When Cash Money Records was getting off the ground in New Orleans in the early ’90s, Sthaddeus “Polo Silk” Terrell had a front row view. Good thing he always had a camera on him.
An Uptown native, Terrell knew Bryan “Baby” Williams and Ronald “Slim” Williams from the neighborhood, and the brothers knew Terrell was out and about, going to hip-hop shows all over the city and taking photos of both performers and clubgoers. So when Cash Money started releasing albums and booking shows, Terrell helped out by putting up posters and getting the new music into the hands of DJs.
And he would snap photos the whole time.
“Baby would always say, ‘I’m not a rapper. I’m a game spitter,’” Terrell says. “But who knew, in the early ’90s, that game spitting would wind up [making Cash Money] not only one of the biggest brands in hip-hop but in music?”
Terrell has photographed countless Cash Money artists, fans, friends and family members over the years, and a new exhibition now puts many of those shots on display.
“Polo Silk Presents: Cash Money Records from the ’99-2000” opens Friday, Jan. 31, at Sibyl Gallery in Uptown with 42 photos taken by Terrell of artists like Lil Wayne, Juvenile, Baby, Mannie Fresh, Magnolia Shorty and more. There also will be some backdrops, posters, business cards and other items on display. The show continues through March 16, and there are plans to publish a photo book based on the exhibition.
The photos, Terrell says, stretch from the early ’90s with shots from Cash Money’s early years with artists like Tec-9 and Lil Ya (who perform together as UNLV) and the late Pimp Daddy into the early 2000s and the era when Lil Wayne, Juvenile, BG, Turk, Baby and Mannie Fresh dominated national radio. It’s an intimate documentation of an important era in not only New Orleans music but the wider hip-hop community.
“We used to be hearing NWA and Big Daddy Kane or the other rappers from around the country talking about their neighborhoods,” Terrell says. “But when you got to the point where you could hear people that you knew and grew up with, and they’re telling their stories that you can relate to — and saying, ‘Get your shine on’ and ‘I’m the number one stunna’ — it kind of makes you stick your chest out.”
Alongside shots of performers on stage or partying together, Terrell also wanted to include photos of family members and fans. Terrell often prints and frames photos to give to people, often a picture of a lost family member or friend.
“Most exhibits on artists show mostly them performing and stuff like that, but I’m showing pictures of Baby with his family members and BG with his family. [There’s] a picture of Magnolia Shorty with her friends,” Terrell says.
“Family has always been big to me,” he adds. “That’s why anytime I had an opportunity … when I caught them with their family members, I made sure I got a shot of them.”
For nearly 40 years, Terrell has captured Black New Orleans life in an unparalleled way through countless film shots and Polaroid pictures at concerts, block parties, second lines and Super Sundays.
A fan of the photos in ESSENCE, Ebony and Jet magazines, he started out by taking photos of clubgoers at teen venues around New Orleans. It also was an era when hip-hop was taking off in the city, and Terrell was there to document the rappers and bounce artists coming up in the ’90s.
In the last decade, Terrell has been increasingly recognized locally and nationally for his work, with exhibitions at the New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans Jazz Museum and Antenna, which published his book “Pop That Thang!!!” His photos also appeared in the “Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap” and “The Nameplate: Jewelry, Culture and Identity.”
A couple of years ago, Terrell saw an exhibition at Sibyl Gallery and met founder Katherine Ainsley, and the two discussed mounting a show of Terrell’s work. But 2024 at the gallery was already booked up, so Terrell asked Ainsley for the winter 2025 slot — coinciding with the Super Bowl being in New Orleans. There’s also serendipity to the timing following last year’s Cash Money celebration at the ESSENCE Festival and the Hot Boys reunion.
“It feels like a really energetic and historical show,” Ainsley says, adding, “Polo said the neighborhood superstars need to be able to stick their chest out for this one. It’s going to be a beautiful homage to that time and to the people who are no longer with us.”