What would you have done if you weren’t doing this?

A: “Probably dealing drugs or in jail or something.”

M: “My dad wanted me to work in construction.”

S: “. . . and now you’re a Gangsta Rappa, right?”[laughs]

M: “I guess . . . [laughs] No, he wanted me to run his company but that’s not something I wanted to do. I was quiet at school and did well; mostly A and B type grades.”

So yeah, he might have had to run his dad’s construction company if he didn’t start this band. Maybe they were a low-income company?

the King of Crunk himself, Lil Jon, famously comes from a “not ghetto” background. how quick are journalists like you to question his (or for that matter, son of a college professor, Kanye’s) relationship to hip-hop’s culture of materialism and bragging?

maybe you’re right about Millionaires. not familiar with their work. however, in the case of Brokencyde, it strikes me as a yet another case of low-income, supposedly low-culture white (and hispanic) kids getting bashed from all sides.

maybe it’s never ok to brag about getting paid and maybe it’s never ok to generalize about race and money when reviewing individual artists.