Cash Money bros Birdman and Slim sat down with Forbes to describe the genesis of their wealth.

Birdman explained that it came from the hardball tactics they played with the labels when they were still independent.

"Russell Simmons refused us. I met with him personally. Lyor (Cohen), all of those guys refused. But we was already making a million dollars a month. A million dollars independent. We refused to allow a structured deal that they take anything from us."

They finally signed a very favorable distribution deal with Universal, which gave them an 85-15 split and 100 percent of their masters.

"We generated two billion since we've been in this company," Slim said.

A figure that should annoy all of the people they don't pay.