“Make money, make money-money-money

Take money, take money-money-money

Make money, steal money-money-money

Kill money, my money-money-money”

― ScHoolboy Q (“Raymond 1969”)

Scott Poulson-Bryant wrote the first-ever profile on Sean ‘Puff Daddy’ Combs for the inaugural issue of Vibe Magazine in September 1993.

“As hip hop makes its mad dash toward the finishing line of high capitalism, it will need a hero,” he prophesied. A hero Combs was. Becoming a face in music videos and a voice on airwaves. A hustler in boardrooms and a showman on stage. 

He became rap royalty at its richest. A Black capitalist who reshaped the economics of what could be done with a record deal. Turning music into a business with a platinum price tag. 

Money, for Combs and Bad Boy Records, was the status symbol of their power. Wealth was the reward brought by their hits and hustle. Allowing them to represent extravagance unbound in the era of opulence. 

Rap was all about Puff. He made us want to be Bad Boys. To be rule breakers. To get money from whoever, whenever, however. 

“It’s All About The Benjamins” is a national anthem for my generation. Inspiring a nation of impressionable capitalists to be ballers, shot-callers, and brawlers. 

The template of desire in rap can be sourced back to Combs’ gluttonous want for more. Showing us what happens when you’re ready to die and life after death.

But as The Notorious B.I.G. taught us: Mo money, mo problems. I feel we forget that. Or maybe we don’t. Maybe we know deep down the paper chase is in our DNA. 

To quote the great poet Isaiah Rashad, “What am I supposed to do outside but get rich?”

When you come from nothing, you’ll naturally want all you didn’t have. Lately, though, I’ve been wanting a rapper to arrive like Siddhartha Gautama, preaching detachment. Replacing the high capitalistic nature embedded in rap success. No longer attaching value to the bag and the Bugatti. 

Everyone has desires camouflaged as a necessity. Wants disguised as needs. Creating a constant cycle of selling to the highest bidder. Every day, every second, buying and selling. 

Money and status won’t stop our suffering, though. Obtaining the two is only a distraction. Something to do, not a solution. Biggie didn’t lie, and neither did 2pac. 

Life is made complicated by attachments. In this time of hyper-surveillance and hypersensitivity, what’s needed is detachment. Restraint. Discipline. The Enlightened One believed in the no-self. “This is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self.” 

He also believed:

The wise who are trained and disciplined 

Shine out like beacon lights

They earn money just as a bee

Gathers honey without harming the flowers,

And they let it grow as an anthill slowly gains in

height.

With wealth wisely gained

They use it for the benefit of all 

Rap would benefit from a major artist awakened, enlightened, and prepared to teach the way. Maybe that rapper has arrived. Working on leading us to a wealth unseen. Not material, but spiritual richness. 

Noname comes to mind. The best example I have. 

But alas, we all must follow the path set for us. I just hope rap, before it’s all said and done, sees a hero who uses music to stir the sleeping, a Lil Buddha.
 

by Yoh