Surprise of the Century: Rappers Are Lying About Their Wealth

Are you surprised? BusinessWeek investigates outrageous monetary claims from rappers.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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"The truth in my verses, versus, your metaphors about what your net worth is,” Jay-Z raps on "Versus" off his latest album, Magna Carta Holy Grail. 

Of course he's right—you think Nicki Minaj really has billion dollar credit? No. Rappers lie about how much they're worth—during interviews, on their record, on Twitter, etc.

Bloomberg's BusinessWeek paired up specific lyrics with Forbes' “Cash Kings of Hip Hop” and “Forbes Five” reports from the same year their ridiculous monetary claims were made.

For instance, Jay-Z rhymes "Like these rappers rap about all the shit that I do really/I'm like 'Really: half a billi, really?/You got baby money" on HAM from 2011. That year, his net worth was $475 million. That's not too far from the truth, at least not as far as Nas' claim that he was worth $200 million. He was $6 million in debt in 2011.

Check out the chart here, and watch Bloomberg's Scarlet Fu break it down in the video above. 

[via BusinessWeek]

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