In light of Bow Wow’s social media fakery last month when the mini-mogul was busted posting a stolen photo of a private jet that wasn’t his, it begged the questions: do these type of stunts actually work in the artist’s favor and is “faking it” really all that provocative? Countless blogs and publications recounted some version of the story for nearly a week, getting Bow Wow more shine than he ever got for his roles in movies like 2013’s Scary Movie 5. Consequently, it spawned a new hashtag on Twitter — #bowwowchallenge — that had countless people doing their best Bow Wow impression by posting their phony Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous-type lives.
Same goes for Soulja Boy who, perhaps fittingly, is Bow Wow’s co-cospirator on the 2016 album Ignorant Shit. He found himself in hot water after posting guns, stacks of money, and god knows what else to his Instagram profile that actually caught the attention of the authorities, but again, his name was all over the internet.
Then there’s Quavo of Migos, who admitted in a 2015 Thrasher interview that none of the expensive clothes in the “Versace” video were actually theirs (although now they can probably afford it).
“When we came out doing ‘Versace,’ we were actually fantasizing about wearing it,” Quavo said. “We didn’t even have the clothes until we got to the video shoot and they brought in all the props. Then they tried to take ‘em away from us after the video shoot. We was, like, ‘Oh, shit, where are our clothes going?’ We ended up buying them, but yeah, we were just dreaming about being in them. It does come along with that rich mentality.”
Quavo, Offset & Takeoff didn’t own a single piece of clothing in this one.
But is that really so surprising? Hip Hop and Hollywood have been faking it for years. And to some extent, all of us are guilty of embellishing our lives a little bit on social media. We aren’t posting the struggles we endure, more often than not, we’re celebrating what is good about our daily existence, making it appear that everything is coming up roses. It just so happens some of our favorite artists are able to do it on a much grander scale.
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Take De La Soul, for example. When the Long Island trio dropped “Ego Trippin” in 1993, the subsequent video mocked the allegedly fraudulent lifestyles that were often portrayed in rap videos. This led to tension between De La and Tupac Shakur, who thought Maseo, Pos and Dave were singling him out (but that’s another story). The point is, “stunting” as it’s often called, has been par for the course for years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVkCzEDQBjY
De La’s video mocked the whole concept of fakery.
Taking it back even further — in 1988 when Ice-T released the video for “I’m Your Pusher,” he was filmed wearing a gold revolver around his neck and jumping into what was then a fancy car, aligning with this image of a wealthy gangster, but according to photographer Chris Cuffaro, who has photographed Ice-T numerous times, Ice wouldn’t even allow real guns on video sets.
Ice may have been your pusher, but no real guns were used on his video sets.
“When I shot Ice-T the first time, it was with Body Count,” Cuffaro told HipHopDX. “I maybe shouldn’t tell this story, but the funny thing is — these guys are like all ‘tough’ and ‘bad ass,’ but they show up to the studio and they’re just regular dudes. Half the guys lived in the Valley and in Encino. Only one guy lived in Compton. We’re doing this picture where they’re all holding guns, and posing with guns, and everybody had fake guns, but one guy brought a real gun. Ice-T goes nuts — like a parent. ‘What are you doing? Get that the fuck out of here!’ He really got upset the guy brought a real gun to the photo shoot.”
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But this is the music business. Most people want the grandiose personas and seemingly unattainable lifestyles. Music, much like film, provides a certain amount of escapism for its listeners. It’s fantasy for anyone whose bank account is generally in need of a deposit and for that — can we really be mad at celebrities like Bow Wow?
If anything, we can live vicariously through each artist and catch a glimpse of what may or may not be their reality. After all, it’s nothing new, not even the shimmery shine of fake bling.
