Rappers Who Got Caught Fake Flexing Exposed

There are lots of rappers who have been caught fake flexing over the years.

November 1, 2023・

12 min read

Money, supercars, and "ice on the chain" are just a few reasons why the rap lifestyle looks so appealing to so many. Flexing online and in music videos seems part and parcel of the modern rap game but if you don’t have the dollars to play, how can you compete?

To help maintain appearances, or muscle in on the competition, some rappers secretly fake their wealth just to keep up. But it’s not always convincing, so let’s take a look at rappers who have been caught fake flexing.

50 Cent

Let’s start with Curtis James Jackson III! Professionally known as 50 Cent, this rapper’s first major label album "Get Rich or Die Tryin" sold over 10 million albums worldwide. But it seems that 50 Cent sometimes finds it easier to "Fake Rich and Stop Tryin" if you look at his Instagram. Back in 2016, 50 Cent posted this photo to the social media platform.

It looks like hundreds of thousands of dollars are at this rap god’s fingertips, except a reverse image search of that photo reveals it was first uploaded to the internet back in 2010. And what’s even more interesting is that the photo’s original file name was "CASH SEIZURE.jpg".

So, either 50 Cent was part of a police sting operation back in 2010, or he just stole the photo for the Instagram likes. But why would one of the most successful rappers in the world do this? It turns out that, even though Fifty was once worth 155 million dollars, he filed for bankruptcy in 2015, with a debt of $32 million.

And in 2016, he only made around $348,000 from his music royalties. While by normal standards it’s still a lot, it's not enough to justify the excessive flexing he continues to this day. So, remember kids, if you’re going to flex with stolen content, reverse image search first!

Kodak Black

At just 22, Kodak Black might be one of the youngest and most successful rappers on the planet. Having been part of the rap scene since he was just 12 years old, Kodak has lived through the hardships that give many rappers the drive to succeed. But once Kodak hit the heights of fame, it seems authenticity got thrown out the window.

The video has been viewed over three million times since. But why would Kodak admit to such an embarrassing fake flex in the first place? It could be a bluff to prevent people from targeting him for his cash or to stop gold diggers hassling him for money. Alternatively, it might be evidence of unfair record deals, or even proof that Kodak’s earnings can’t keep up with his spending.

Young Thug

Even if you don’t know Young Thug, you’ve probably heard something he’s been part of. From collaborating with Camilla Cabello on her Number 1Billboard track Havana to being featured on Drake’s chart-topping album More Life, the guy certainly had his share of mainstream success!

But before all of this, Young Thug was flexing hard on the internet about more than just his cash stacks. He posted images on social media back in 2015, claiming to have been gifted a limited edition Audemars Piguet watch by a Sheikh in Dubai.

The problem with flexing limited-edition watches of this caliber, however, is that they come under heavy scrutiny from online experts, like the Instagram account Fake Watch Busta. In a single post, they explained that an authentic watch of this type has a deep-set date window, spaced carefully from the tachymeter - that’s the scale inscribed around the rim of the watch.

As you can see in the above photo Young Thug posted of his watch, the date window is pretty shallow and too close to the rim to allow for any detailing. But the most glaring detail of all, which Fake Watch Busta missed, is that the watch doesn’t say Piguet at all! It says Piquet, with a Q instead of a G!

In response to the claims, Young Thug suddenly switched his story, saying the watch cost him $110,000 and blaming his jeweler! But wasn’t it originally a gift from a sheik? It looks like Young Thug’s story was a little sheik-en up.

Nicki Minaj

Fake flexes aren’t just a boys’ club, and Nicki Minaj is living proof. This eccentric rap superstar shot to fame way back in 2010 with her album Pink Friday. But before she hit the big leagues, she was putting the "con into anaconda".

Before her hit album launched, Nicki pushed out the music video for her single Massive Attack. She went in hard with the flexing by driving a bright pink 2008 Lamborghini Murcielago through the desert, which quickly became the focal point of the video.

The song even included the lyrics "That’s why I bullet-proofed the Lambo"! But as it turns out, she didn’t own the Lambo, let alone bulletproof it. This $350,000 car was a rental, one that she damaged while on the shoot! For having driven the car off-road, she was hit with a lawsuit from Hollywood Exotic Car Rental for over $11,000 in damages alone.

It was also alleged she missed 3 days of payments on the car, which is another $5,250 on top! To make matters even worse, the single never made it onto the album due to poor chart performance. So, you could say that this was 1 flex forward, 2 flex back!

Bow Wow

With the right Instagram post, anyone can appear rich and famous. Or at least, they can try to, like rap artist Bow Wow, aka Shad Moss! Despite claiming he was too broke to pay child support in 2012, Bow Wow’s Instagram showed he was living the high life! In 2017, he posted a photo of a private jet with the caption Travel Day NYC.

But an eagle-eyed fan on a flight to New York spotted Bow Wow sitting among the other economy-class travelers while he bragged about his luxury travel! He was exposed online, and to make matters worse, the fake image was found to have been ripped from a limousine company’s website!

Bizarrely, this wasn’t the first time he’d been caught out fake flexing for Instagram. Just one year previously, he posted a huge stack of $100 bills with the description "Liquid cash… a net worth". He was right that it was someone’s net worth, just not his! Genuine millionaire Timothy Sykes had posted the real photo 8 weeks before and had no issue exposing Bow Wow online.

And to really rub salt in the wound, Sykes challenged Bow Wow to match his donation of $100,000 to a charity of his choice. But Bow Wow never responded. I guess this rapper got a lesson in real flexing!

Riff Raff

With only 2 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, Riff Raff is the maddest-looking musician you may have never heard of. This brightly-colored, grilled-up, corn-row-repping rapper from Texas may not look like he belongs in the big leagues, but his fakery antics are top-tier.

Back in 2013, Riff Raff, aka Jody High Roller, gave an interview at Cleveland’s ILTHY store. Before even introducing himself, he shook his watch into the face of the camera, showing off his custom Breitling Avenger.

Gem-studded Breitlings of this kind fetch anywhere between $2,000 and $10,000 each, so it was a strong first move by most people’s standards. But the clock stopped when the world learned that piece of bling was a fake! Sweeping in again to bring fakery to light, Fake Watch Busta picked up on the supposedly custom piece.

Looking closely at the comparison to a real Breitling Avenger, you can tell that Riff Raff’s watch doesn’t include the correct number of spacings, and the sub-dials show different measurements.

In his defense, it seems like Riff Raff may not know any better, as he claims in the aforementioned interview that he won the watch from DJ Chris Lakes. But no matter how hard he tries to flex, it seems this rapper just can’t escape being among the riff-raff.

Tekashi69

If you’re not familiar with the name Tekashi Six Nine, you might recognize the rainbow-headed rapper from his extensive tattoos and colorful grills. He rose to fame in late 2017 but stayed in the media spotlight for faking more than just his hair color.

Back in February 2018, Takeshi recorded himself along with Rapper Ugly God in the residence of Jimmy Boi the jeweler. Jimmy is responsible for creating some of the most incredible custom "ice" on the market, and in the video, Takeshi decides to make some bold claims to fit in.

Insisting he doesn’t wear fake jewels, Tekashi proceeds to test Jimmy Boi and Ugly God’s pieces with a diamond detector. This pen-like machine tests the thermal conductivity of gemstones and beeps when it detects stones of true quality.

And quality stones are most certainly present on Jimmy Boi and Ugly God’s jewelry. With both his homies repping the real thing, Tekashi puts his own ice forward. But the results aren’t exactly to his liking. All those so-called diamonds on Tekashi’s chain may look flashy, but they sure ain’t real!

Surprisingly, this embarrassing moment didn’t seem to damage Tekashi’s business relationship with Jimmy. The Ice Master later created an incredible medallion shaped like the Jigsaw Doll from Saw, with a custom 69 marking specifically for the multi-colored musician.

But when Tekashi started flaunting it, bragging that it was worth a supposed $300,000, TMZ revealed it had actually been valued at just $100,000. With his seeming habit of multiplying things by 3, we can’t help wondering if Tekashi Six Nine’s real rap name is Tekashi Two Three.

Ace Hood

Bling is one of those things that can cost you a lot of money and still not be a quality product. Rapper Ace Hood found this out the hard (and very public) way.

After his song Bugatti reached number 33 on the Billboard 100 in 2013, he was invited to the BET awards where his customized Rolex broke live on camera! The outer disk of the watch face dropped to the floor before Ace sheepishly picked it back up and tried unsuccessfully to screw it back on, looking understandably embarrassed.

You don’t need to know too much about Rolexes to know that "the front falls off" is not supposed to be one of their selling points. Ace spoke out in a later interview revealing he’d actually spent $60,000 on the customized watch and had subsequently fired his jeweler. It seems Ace might not have known that all the customization on that blinged-out Rolex came at another cost, sacrificing the watch’s stability and authenticity.

Adding $10,000 worth of diamonds to a Rolex certainly makes it flashier but, under Rolex’s guarantee, any non-Rolex parts used in modifications render the watch non-genuine. All this talk of diamonds and aces, but this rapper was the one who ended up looking a little flush.

Soulja Boy

When it comes to crowning the king of fakery, it’s impossible to appoint that title to anyone other than Soulja Boy. The ‘Crank That’ rapper peaked in 2007, but has since struggled to hit the mainstream with his music. He has, however, managed to draw attention in less desirable ways.

Like back in 2014, when he posted several images and videos to his online accounts flashing some suspiciously white wads of cash. Anyone with eyes could see Soulja had placed a single $100 bill on top of wads of white paper! When he was called out, the posts were suddenly deleted.

He did, however, acknowledge his blatant fakery on Twitter, which you’d have thought might’ve served as a lesson. But fakery seems like an easy drug to get hooked on, and Soulja Boy needed another hit!

In 2016, he released a series of videos on social media claiming to own a $6 million penthouse, even boasting, “I got 10 toilets, I can **** all day!”. More like bull**** all day. The penthouse didn’t belong to Soulja Boy at all, and it certainly wasn’t worth $6 million.

It was actually listed on the market for $3.2 million. To rub salt in the wound, the realtors revealed that the real owner was renting it out to the rapper. A little internet digging also uncovered that the penthouse was listed on AirBnB at $895 a night!

Even with all the evidence levied against him, Soulja Boy continued to argue the penthouse was his, before heroically deleting all the original videos. So, surely, being found out twice was enough? Guess again!

In one final flex on Twitter, the rapper claimed to have just signed a $400 million deal but didn’t divulge any further details. It turned out this wasn’t a record deal, but one made with The World Gambling Fund to help launch Celebrity World, a celebrity-owned gaming site.

But the company threw Soulja Boy’s plans a curveball when they revealed that the deal was actually capped at $400 million. This meant $400 million was the absolute highest amount he could make, even if his influence possibly brought the company revenue far in excess of that amount.

Despite his bragging, there was no guarantee he would actually receive anything near the $400 million. And considering the current, painfully basic state of Celebrity World years later, the odds probably aren't in Soulja Boy’s favor.

I hope you were amazed at these rappers who got caught doing some fake flexing. Thanks for reading!