Jay-Z Calls Out Rappers Who Lie About How Much Money They Actually Make

It's a pretty well known fact that rappers like to flaunt their wealth. Most hip-hop music is laced with lyrics that embrace a cushy lifestyle full of expensive cars, homes, and of course jewelery.

Jay-Z is fed up with this precedent. He calls out his fellow MCs on his new album, Magna Carta Holy Grail. Jay-Z claims that most rappers use metaphors about what their net worth is but they can't back it up.

Bloomberg Businessweek graphics editor Allison McCann was intrigued by the verse and decided to figure out just how much rappers are actually worth versus their alleged wealth. McCann used a combination of specific lyrics from a dozen rappers and compared it with Forbes wealth reports and came up with the following chart (a portion of which is posted here with permission):

The results are pretty interesting and prove Jay-Z's thesis that many rappers aren't actually worth what they say they are.

Take for example, Nicki Minaj, the rapper brags to be worth a ton of money, nearing a billion dollars when in fact last year she only earned $15.5 million. While this is an impressive amount to the average Joe, when you compare her worth with Jay-Z's it pales in comparison. Jay-Z claims to be worth $500 million dollars and he is in fact worth $475 million.

Head over to BusinessWeek to take a look at the full chart and see how much other rappers claim they are worth compared to what they actually make.