New
Orleans rapper pleaded guilty in October to a weapons charge
arising from a 2007 arrest after a gun was found in his tour bus
in New York, the New York Times reported Feb. 11. His sentencing
was delayed this week because of dental surgery.
One of Cash Money’s biggest hits was Kevin Rudolf’s “Let
It Rock,” which sold more than 2.5 million downloads on iTunes,
Universal Music Group said last year.
The Williams brothers were featured in CNBC’s documentary
“Newbos: The Rise of America’s New Black Overclass.” Their
expansion into the energy business caught the attention of
entertainment-related Web sites.
The sports and culture site Friends of the Program issued a
warning on Feb. 1 for Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest U.S.
company, when it said in a headline about the Williams energy
venture, “Exxon Better Recognize.”
BallerStatus.com, a site dedicated to “urban lifestyle,”
noted Bryan Williams’ tattoo: “Birdman even has a tattoo in
celebration of the new venture, so it looks like he’s serious
about it.”