Here are a few rappers who somehow turned into scammers?!
9 - Bandman Kevo Despite being arrested numerous times,
and even sent to prison, Chicago-based rapper Bandman Kevo still maintains a thriving rap
career. His Instagram was built with Kevo's knack for marketing and his obsession with
becoming famous. However, Kevo is famous for more than just his music these days.
Kevo's most well-known crime occurred in 2014. What was the crime? In the financial crime world,
it's called cracking cards. But if you want to be technical, Kevo was committing bank fraud.
Essentially, Kevo and his associates charmed people into giving them their debit cards,
PIN included. Then Kevo would take the information and use it to deposit fake checks
into the accounts. From there, he'd withdrawn the money from an ATM with the card information.
The individuals who lent Kevo their debit cards were given a piece of the pie while
Kevo pocketed the rest. Investigators believe "the rest" amounted to $639,745.
Once the news broke out, Bandman Kevo's name, next to the six-figure fraud, trended in 2014. Believe
it or not, Kevo was thrilled. For his entire life, the aspiring rapper craved fame more than rhymes.
When he was sentenced to 22 months in prison, Kevo vowed he would do everything to stay
"relevant." And by relevant, Kevo meant famous. At the time,
he even announced plans to release a new song called "Phone Call" before he
surrendered to law enforcement when it came time to serve his sentence.
8 - Teejayx6 Some rappers put
gun products in their name, but not Teejayx6. His name is based on a seemingly mundane device
anyone and their mom can buy off Amazon: an MSR X6. This small piece of hardware is worth $200
and can clone credit cards, provided you have the necessary information like the card number
and CVV. Teejayx6 raps about them all the time, amongst other scam topics. Though he is only 20,
Teejayx6 is considered a pioneering artist in a sub-genre he helped found: scam rap.
Scam rap is a semi-popular movement where rappers openly rhyme about their financial crimes.
For example, Teejayx6 raps about stealing social security numbers,
finding profiles with 700 credit scores, and other explorations of the notorious dark web.
Though he raps about committing crimes, Teejayx6 has never been charged with anything.
He claims he pulled off his first scam in 1st grade when he sold his friends bags of parsley,
passing the common kitchen herb off as marijuana. But no one has
ever corroborated any of these claims, making some wonder if Teejayx6 is telling the truth.
After all, many rappers sing about murdering and stealing, but have they ever done anything
so heinous? WhileTeejayx6 may be a meta scammer. These next scam rappers are a different story.
7 - Chad Focus He was on billboards in Times Square,
gracing top 40 dance charts, and accumulated a few million views on YouTube. Chad Focus,
on the surface at least, was going places. Until 2019, when Chad was charged with wire fraud,
conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and identity theft.
According to his music videos and Times Square billboard, Focus was the "#1 artist in the world"
and needed to be smothered by models and dollar bills falling from the sky. Except they weren't
falling from the sky, and Chad Focus wasn't #1 in any relevant category. The real Chad, Chad
Arlington, was a search engine specialist from 2015 to 2018. During his three-year tenure, Chad
and three other employees used a company credit card to buy recording equipment for themselves.
They also used the company's credit line to pay for airline tickets,
fancy restaurant bills, and artificial social media followers, likes, and views.
Overall, Chad spent $4 million that wasn't his to spend. Now, he faces a potential
20-year prison sentence, with a minimum of two years for aggravated identity theft.
When Chad's sentencing day came around in May of 2021, Judge Bennett ordered him to serve
30 months in prison. Bennett also ordered Chad to pay back the $4 million he stole.
However, following through on that order might prove harder than surviving in prison.
6 - Guerrilla Black Charles Tony Williamson,
aka Guerrilla Black, is very open about committing his many financial crimes.
In an interview with DJ Vlad, Black told the YouTuber how he bought the credit card numbers,
then purchased the magnetic strip, which is the horizontal black stripe you use to scan your card,
and other equipment necessary for stealing someone else's identity. According to the
investigation conducted in 2012, Black purchased over 27,000 credit cards off the dark web.
Several branches of law enforcement found that Black used the cards and
the other card parts he bought to steal $150,000. In 2012, Black was indicted on 22 counts of fraud.
However, while waiting for his trial to begin, Black continued buying credit cards until the
Secret Service busted him and brought him back into custody. When his day in court rolled around,
Black pleaded guilty to all counts. In total, he faced approximately 45 years of prison time and
$1.5 million in fines. Though Black didn't rap about stealing the money in his songs, he did
explain why he committed these crimes. He told DJ Vlad that he's always strived to make money
wherever he could. And there's no easier way to make money than online credit card fraud. Credit
card fraud's inherent convenience also allowed Black to take care of his number one priority:
supporting his family. Black is out of prison and with his family once
again but currently serving a five-year supervised release.
5 - Aaron Burns-Burpo The best news stories start with
"Florida man," and this next fraud story is no exception. Aaron Burns-Burpo, who is, of course,
from the sunshine state, was involved in a bizarre scam that ended in a Georgia Fairfield Inn.
Burpo was staying there as someone else. Instead of being Aaron, he was a member of the famous
rap group Wu-Tang Clan. Of course, there are two members in Wu-Tang. So, Burpo had brought
along an accomplice: Walker Washington. The duo made a career out of staying in fancy hotels,
renting luxury limousines, and ordering expensive food from catering companies. For the most part,
people believed them. Walker and Burpo ran their scheme for nearly three years
until they stayed in the Fairfield Inn in Augusta, Georgia. The employees there became
suspicious of these guys pretending to be famous hip-hop stars and eventually calling the cops.
When the authorities apprehended the duo and dug a little deeper into their background,
they discovered how these rap imposters afforded a celebrity lifestyle. For the past two years,
Burpo and Walker had been going on the dark web and stealing people's credit card info. In total,
they stole around $300,000, spending most of it on expensive stuff from
nineteen different businesses, all of whom expect to get their money back
once Burpo completes his 84-month prison sentence.
4 - Pop Up Boyz The Gothamist accurately described this next fraud
case as straight out of Key and Peele sketch. But absurd satire is supposed to be just that,
absurd, which is defined by the dictionary as wildly illogical. The Pop Up Boyz,
a Brooklyn-based group of 39 loosely affiliated rappers, are as absurd as you can get.
During their heyday, the Boyz released a song with the lyrics: "I'm cracking cards
cause I'm a scammer." And they weren't exaggerating. The Boyz stole around
$414,000 from various accounts they harvested from the dark web. Most of the time, the individuals
who owned the accounts had no idea 39 rappers were draining their credit lines in Brooklyn.
And how did the group decide to spend their money? Fortunately, the Pop Up Boyz provided
us a clear answer in one of their rap songs, saying: "Watch the money do a black flip,
early morning up at Saks Fifth." They're, of course, referring to Saks Fifth Avenue,
the luxury clothing store where everything costs way too much money.
The authorities also found many other expensive purchase records to corroborate
the Boyz' song lyrics. Thanks to the payment records and the easy-to-understand lyrics,
investigators obtained warrants and found card forgery equipment in the
homes of various Boyz members, leading to the arrest of all 39 of them in 2016.
3 - Selfmade Kash In an Instagram post from August 8th,
2019, rapper Selfmade Kash announced a new album called The United States v.s Selfmade Kash.
He recorded and produced the album in light of the fraud charges brought against him by police, who
caught Kash committing credit card fraud and identity theft on the dark web. But,
in all honesty, you don't have to be an ace detective to figure out Kash was stealing
money from people's credit cards because he rapped about doing it. Like Fontrell Baines,
Selfmade Kash, whose legal name is Jonathan Woods, likes to rap about his criminal
activities. A track titled "Swipe God Freestyle" features intimate lyrics like "Off these swipes,
I made a killing," and who could forget, "I made 10 ain't have to split it."
Strong words from the self-proclaimed swipe god, who released another track dubbed
"In Swipe I Trust." In addition to words, Kash also used images
of credit cards and credit card skimmers to boast about how much money he was making,
providing investigators plenty of evidence to prosecute him with.
2 - G Herbo G Herbo is not
like the other rappers in this video. He is already signed to a major label and has a
Billboard 200 album under his belt. In addition to those accolades, Herbo has collaborated with
hip hop icons such as Lil Durk and 21 Savage. Herbo is who the other scammers wish they were.
So, it seems strange that in May of 2021,
Herbo pleaded not guilty to several counts of fraud, including wire fraud and identity theft.
However, G Herbo, whose legal name is Herbert Randall Wright III, claims he is innocent.
However, investigators say otherwise and have a mountain of evidence against Herbo. If he is
found guilty, the young Chicago-based rapper could face 20 years in prison.
To avoid a potentially lengthy sentence, Herbo must convince a judge the mountain is a molehill.
The prosecutors going after Herbo are accusing him and co-conspirators of charging numerous
expenses to compromised accounts. The costs include Luxurious trips, designer puppies—we're
not sure what that even means—private jets, and renting fancy Jamaican villas.
Prosecutors have yet to prove whether these luxuries were funded by stolen
money or music income. In other words, Herbo's trial is sure to be interesting.
1 - Nuke Bizzle Fontrell Antonio Baines,
who performs under the stage name Nuke Bizzle, kicks off his most famous music video, called EDD,
with a mail truck delivering several envelopes full of cash. From there, Bizzle spends the
rest of the video dancing with wads of money and working behind a laptop. We’ve actually covered
this interesting “rapper” in depth, click to learn much more in depth about his idiotic scam here!
At first glance, the song seems to be your typical hustle game rap tune.
But if you were to listen closely to the lyrics--and Google what EDD
means--then put the two together, you'd realize the song is essentially a confession.
EDD is an acronym for the state of California's Employment Development Department.
The EDD program helps down-on-their-luck Cali citizens get a debit card while unemployed or
suffering from an on-the-job injury. To obtain an EDD card, a worker in California will need to go
through an application process where you have to claim however much money you think you'll need.
In the song EDD, Nuke Bizzle made it very clear how he applied for his EDD's.
He used the identities of individuals who actually qualified for the debit cards, which,
in this case, were small business owners and independent contractors.
The money he curated from those cards rounded out to $1.2 million when added up.
Click to watch one of these next videos!
And let us know in the comment section which rapper did the dumber crime in this video,
was it Nuke Bizzle or was it G Herbo?