Complex had a chance to sit down with Bryan “Birdman” Williams, as he discusses spending the last two decades building Cash Money Records, the label he and his brother Ronald “Slim” Williams founded in 1991, into one of the most powerful teams in hip-hop history.

His YMCMB imprint, stacked with Drake, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, and a gang of other successful artists, keeps racking up No. 1s, largely thanks to the #1 Stunna’s relentless drive and work ethic.

The 43-year-old mogul, who’s known for his flashy lifestyle, could be kicking his feet up, but instead he keeps doing 12-hour studio sessions daily as he plots to make Cash Money the music industry’s first billion-dollar brand. In fact, he says he has never taken a vacation.

That’s why we had to get with him for our “Shotcaller” interview in our 10th Anniversary Issue. But the magazine version barely scratched the surface. Read on for the raw uncut as Birdman tells us how he discovered Nicki Minaj, why he didn’t get involved in the Drake/Common beef, and whether or not he plans on signing Rick Ross to Cash Money…

What is the difference between the music business today and 10 years ago?

Time changes time. Everything about the game changed from 10 years ago to now. You never had none of the things that we have now, like the Internet. So many different ways for us to make money now in music. And it’s so digital. We’re a digital-driven brand, we’re an Internet brand.

We global nowadays. 15 years ago, when we first jumped on the scene with Universal, we had gotten too big as artists to be independent. But I still look at us as an indie company because we’re self-contained, we’re self owned. We came in the game self-contained, we probably the last independent label that lasted as long as it did. We our own bosses, run our own ship.

For years we did it all off our own money. [The Universal deal] was a risk from day one, but I refuse to let somebody take something that we work hard for and just take half of it. I couldn’t see myself doing that.

Nicki Minaj

We’ve got Nicki Minaj on our current cover. Do you think Nicki Minajis the biggest female rapper of all time?

I say she is, but if she’s not today, within time she will be. No female ever will be able to sell more records than her, have more singles than her, have more number one singles than her, have more awards—no more nothing. She had the most singles by a female last year. Her accomplishments are gonna speak for themselves.

I can say that now because that’s just her first album but she’s only growing and getting bigger and bigger. She’s a global artist. She’s a student to the game. She’s hard-body with her workload.

I watched her grow. We got Nicki off a street DVD. Wayne brought the DVD to me, me and him was on the bus watching it and it was her just rapping. At the time, Wayne didn’t have a female [in the crew] and we were rebuilding what we was doing.

We wanted to have a female that could really rap. Soon as we seen her, we were like “Wow.” Two days later, we flew her out and had a meeting with her. We ain’t never looked back.

Do you see her as the biggest female artist or just as a female rapper?

I don’t look at them as rappers, they’re artists to me. Damn near call them musicians. She’s too well rounded to be just looked at like a rapper. She does it all. You’ll see, we gonna do more numbers—across the counter and digital.

It’s interesting that you mention Rick Ross. A few months ago there was some speculation that he would sign to Cash Money. When his next album drops that will be his 5th album for Def Jam, and his contract will end. Have you and Rick Ross ever had the discussion about him coming to Cash Money?

Nah, not at this point. Ross signed to Def Jam and you know Ross is a close friend of mine. But if the time ever came, we gonna G up and make it happen. Right now he signed to Def Jam, but when the time do come, I’m gonna be right there waiting.

To see the full complex interview click here.