Flexing your money and fame comes with being a hot rapper.
Many fans feed off the lavish lifestyle that artists are living,
even if it isn’t always realistic.
To keep up,
some rappers use tricks to pretend that they have much more money than they really do.
Here is a look at a few famous rappers who got caught fake flexin’.
50 Cent
50 Cent is a rap legend from Jamaica Queens, New York.
His debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ is considered a hip hop classic
and has gone 9x Platinum as of 2020.
But, being a legend doesn’t mean you’ll be rich forever and in 2016,
50 got caught fake flexing after posting a photo showing buckets of money to his Instagram.
50 posted a photo showing several paint buckets full of cash to his IG
along with the caption “Buckets of Love
No big Deal this short paper Lol.”
Fans were pretty quick to notice that something was off about the photo.
For one thing, 50 had been out of the streets for well over a decade at that point,
so why would he be walking around with buckets of cash in paper bags?
It’s possible that it was for a music video,
but fans were quick to notice
that the exact photo was stolen from a news story about a drug bust
that happened in Maine back in 2010.
50 probably didn’t realize that it was pretty easy to do a reverse image search
and prove that he was fake flexin for the gram.
If that wasn’t bad enough,
50 even admitted in front of a court that he often posts fake photos of money
after he declared bankruptcy the same year.
The rapper was sued by a woman named Lastonia Levinston,
after posting a sex tape of her and her boyfriend online.
Levinston was the ex-girlfriend and baby mama of Rick Ross,
who 50 was beefing with at the time, and he posted the tape to taunt his rival.
Rick Ross wasn’t in the video,
but Levinston clearly wasn’t cool with being used as a prop in someone else beef.
So, she sued the rapper and won a $5 million settlement.
As a result, 50 was forced to declare bankruptcy to help pay off that debt
and other money he owed over a failed business venture.
The debt was eventually discharged, but creditors started going after the rapper again
after he was spotted posing next to stacks of cash on Instagram.
50 then had to testify before a court that he was broke
and that he used prop money in the photos.
He told the court “Just because I’m photographed in or next to a certain vehicle,
wearing an article of clothing, holding a product,
sitting next to what appears to be large sums of money,
or modeling expensive pieces of jewelry
does not mean that I own everything in those photos”.
So, you can hear it right from the source that 50 was caught by the legal system fake flexing.
Even if 50 is a bit of a troll, he’s still a clever guy.
He probably had more money stashed than he admitted to the lawyers,
but he obviously wasn’t going to tell that to the court.
But even after declaring bankruptcy,
50 had to maintain the image his fans had come to expect,
even if the fake flexing got him caught up in some drama.
But if you thought that story was crazy,
this next rapper claimed he got a customized watch from a Saudi Prince
only to be exposed by experts and forced to admit his bluff.
Young Thug
Young Thug is a popular rapper from Atlanta
known for his viral antics and melodic rapping style.
Even though melody-driven hip hop is popular today,
when Thug was first blowing up in the mid-2010’s
he faced a lot of hatred for his unique delivery and wild fashion taste.
But he broke down the door for a lot of up-and-coming rappers
to express themselves in a new way,
which is why he is considered one of the most respected artists
in this new generation of trap rappers.
But being an icon doesn’t protect you from the flex police
and in 2015, the rapper was exposed for rocking with a fake watch.
Thug posted a photo to Twitter showing a limited edition
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Michael Shumaker Platinum watch
with the caption “03/100, crying emojis, thanks to prince #Shiek”
Fans were skeptical as the watch looked a little beat up.
The haters were later proven to be right after an Instagram called @fakewatchbussa,
that is dedicated to exposing fake timepieces,
called Thug out on his wild claims.
@fakewatchbussa has also been responsible for calling out celebrities like
Mike-Will-Made-It and Soulja Boy for posting photos off fake watches
and Thug was just the most recent to be exposed.
The IG account cited several specific reasons why the watch was likely fake.
First, the date window on an actual AP watch
is much deeper than the one Thug was flexing.
Second, part of the crown was missing, and probably the biggest giveaway
was that the inscription on the inside Thug's watch said Audemars Piquet,
with a Q instead of a G, which is a major red flag.
Thug responded a few days later
by admitting that the part about the watch being a gift from a Sheik in Dubai was cap,
but he did pay his jeweler Elliot Avianne 110K for the piece.
He followed up by saying
“Elliot is my love and I got the ap plain from the Prince of Dubai”,
showing off all the other pieces he had gotten from his jeweler.
It also seems to suggest that sheik or prince of Dubai
is just a nickname he had for Elliot.
FakeWatchBussa followed up with a photo of Thug’s watch
and a legit version of the limited edition AP
to let the audience make up their own mind and Thug never responded after that.
So it seems like Thug wasn’t intentionally fake flexing,
he just got sold a bad product from a jeweler he trusted.
Maybe they both just got finessed and it was an honest mistake
or maybe all of Thug’s jewelry is fake just to flex for the gram.
But if you thought that was crazy,
this next rapper got clowned after posting a stack of cash
and a picture of himself boarding a private jet,
only for fans to discover that both photos were stolen.
Bow Wow
Bow Wow is a rapper who has been on the scene for a minute.
Although not as popular as he was back in his days as a child star,
Bow Wow has managed to hold onto a career this long by moving into acting
and hosting on shows like 106 and Park.
But despite the lavish lifestyle he shows off on his social media,
Bow Wow has been caught fake flexin’ several times.
In 2017 after Bow Wow posted a photo of a private jet to Instagram along with the caption
“Travel Day. NYC press run for Growing Up Hip Hop. Lets goo”.
Unfortunately for the rapper,
it didn’t take long for the internet to find out that he was frontin’
after a fan snapped a pic of him in an economy class seat
on a commercial flight not long after he posted the picture.
The fan who caught him posted the photo to Snapchat with the caption
“So this guy Lil Bowwow is on my flight to NY.
But on Instagram he posted a picture of a private jet captioned
‘traveling to NY today’ smh".
The photo quickly went viral
and was picked up by mainstream media outlets like the Breakfast Club,
TMZ and NBC.
Fans quickly uncovered the photo’s true origin.
It was a promotional photo for a Fort Lauderdale Limousine service
that Bow Wow had added a filter to.
The post even inspired several viral memes and created the #bowwowchallenge.
If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, not long after the private jet incident,
a stock trader and entrepreneur named Timothy Sykes called the rapper out
for stealing a photo he had posted to his own Instagram.
He posted an image to Twitter of a post he had put up of bundles of hundred-dollar bills
on a bed beside an identical photo that Bow Wow had posted to his own IG
with the caption “Liquid Cash **** a Net Worth”.
On the photo showing the two posts side by side,
Sykes included the caption Here’s the real #bowwowchallenge
Bow wow should stop stealing my cash photos
and #studyhard to make something of himself.”
Bowwow was clearly in his feelings about the post
because he responded with an IG post
revealing that Timothy Sykes had been caught by fakewatchbussa with a fake AP.
He compared that to a photo of himself
wearing a similar watch with a Genuine stamp on it.
For the caption, Bowwow went on a long rant calling Sykes a dweeb and a weenie
and questioning if he’s actually rich.
But what he doesn’t do is prove that he didn’t jack his photo.
Hopefully, Bowwow has learned his lesson
and will be a little more careful next time he steals other people’s content
to fake a lavish lifestyle.
Or at least just own up to it the next time he gets called out for fake flexin.
But if there is anyone who can be crowned the king of internet memes
it’s this next rapper,
who was caught flexing fake wads of cash,
claiming ownership of someone else’s penthouse,
and lying to Twitter about signing a $400 million deal.
Soulja Boy
Soulja Boy is a rapper and internet personality known for his wild antics.
Soulja was one of the first artists that used the internet to promote his music
and had several viral hits in the late 2000s,
including Crank That (Soulja Boy) and Kiss Me Through the Phone.
But from day one, Soulja Boy was a scammer.
He originally gained relevance by uploading his tracks to the popular file-sharing site
Limewire but titled it whatever the most popular song on iTunes was at the time.
Fans would download the track thinking it was Michael Jackson or 50 Cent,
only to find out it was actually Soulja Boy.
Check out our video on Scam Rap Millionaires
for more info on Soulja Boy’s viral schemes.
Since then, Soulja has continued to troll and scam his way to the top of the rap game,
getting caught and called out several times.
The first time came in 2014
when the rapper posted a photo of himself holding a wad of cash to Instagram.
The cash was pretty obviously fake but had one real $100 bill on top.
The reason it was so obvious was that the top bill was green and the rest were white.
After getting called out, Soulja took the L and admitted it was fake money for a photoshoot.
He assured his fans that all his money is real
but he was just having fun on set and didn’t think people would take it so seriously.
Soulja gets a pass for that one because at least he owned up to it right away.
But the next time he got caught fake flexin he wasn’t so quick to back down.
In 2016 Soulja posted a video of himself inside an upscale penthouse,
giving a video tour.
In the footage, he can be heard saying
“Spent $6 million for the new penthouse in Hollywood. **** crazy. Last night was crazy.
I don’t even remember what the **** happened…”.
The owner of the property quickly came out to deny that Soulja owned the property
and that he was just renting it from them.
Fans were also quick to discover
that the penthouse was actually a rental that was available on Airbnb
for $895 per night.
But rather than just owning up to the fake flex this time,
Soulja doubled down.
He said that everyone reporting the story was just hating
and mad that they can’t afford a $6million penthouse.
He also said that he was the one who put it on AirBnB so he could rent it out while he’s on tour.
He took aim at DJ Akademiks for reporting the story
and posted a separate video just going in on him for being jealous.
During his rant,
he said that he was going to post a video of himself in the house for the next 2 or 3 years
just to prove to all the haters that he actually owned it.
But, not long after being exposed,
he deleted all the videos from his social media
and never showed himself in the penthouse again.
My crib cost $6 million fully furnished ***** stop playing with me.
Make a video of your house right now, everybody go tag Akademiks.
Make a ****** video right now of your house, broke ass *****
Stop speaking on me ***** you broke *****
You ain't never live in no **** like this ***** suck my **** *****
Akademiks you a ***** ***** on my momma *****
**** you *****, broke ass *****.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the same year,
Soulja lied on social media about securing a $400 million deal.
In May 2016, the rapper sent out a tweet that said
“$400 million-dollar deal confirmed.
I think they lowballed me though. I was thinking 2 or 3 billion…”
He didn’t go into detail about what the deal was or who it was with,
which made fans suspicious,
especially because of his history of faking for the clout.
But a company spokesperson eventually came forward to reveal that Soulja had jumped the gun
about his claims of making $400 million.
The contract Soulja Boy was talking about was not a record deal,
but an endorsement deal for a company called World Poker Fund Holdings.
The deal was for the launch of a website called CelebrityWorld.com,
a celebrity-owned social gaming site.
The spokesperson claimed that Soulja was not guaranteed to be paid $400 million,
but his contract was capped at that number.
Meaning that Soulja would be paid a percentage of the revenue he brought into the company,
which would be capped off at $400 million.
So he would have to bring in massive amounts of money
for the company to even pay him that much.
Forbes did a deep dive into Soulja Boy’s claims
and found that the World Poker Fund Holdings had a market cap of only $52 million
and had reported losses of over $400,000 in the past year.
So, it seems pretty unlikely that a company only worth around $50 million
that had yet to report a profit could afford to pay a rapper $400 million
no matter how much business he brought in.
CelebrtyWorld.com is no longer an active domain,
so it seems unlikely that the endorsement deal paid out anything close to $400 million.
Whether Soulja was just confused about the terms of his deal
or if he was just back to his regular antics is tough to tell.
But the answer is probably a bit of both.
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