The rap lifestyle gets expensive.
The music industry always has its ups and downs
and some rappers end up getting in over their heads
paying for luxury expenses they can’t afford.
Here are some of the craziest purchases rappers have made and later couldn’t afford.
Lil Yachty
Everyone knows Lil Yachty.
He exploded into the rap game back in 2016
with his breakout hit One Night and eventually signed to Quality Control Music,
the record label that includes acts like the Migos and Lil Baby.
Lil Yachty has landed some of the craziest brand deals in the history of hip hop
with companies like Sprite and Target
and he has collaborated with some of the biggest names in music.
But even the biggest stars sometimes forget to pay the bills.
In 2019, a jewelry store in Gwinnett County, Georgia
called Guven Fine Jewelry sued Lil Yachty
for failing to pay for $233,000 worth of jewelry.
Earlier that year the same jewelry store had sued his labelmate Offset of the Migos
for $400,000 in unpaid jewelry.
According to legal documents obtained by the celebrity news website Bossip.
Guven Fine Jewelry claims that they gave Lil Boat more than 20 pieces since 2017.
These pieces included a white gold diamond ring for $175,000,
a rose gold Patek Philippe watch for $195,000,
a white Gold Rolex for $95,000,
and a white gold diamond tennis bracelet for $200,000.
They say that they made numerous attempts to contact Yachty about payment for the jewelry
and he responded by writing them a check for $70,000 that bounced.
They claim that he told them he was going through rough financial times and had bills, taxes,
and other debt he had to pay off before he could afford the jewelry.
Yachty took to social media to claim that this was all cap
and he didn’t pay for some of the jewelry because he felt he was being overcharged.
Yachty claims he already paid the jeweler over $900,000 and he has receipts to prove it.
He says that the $70,000 check that bounced was from his mother
because he isn’t the one who writes checks.
She spelled his name wrong on the check, which is why it bounced,
not because he is broke.
Although he continues in the Live to say that the jeweler also kept that check
and tried to cash it after they got into a beef over a year later.
I've been doing this jewelry **** know I'm saying.
I paid for it.
And the crazy **** I need to tell you bruh, I don't
carry it around with my jewelry bro.
I've paid,
John over $900,000
And I got receipts because I don't carry cash I pay with credit,
and checks, you know what I'm saying.
So in the case of you saying I wrote him a $70,000 check, first off I don't write checks, my mom writes checks.
I'd never write that man a check ever in my life.
Ight, that's first.
My mother wrote him a check,
a year ago for something that she was doing, out of her bank account.
Yachty’s mom wrote it to her account
and didn’t have the $70,000 to cover it because she wasn’t expecting the charge.
A year later, Yachty is still fighting this charge
and recently went before a judge to prove that he already paid over half of his original $600,000 debt,
but he stopped making payments because he felt that Guven was acting unethically
and overcharged him for several pieces.
Guven is trying to force him to default and cough up the rest of the money
and Yachty is trying to resist with his own legal actions.
So it’s unclear at this point whether Lil Boat is actually going through money problems
or if this is just a nasty rumor being spread by an evil jeweler.
Yachty’s career isn’t quite as red hot as it was when he first came in the game
and was making viral hits and doing major brand deals left and right.
However, he still has a dedicated fanbase
and plenty of support within the music industry,
so it would be surprising if Yachty were completely broke.
The judge has yet to rule in the case of Guyen’s vs. Lil Boat,
so fans will have to wait to find out if Yachty will be forced to cough up the $233,000,
or if they will agree that Guyen’s was trying to finesse him.
If you thought that was a crazy bill,
This next artist was accused of owing a tab of over $234,000 for unpaid bling,
$3.5 million in unpaid management fees,
and over $300,000 in skipped rent and damages on a Hollywood mansion.
Yupp, let's get to the story
Rich the Kid
Rich the Kid is a rapper from Atlanta, Georgia
known for his entrepreneurial ventures and his A&R skills.
He started his own label Rich Forever in 2016
and signed hot up-and-coming artists " like Famous Dex and Jay Critch.
Plus, he has collaborated with major names in the music industry like Kendrick Lamar and Lil Wayne.
Rich had a huge hit with Plug Walk back in 2018
and is a well-known figure in hip hop.
But even the biggest stars fall on hard times
if they don’t properly manage their finances and last year,
Rich was hit with a few major lawsuits that could result in bankruptcy for the artist if he isn’t able to settle.
In May 2020,
TMZ reported that Rich the Kid was being sued by celebrity jeweler Peter Marco of Extraordinary Jewels of Beverly Hills
for a whopping $234,800.
The jeweler says that he established a relationship with Rich back in October 2017
and had since supplied him with diamond necklaces, crosses, Philippe Patek watches,
and more over the last few years.
He says that at first, Rich was making regular payments.
But over time, those payments stopped, and he kept putting in orders.
Marco kept delivering the pieces,
but the bills kept stacking up, and eventually, he had to take action.
He sued Rich for the remainder of what was owed to him for the unpaid jewelry.
If that wasn’t enough,
Rich got hit with an entirely different lawsuit back in February of 2020,
by a former management company.
The lawsuit alleges that Rich owes them $3.5 million in unpaid management fees.
Blueprint Artist Management claims that they struck a deal back in 2017
and that Rich did not uphold his end of the bargain.
They are now suing him for breach of contract to recoup the fees that they are owed.
But unfortunately for Rich the Kid,
that isn’t the end of his money problems.
Rich was sued back in January 2019
for unpaid rent and damages to a Hollywood mansion that he rented.
In May of 2020, the judge ordered Rich to pay over $300,000 in damages to the landlord.
First Rich defaulted on the $22,500 monthly rent payment owed to owner the mansion.
The landlord claims that he and his team also used $7,376 in utilities
and she added a $2,500 late fee onto the bill for failing to pay on time.
The judge initially ordered Rich to pay the landlord $32,376,
but he declined to respond to the judgment.
The landlord also claimed that Rich and his friends did thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to the home,
that included breaking the saltwater pool system,
destroying the entertainment system,
and letting dogs’ **** all over the hardwood floors.
If Rich had just paid the unpaid rent he owed, he may have gotten off easy.
But because he ignored the first judgment,
this time around the judge ordered him to pay the full cost of the damages,
which added up to $323,214.
So either it’s time for Rich the Kid to drop another single with a major star
or he needs to get a new money manager.
Rich has not responded publicly to any of the lawsuits,
so it’s tough to know if there is another side of the story the public has yet to hear.
But as of yet, things aren’t looking great for Rich the Kid financially,
and it may be time for him to call up Kendrick to do a New Freezer Part 2.
But Rich the Kid isn’t the only famous rapper to get into some hot water financially.
This next artist owed hundreds of thousands of dollars for missing a show,
failing to pay child support and rent, all before he turned 18.
Here's the wild story…
Chief Keef
Chief Keef is one of the most iconic artists of the 2010s
and one of the founders of Chicago drill scene.
But before Keef’s career even took off,
he owed thousands of dollars in unpaid rent and child support at the age of 17.
Keef began blowing up in Chicago with mixtapes like The Glory Road and Bang when he was still just a teenager.
He started gaining national attention with hit tracks like I Don’t Like and Love Sosa.
But just as Chief Keef’s career was taking off,
his finances took a major hit when he started gaining national attention.
In 2013, just a few months after Chief Keef released his debut project Finally Rich,
Chief Keef was hit with several expensive lawsuits that hurt his pockets.
First, he was sued by his baby mama,
who was only in middle school at the time.
The girl claimed that Keef fathered a child with her when he was only 15.
She was requesting $2600 per month in child support,
plus $500 in daycare expenses and $10,400 in back pay.
At the time the rapper was only 17 himself
and pulling in $13,000 per month in income according to court documents,
not bad for a teenager who never finished high school.
Keef was sued later that year by a promotion company
for failing to show up to a scheduled performance in London.
Washington DC-based promotion company Major Team LLC,
sued Keef after he failed to perform at the Indigo 02 Arena in London.
The company originally sued him for $75,000
but Keef never responded to the lawsuit
and the judge ended up ordering him to pay over $213,019 in damages.
If that wasn’t enough, a month later,
Keef was sued by his landlord for failing to pay his rent in July or August of that year.
Keef had just signed a $6 million record deal with Interscope Records not long before,
so it wasn’t that he was flat broke.
He was just young and reckless
and making way more money than most teenagers can imagine,
and all the expenses caught up to him.
The landlord claimed that he rented Keef a 6-bedroom, 5,100 square foot home worth over $1 million dollars
and claims that Keef still owed him $9400.
However, despite all these lawsuits,
Chief Keef wasn’t too fazed by it.
But, these early setbacks were just a drop in the bucket for Chief Keef.
He ended up leaving Chicago to settle in LA and stay out of all the drama.
He continues to pop up in the hip hop news from now and then,
but for the most part, Chief Keef has maintained a low profile
and hasn’t gotten in as much legal and financial trouble as he did early on in his career.
Although he hasn’t had a massive hit in a while,
he still has a dedicated fanbase
and a solid catalog of songs and mixtapes that will allow him to continue to live a lavish lifestyle