Image via Complex Original
Rap culture has always been obsessed with the spoils of victory. From private planes to chains on chains, the material goods a successful career in hip-hop can acquire have always been a fixture in the genre.
But what happens when those material prizes—the money, the cars, the clothes—all start to work less in favor of the image of rap celebrities, and start to work against them? When those assets aren't managed carefully and begin to backfire on those who prized them so much?
We'll tell you what happens: For one thing, the IRS usually comes calling.
And for another, inevitably, A History of Hip-Hop Going Broke emerges.
Written by M.T. Richards.
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Trick Daddy
When did they go broke?
Big-hearted thug Trick Daddy has been trying in vain to dodge Uncle Sam for over a decade. According to the IRS, he failed to pay sufficient scratch in 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. This amounted to $157,034 in unpaid taxes. What's more, his suburban Miami home was foreclosed in May 2010.
Did they recover?
A sequel to 1996's bounce-rap classic www.Thug.com is said to be in the works, but otherwise Trick hasn't made much noise since the foreclosure. On the financial tip, though, things may be looking up for him: Ravens linemen and recent Super Bowl champ Bryant McKinnie apparently owes Trick's father $375,000 in strip club debts. Once Pops gets compensated, maybe he can break off a little something to Trick.
Ma$e
When did they go broke?
After helping pioneer "shiny suit" rap with Puff and Big, Ma$e famously jettisoned the world of hip-hop for the religious sector, becoming a Christian pastor. Once there, he kept his more materialistic tendencies: Atlanta jeweler Aydin and Company sued him for failing to pay $35,000 over six years. A Georgia court luckily sided with him.
Did they recover?
Well: Last April, the state of Florida claimed that he owed more than $124,000 in unpaid local taxes.
Damon Dash
When did they go broke?
While not a rapper per se, Dame Dash balled like one during his tenure at the now defunct Roc-A-Fella. Sadly, the mogul's downfall has been just as epic. Dash and Roc-A-Fella co-founder Jay-Z exchanged fantastic bile for years—remember when Dash infuriated Jay by promoting Cam'ron?—before the label disbanded. In the wake of a nasty 2009 divorce from wife Rachel Roy, Dash had his Chevy Tahoe repossessed and two NYC condos foreclosed.
Did they recover?
It gets more humiliating for Dame. In 2011, he got embroiled in a very public war of words with ex-girlfriend Linda Williams, who called him a "deadbeat" for allegedly falling behind on child support. Dash nearly had his business licenses provoked as a result. Then comes the real kicker: he owes some $2 million to the IRS.
Bow Wow
When did they go broke?
Bow Wow's problems are comparatively benign. Unlike many of his hip-hop peers, he is not in debt up to his eyeballs or in danger of losing his every material possession. Still, Bow Wow does have his problems. In 2009, he was court-ordered to cough up the $216,084 he owed creditors—the MC had failed to keep on his car payments after leasing a Ferrari in '08.
Did they recover?
According to published reports, Bow Wow nets around $48,000 a year (so much for the Cash Money Millionaire tag) and has $1,500 or so in his bank account. The somewhat embarrassing details of his professional life were made known last year, when Bow Wow was sparring with the mother of his daughter over child support. He told 106 & Park that he was "all good," but we're not so convinced.
Xzibit
When did they go broke?
The quick-witted ex-host of MTV's Pimp My Ride, Xzibit has been out of a steady paycheck since 2008. That was the year when Pimp My Ride was cancelled. X's income soon fell to a reported $67,510. After his SoCal home was foreclosed in 2009, X to the Z filed for bankruptcy.
Did they recover?
X's first bankruptcy filing was promptly dismissed, so he tried again in 2010. (No dice that time, either.) Then, in 2011, amid reports that he owed almost $1 million in federal back taxes, he publicly blamed the cancellation of Pimp My Ride for his being broke. The IRS didn't sympathize. As of September, he still owed over $130,000.
Lil Kim
When did they go broke?
Kim has tried to put her mid-'00s prison stint (for perjury) behind her, but thus far has been unsuccessful. In 2008, she was sued by her former label, Brookland Media, for $2.5 million, which legally barred her from putting out new music.
Did they recover?
Kim was once capable of holding her own on a track with peak-era Chris Wallace, so she's got no shortage of fight in her. She'll need that indomitable spirit in the ostensibly tough times ahead. In 2012, it came to light that she owed seven years worth of back taxes. Total: $1 million.
Uncle Luke
When did they go broke?
In the 1990s, bass pioneer and M.I.A. hip-hop ambassador Uncle Luke was maligned on a near unimaginable scale, persecuted for his hyper-sexual lyrics and raunchy stage show; Tipper Gore, for one, was not a fan. Luke thrived on the bad publicity for years, but in 1995, his Luke Records imprint was driven into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A Miami lawyer named Joe Weinberger purchased the label's entire catalog.
Did they recover?
Incredulously enough, Luke has reinvented himself as a Pee Wee football coach and a Miami New Times columnist. This is not to say he can't still let his freak flag fly with abandon: he owns an adult film company, after all. But between his porn career and various other business endeavors, Luke isn't having trouble paying the bills.
Method Man
When did they go broke?
Arguably the most humorous entry on this list, Method Man has had trouble keeping his financial ducks in row. The rapper/basehead/Method Man Presents: The Strip Game director was said to have owed $52,503 in income taxes. In 2009, the Department of Taxation repossessed his Lincoln Navigator. According to Meth, the IRS had been hounding him to pay his back taxes since '02. "I never paid that shit because I don't think like that," he hilariously told the New York Daily News.
Did they recover?
Meth chalked up his money problems to a legendarily crippling weed habit ("I forget everything else"). He was facing a four-year prison sentence for tax evasion when, in 2010, he pleaded guilty to one count of Attempted Failure to Pay Taxes. He's kept relatively quiet since then, but 20 years after Enter the Wu-Tang, it's clear that cash still rules everything around him.
Common
When did they go broke?
Boho MC Com Sense always purported that money ain't a thang. For years, Common was virulently anti-materialism on record. But in a cruel twist of irony, he may have been living an unaffordable lifestyle. Bank of America alleged that Com stopped making mortgage payments on his ritzy Chicago condo in March 2012. They threatened him with foreclosure that summer.
Did they recover?
Common narrowly avoided foreclosure in September, selling the condo for an estimated $350,000—according to ABC News, this was $50,000 less than he'd paid for the place. Given that we're not exactly in a seller's market, though, Com made it out okay. His film career, meanwhile, is categorically not okay.
Fat Joe
When did they go broke?
Fat Joe once rhymed about being turned on by "office types." He could use some business acumen himself. In 2010, it was widely reported that he'd been hit with a $139,000 tax lien. Joe told a journalist at the time that he was "perfectly perfect," which was too rosy a description to be anything other than shitkick.
Did they recover?
No. Contrarily, things have only gotten worse for Joe—it turns out that he's stolen more than just Pun's rhyme book. Last December, he admitted having failed to pay income taxes on $3 million between 2007 and 2010. The rapper, who is expected to be sentenced in April, is looking down the barrel at two years in prison.
Lil Flip
When did they go broke?
Lil Flip's parade of hits from 2003-05 now feels a relic from a bygone era: synthetic acoustic guitars! Harmonizing R&B divas! There's no market for "thug love" ballads anymore, which makes Flip shit out of luck. In 2007, the erstwhile Freestyle King was arrested for credit card fraud. Then, in a widely-circulated '09 email penned by the estranged mother of Flip's stepdaughter, it was revealed that he pays just $500 a month in child support. Since child support is usually tied to income, we can infer that Flip has fallen on hard times.
Did they recover?
Flip has faded into such obscurity that little seems to be known about his whereabouts year to year, but last Christmas, he was pinched for gun and weed possession. He pleaded not guilty last week and his pre-trial has been set for April. He also somewhat pathetically dissed Chief Keef, perhaps because Keef's "Love Sosa" chorus ("You boys ain't makin' no dough!") hit too close to home.
Swizz Beats
When did they go broke?
Years ago, when Swizz released "Money in the Bank" (not to be confused with the version by inexplicable VH1 mascot Lil Scrappy), he must not have foreseen that tax collectors would be on his tail for upwards of $2.6 million. But Swizzy's skirting of Uncle Sam isn't without personal precedent. In 2010, he was alleged to have owed the state of New York $98,246 in back taxes.
Did they recover?
Swizz and cash-cow wifey Alicia Keys are reportedly having trouble selling their SoHo penthouse, which in 2012 they put on the market for a cool $17.95 mil. That said, no one should weep for the self-proclaimed One Man Band. He at least has enough disposable income to invest in the energy drink Monster, as Complex reported a few weeks ago.
Nas
When did they go broke?
Nas' money woes date back to at least 2009, following a spitefully personal divorce from Kelis. The courts ruled that he pay his ex-wife $25,000 per month in spousal/child support. Somehow this did not quell his already substantial financial pains, which included a $6 million (not a typo) tax lien.
Did they recover?
The good news: Life Is Good was the first Nas album since God's Son to make us do the scrounge face. The bad news: his Atlanta-area house was foreclosed in October. All proceeds from his aforementioned, Lauryn Hill-abetted tour are said to have gone towards paying the Georgia Department of Revenue. This means he cannot afford any more hats like the one from the "Hate Me Now" video.
Lauryn Hill
When did they go broke?
People's champion Lauryn Hill used to rhyme about scrub-ass day jobs (on The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill's "Superstar," she mentioned Foot Locker as a former employer). Our hearts sank last year when it was reported that this bohemian femcee had given into the gluttony of the 1 percent, stashing millions in a Romney-esque goober hole somewhere. Moreover, the state of New Jersey demanded over $400,000 in unpaid local taxes. Ms. Hill tried to rationalize all of this in a very Lauryn Hill fashion, claiming to have "gone underground" in an effort to "build a community," whatever the fuck that means.
Did they recover?
In June, Hill emerged from her self-built community to plead guilty to three counts of misdemeanor tax evasion. She faces one year in prison for each count. Hill's attorney assured the press that she would cover her back taxes, so that's something, we guess. On a more encouraging note, her 2012 tour with "If I Ruled the World" collaborator Nas was seemingly well received.
Ja Rule
When did they go broke?
Ja Rule made Tunnel bangers for people who took the tunnels home to North Caldwell. For fans of stick-up kid rap, Ja's bubblegum hip-hop was uncomfortably palatable—he rhymed over sickeningly precious Irv Gotti beats and somehow emasculated the "Flava In Ya Ear" remix, among other things. Being a flagrant sellout proved lucrative, until the hits dried up in 2004 or so. In 2011, after seven relatively workless years, the IRS stuck him with a gigantic bill ($1.1 million) he wasn't equipped to pay. A tearful Ja admitted in court, "I didn't know how to deal with these finances."
Did they recover?
As of this writing, Ja is a week or so into a 120-day federal prison sentence for tax evasion—with time docked for the two years he'd done for gun possession. There were rumors that Ja had left his fam a pretty paltry severance package, but defiant wife Aisha Atkins told reporters that they were "far from broke." (No word on how Lil Mo and Cadillac Tah are doing.)
Beanie Sigel
How did they go broke?
More than anything, staggering legal fees are what lightened Beans' loafers. He served a year in prison on weapons charges in 2004, before standing trial for attempted murder in '05. (He was acquitted, but the dual trials undoubtedly took their financial toll.) It was sad, though not wholly surprising, when in 2010 Beans was found guilty of tax evasion, having failed to report an estimated $1.5. million in income.
Did they recover?
This past September, Beanie was again carted off to prison, where he'll stay for another two years. His post-incarceration prospects look awfully bleak. He seems decreasingly able to cope with the mounting pressures of his personal life, to say nothing of a career that hasn't seen a certifiable mainstream hit since the crumbling of the Roc-A-Fella empire.
Scott Storch
When did they go broke?
The pallid-complexioned Scott Storch always looked sickly, and now we understand why: he's coked to the gills most of the time. In 2006 alone, Storch is said to have spent $30 million (and a decent share of it on blow). Timbaland once wrote him off as a "piano man," but Storch was always hella nimble behind the keys, producing hits as wildly disparate as Destiny's Child's "Cater 2 U" and Terror Squad's "Lean Back." More recently, though, he's become a tabloid mainstay thanks to his ravaging appetite for a different sort of keys.
Did they recover?
You tell us. Last year, amid reports that Storch owed close to $30,000 in child support, he was nabbed for coke possession in Vegas. At some point during this period, Storch decided to ease his mind with an excursion out west. Seemed innocent enough, until he bailed on his tab at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Jermaine Dupri
When did they go broke?
So So Def founder Jermaine Dupri once had the industry's most discerning eye for pint-sized talent (Kris Kross, Bow Wow), which afforded him "ten acres of land" and "about a million dollars worth of cars," per his verse on Dem Franchize Boyz' "I Think They Like Me." What Jermaine left out was that many of those toys were repossessed years earlier, during a 2002 raid on his Atlanta pad—his first of several run-ins with the Internal Revenue Service this millennium.
Did they recover?
At long last, Dupri seems to have definitively averted the poorhouse. Just this month, he paid off the $3 million (!) tax lien that had been hanging over his head since '08. The celebratory champagne no doubt tasted just a touch sweeter on the eve of So So Def's 20th anniversary concert, which by all accounts was a pretty big hit.
MC Hammer
When did they go broke?
Ridiculed for his artless music and puffy fashion sense, Hammer had become a sort of walking punchline by the mid 1990s. He was also—and this is big—$13.7 million in the red. Even after a series of televised mea culpas, the public seemingly wanted nothing to do with Hammer.
Did they recover?
It would be one thing if Hammer were able to profit off his inanity a la Ozzy Osbourne. But no: as recently as 2011, he was alleged to have owed the feds more than $700K in back taxes. On the other hand, he does run his own Christian ministry, so maybe he's rich in spirit?
Young Buck
When did they go broke?
Young Buck has a proven track record of evasiveness (ironic, considering he had such choice words for dodgy females on the G-Unit hit "I Wanna Get to Know You"). In 2010, Buck was forced into Chapter 16 bankruptcy after an IRS raid on his Tennessee home. Soon he was auctioning off his possessions in one of the most dramatic public shamings in hip-hop history (made even more by Buck's claims that he bought back much of what was auctioned).
Did they recover?
We hope that Buck, who was ousted from 50 Cent's camp in 2008, will someday regain his dignity in full. The spurned MC is now serving an 18-month prison sentence on unrelated weapons charges; who knows what kind of future awaits him on the outside. Alas, Buck appears to have exhausted most of his prominent industry contacts, so things don't look promising.