Believing a rapper who says "I'm a motherfuckin' billionaire" is just as ridiculous as believing a politician who says "I will be honest, accountable, and faithful to my wife."
Still, in pursuit of some LOLs, Bloomberg Businessweek (a publication that's owned, coincidentally, by billionaire and politician Michael Bloomberg) has assembled a snazzy infographic, comparing hip-hoppers' inflated lyrical boasts of wealth with actual annual income.
And predictably, two of the 305's biggest ballers are outed for fibbing about their finances.
See also:
-Pitbull Ranked Ninth Worst Rapper of All Time
Using earnings data culled from Forbes' "Cash Kings of Hip Hop" and "Forbes Five" lists, Businessweek basically argues that everybody in hip-hop (except maybe Jay-Z and Dr. Dre) is lying about his or her riches.
Of particular interest to Miami rap fans, though, Pitbull and Rick Ross get caught bragging about mythically massive stacks of cash money, despite the fact that they both pulled in less than ten milli last year.
As proof of Pitbull's financial falsehoods, Businessweek cites some lyrics from 2013's "Feel This Moment," a silly party track with Christina Aguilera that definitely should've been properly fact-checked.
"I see the future, but live for the moment/Make sense don't it," Pit spits. "Now make dollars, I mean billions/I'm a genius, I mean brilliant."
¡Mentiroso! Because the truth is Dat Lil Chico made only $9.5 million in 2012.
The Bawse, meanwhile, earned a mere $9 million last year.
And yet, as underlined by Businessweek, the Maybach Music mythomaniac more than quintuples that amount in an estimation of his net worth on 2012's wildly inaccurate gangsta rap song "All Birds."
"I'm a John Gotti, got my own army," he raps, obviously lying, because he's neither "John Gotti" nor in command of his "own army."
And the prevarications don't stop there, as Ricky Rozay adds: "Worth fifty million and it's all on me."
But wait ... there's a slight problem with Businessweek's methodology.
It's fun and funny to call out rappers for their financial fabrications. But almost every rapper in the history of ever has claimed to be a "billionaire." So when the magazine whacks Pitbull (and Diddy and Nicki Minaj), they should probably include Rick Ross and Lil Wayne and any other person who's released a rap song.
After all, the Bawse has got a song that's literally titled "Billionaire." And just last year, we here at Crossfade giggled about Lil Wayne, a leader of a clique called Young Money Cash Money Billionaires, being worth only about $100 million.
So yeah, we're all motherfuckin' billionaires. But none of us are actually billionaires.
Except, you know, the honchos at Businessweek.
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