Urban Xchange

By After an exhausting year, financial experts estimate that almost $17.2 billion was frivolously tosse

Undoubtedly, the year's most expensive video was Raekwon's "Live From New York," which featured the Wu Tang Clan member sitting on bricks of one hundred dollar bills which added up to nearly $12 billion. Other costly videos released in 1999 include the B.G.'s "Bling Bling," which featured the rappers joyfully counting money and then dropping it on the ground. It is also hard to forget Gangsta Boo's "Where Them Dollars At." This video featured the female rapstress aimlessly wandering around a ballroom asking "where them dollars at?," while walking over thousands of bills. One analyst concluded that the label could have reduced some overhead expenses on the video if "she would have stopped asking that damn question and just picked up some off of the ground."

The gleeful waste of money does not stop there. Sources say that the new video from Puff Daddy, "I Got Money (Barely Out My Twenties)," which features a sample of the late 80's hit, "I Want To Be Rich," will feature the rapper shoveling $30 billion into a fire while an 11 carat diamond hangs from his neck.

This leaves us with the question: how much money will be wasted this year on rap videos? John Porter, V.P. of marketing at No Limit Records, commented on the subject.

"Many of the rap artists attempt to portray themselves in such a way that money is no object nor of great concern to them," Porter said. "And as long as this attitude prevails, there will always be an on-going battle between rap artists to see who can creatively waste the most money in their music videos."