Article here. Ran into it over at Get Rich Slowly.
Bun B held up his silver chain to show off the 4-inch-square, diamond-encrusted “B” hanging at the end. It flashed in the spotlight.
“If you’re gonna buy a chain for $30,000, be sure it’s not the only $30,000 you have.”
This is probably where I would have walked out.
But that’s just me. I do think this is a great idea though, especially if people will listen. I personally would have a problem taking financial (or any other type of) advice from someone with gold teeth and chains that get in the way of their feet, but I would love to see this just for comedy’s sake.
“I took my homeboys to the club, buyin’ bottles, got the rims — you know what I mean,” said Slim Thug, 26, a Houston rapper whose prized possessions include a $460,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom. “Then I couldn’t be paying the rent! Homeboys can’t help you now.”
That’s comedy gold. It boggles my mind that anyone can take this seriously. While I do support teaching young people about personal finance, in any way necessary, I have to admit that I’m also embarrassed that my generation requires it to be broken down in such a ridiculous manner.
The group’s early goals were to register young minorities to vote and to fight stiff drug-possession laws. But the organization has since evolved into a movement to teach young minorities how to manage their financial lives. This is the third year for its Hip-Hop Summit, which goes to six more cities.
No comment.
“We talk about FICO scores and owning a house — owning a crib — and stacking your paper (i.e., counting your money),” CEO Chavis said. “We make financial terminology cool.”
I guess you could say that. If this will encourage people to stop wasting their money on all things chrome and ridiculous, it will be more than worth it. I’m just not sure this is the right group of people to be teaching it. But I guess what’s important is that people learn to stop ignoring the future and using credit like it’s free money. Maybe if this takes off, rappers will stop focusing on drugs, sex, booze and rims and start rapping about IRA’s, money market accounts, bonds and mutual funds.
I’m excited to see what transpires from this, but regardless of how well Bun B speaks about his experiences and lessons about money management, I still can’t help but imagine that his largest savings account is a mayonnaise jar under the passenger’s seat of his Escalade.
Stay tuned for an expansion on the topic of teaching personal finance in the next couple of days.
12 responses so far ↓
1 Personal Finance // Jun 25, 2008 at 2:23 am
Wow… I don’t even know what to say! Maybe they should start using mint.com - that site is very helpful in budgeting… something I’ve never been too good at.
2 freestyle rap // Jul 18, 2008 at 11:36 am
rapping covers all sorts of wierd and wonderful topics. if you want to see some real freetyle rap genius follow the link in my name ans watch the youtube vid - the best rapper alive (and i bet his finances are in good health!!!
3 will i am // Jan 8, 2009 at 9:44 pm
it all comes down to managing what you have and not wasting your cash on weeks
4 Urban Clothing // Jun 10, 2009 at 1:33 pm
There are also a long list of anecdotes about athletes horribly mis-managing their finances. Daunte Culpepper, Latrell Spreewell, Lenny Dykstra…etc., etc., have all faced repossession of their property while they were cashing big checks during their careers. It is madness.
5 Jonathan Daniel // Dec 27, 2009 at 10:42 pm
It embarrases me too. You do not need a car that costs more than $50,000. Something tells me they couldn’t manage a modest working class budget. When you have money in access, it’s hard to tell that you’re pissing it away.
6 Music Review Blog // Jan 10, 2010 at 11:35 pm
Hip hop artists teaching personal finance? I’m pretty sure most of those guys have accountants that do all of that..I would have skipped the conference..lol
7 Perpendicularity.org - Creative Writing // Nov 3, 2010 at 10:36 am
Thanks for writing about this silly subject. A lot of people of today are so wasteful, it isn’t even funny.
Many of these electronic-dependent new generation people are running around chanting, “yo-yo dawg, check out my bling. I’m broke as a joke, had to let the car go back, but look at my gold chain mutha fu*ker. This be for real, player stay up.” Ha!
…Or the ones who put giant chrome wheels on cars that a junk yard would reject. Their ride is as dependable as rain in a desert, but man, those chrome rims are the bomb! LOL!
The same applies for the neolithic critters who go out and buy a high-priced house and/or an expensive ride, while maxing out their credit card, and only work at a low paying retail store or job. Ahh, just charge it; I don’t have to ever pay back that invisible money. Then they let it all go back because the collectors show up for some damn payments; this screws the banks in the bunghole and, in turn, the banks will raise the interest rates that will penalize the responsible ones with a functioning brain, that would never get their self in a mess like that. Kill the wise investor and lets save the moronic imbecile! Cheers! Yeah, talk about personal finance. Hmm, maybe it is icicles in Hell, as this blog post’s title says……
8 Exclusive Beats // Jul 22, 2011 at 5:57 pm
These are such silly quotes from Bun B. But he’s not representative for what Hip Hop stands for. It’s a shame, that a lot of Hip Hop artists follow his footsteps. Nevertheless, I still like his music, but mostly because of the productions.
9 Pierre Raymond // Oct 14, 2011 at 12:25 pm
great to see someone speaking out but its not enough to change the entire culture
10 protege 1 // Nov 13, 2011 at 6:30 pm
Jay-z and others know what’s up. The rest squander their money because they are not taught how to manage money. They spend a ton of money on useless things and then take out loans to finance personal consumption. Just like you cant forgetadebt to your hommies, you can’t forget it to the loan sharks.
11 Eiad Asbahi // Jan 29, 2012 at 9:49 am
Personal finance from Hip-Hop Stars?!?!! Oddly enough, I think that would be a flippin’ fantastic book… as you said, pure comedy gold.
@protege1 - you are absolutely correct.
12 Mundane Blogger - Blogspot Blog // Jan 31, 2012 at 6:10 am
Icicles in Hell? Hip-Hop Artists Teach Personal Finance? LOL! The title for the lovely blog post was funny enough, without any further commentary… Dang, that ‘creative writing’ commentator really went to town on this subject; Ha!
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