How many rap songs can you name where the premise is how the rapper started from the
bottom and rose to the top?
Going from the hard-knock life to big pimpin' is all part of the journey for many rappers,
so it's easy to forget that not all rappers had such a hard life growing up.
In fact, some of them were set from birth.
So what's it like to be a rapper who's born into wealth?
Just ask these guys.
Jaden Smith The linguistic artistry of Jaden Smith needed
no further outlet than his bizarre Twitter account, but neither that nor the fact that
he's the son of A-Listers Will and Jada Pinkett Smith stopped him from jumping into the rap
game.
Though he's released tracks for years, like 2012's "The Coolest," which was undeniably
reminiscent of his dad's "Fresh Prince" style, he finally released his first full-length
album in November 2017.
Unfortunately, the young artist's freshman attempt didn't exactly earn critical praise,
and his contemporaries weren't so thrilled about it, either.
Former buds such as Drake, Kanye West, and Donald Glover have allegedly turned their
backs on him now that he's a source of competition.
But that's okay, who needs friends when your parents are Will and Jada?
O'Shea Jackson Jr.
Rap legend Ice Cube's son, O'Shea Jackson Jr., skyrocketed to fame in 2015 after playing
his father in the blockbuster bio-pic Straight Outta Compton.
But before his big screen debut, Jackson Jr. dipped his toe into hip-hop under the alias
OMG. Jackson Jr. seems to have no plans to slow
his movie star momentum, but he's also slowly putting together original tracks and working
on beats.
He told HipHopDX: "My man Method Man said he'd hook me up with
a verse so I'll make sure I get that done [...] and I talked to my mom so Ice Cube's
gonna be on it."
Sounds like he inherited a bit of his pop's sense of humor, too.
"This is his rightful place to keep the torch going."
Chet Hanks Chester Marlon Hanks is the son of superstar
actors Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, but he flexes on tracks as Chet Hanks, formerly Chet Haze.
On top of having possibly the world's most beloved actor as a father, who incidentally
has a net worth of $350 million, Chet also attended Northwestern University and was in
a frat.
While that sounds like significantly less of a struggle than, say, Biggie, according
to Chet, it doesn't matter.
Of his privileged background, he told VICE: "Hip-hop is much larger than that.
It exceeds boundaries beyond race and socio-economic background.
[...] It can appeal and come out of whoever it speaks to.
And it speaks to me."
Naturally, Tom has been nothing but supportive throughout Chet's ups and downs, including
a battle with addiction.
"As a parent you love your kids unconditionally and support them in every step of the way."
Diggy Simmons Thanks to his father Rev. Run Simmons' success
as a pioneering co-founder of Run-D.M.C., Daniel Dwayne "Diggy" Simmons III was born
into the good life.
His charmed childhood was chronicled on MTV's Run's House, which Diggy used to catapult
his own rap career, in spite of the shade he knew he'd get.
He told the Chicago Tribune in 2012: "People don't like me for the fact that I
came from something good.
But I'm not going to run away from it.
[…] To be born into a family that has money doesn't mean that I can't go on to do what
I want to."
Diggy's career stalled a few years later, but he returned to rap with a single in August
2018, with an album slated to follow that's reportedly fueled by unconventional inspiration
such as John Mayer, Arctic Monkeys, and MGMT.
Robb Bank$ The subject of rapper Richard "Robb Bank$"
Burrell's relationship with his famous dad, reggae star Shaggy, is controversial to say
the least.
According to a 2013 interview, Burrell tried to distance himself from the relationship
even after a photo of them surfaced because he'd been estranged from his father since
he was 6 years old.
But that didn't mean Shaggy didn't provide.
Burrell revealed: "I could never knock him.
He always took care of his family."
That said, Burrell built his rap following on his own, becoming a Tumblr sensation in
his teens and eventually releasing mixtapes.
He also became somewhat of an odd figure in the media, dropping quotable lines such as:
"I want you to think I'm dumb."
Mike D Though Michael "Mike D" Diamond of the Beastie
Boys never laid any claim to the thug life, it doesn't sound like he actually ever had
to fight very hard for the right to party, either.
Growing up on the affluent Upper West Side of Manhattan with a wealthy art dealer dad
and interior designer mom, Diamond attended private schools and had what has been described
as a "brief stint" at Vassar.
While his rise in the rap world earned him an estimated $90 million, Mike D's mom, Hester
Diamond, removed any lingering doubt about the family's wealth in 2004 when she auctioned
off six pieces from her late husband's collection worth a whopping $65 million.
So, no, "livin' at home" probably wasn't "such a drag" for Mike D after all.
He was filthy rich.
Tyga Tyga is probably best known for his somewhat
scandalous relationship with Kylie Jenner, who he was rumored to be dating before she
was of an appropriate age.
As if to confirm those rumors, Tyga released a questionable track called "Stimulated,"
which featured eyebrow-raising lyrics that were about his relationship with an underage
girl.
The accompanying music video, of course, featured Jenner.
With that penchant for provocation in mind, consider an earlier scandal in the "Rack City"
rapper's career, when in spite of his boasts about growing up on the notoriously tough
streets of Compton, Tyga also once bragged about his parents' swag on the obscure MTV
show Bustas.
Describing his childhood he claimed that he didn't actually have it all that hard, and
that his mother drove a Range Rover.
After catching flack when TMZ unearthed the video years later, Tyga claimed he was simply
reading from a script in the video.
The true nature of Tyga's background will remain a mystery.