Chief Keef Makes Less Money Than Your Average Orthodontist
I started "
" to answer one
simple
often incredibly complicated question: Just how much money do rappers
really
have?
Given the lengths that a rapper will go to in order to look rich, it can be nearly impossible to figure out the difference between owned and rented Bentleys, between guys who are truly making money and guys who are just spending their advances. But
and
though there's been one thing capable of stripping away the smoke and mirrors and revealing the true size of your favorite rapper's bank account: child support trials.
Only in a child support trial is the equation reversed and rappers are incentived to minimize their cash flow - "No your honor, that $100K Lambo isn't an asset, I'm only renting it!" - and the latest reveal is Chief Keef, who
is making approximately $13K a month, $2600 of which will now go towards child support. Huh....well then.
For the record, I know there's a faction of people out there already typing hate mail, most notably
Stepping Into Cico P’s Texas
East Texas native Cico P makes a case for not sleeping on his city. He breaks down his sound for Audiomack World.
Juls’ Journey Through the Diaspora
Juls helped build up Afrobeats from a footnote in global pop music into a full and highly-cited chapter. He breaks it down for Audiomack World.
Don Toliver, Tame Impala & 5an: Best of the Week
Don Toliver, Tame Impala, 5an, and more, all had the best new songs on Audiomack this week.
, so let me be clear. $13K a month, or about $150K a year, is a lot of money, it's certainly more money than I make. I don't begrudge him a single dollar, and I'm genuinely happy that someone from one of the worst places in America has been able to turn music into a viable, high-paying career.
But even considering that he's almost certainly hiding some of his money from the courts, and he'll most likely make more once
, it's not
that
much*, and I think that's important for people to know. Literally every day I hear from aspiring rappers who think dropping out of school is their best shot at becoming a millionaire because, directly or indirectly, they
. By contrast, your average orthodontist makes $200K a year, so if you really are all about that money, learning how to put braces on a teenager is a far smarter move than picking up a mic.
And yes, I know medical school isn't exactly a route open to everyone, hell there isn't a medical school in America that'd let me in. Just know that your odds of even making as much money as Chief Keef are about as good as winning the lottery, and hitting that
is like hitting the lottery twice.
I'm not trying to crush your dreams (except
), but I am trying to be one of the few people willing to have an honest and open discussion about how much money is really changing hands in this rap game. Someone going broke chasing a rap dream, that's the shit I don't like.
* Let's just
hope he's also paying his taxes
.
