How rich musicians billed American taxpayers for luxury hotels, shopping sprees, and million-dollar bonuses

[highplainsdem]

Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/lil-wayne-chris-brown-covid-relief-funds-svog-grant-2024-12

Many musicians struggled during the pandemic. Lil Wayne wasn't one of them. He sold master recordings from his record label's artists for more than $100 million. He was pardoned for felony gun possession in a last-minute action by then-President Donald Trump. He purchased a $15.4 million mansion in the mountains of Los Angeles.

And, as a Business Insider investigation found, he received an $8.9 million grant from a little-known pandemic-relief program that he used to cover more than two years' worth of spending on luxury hotel stays, designer clothes, and travel to and from nightclub appearances around the country.

The rapper, whose real name is Dwayne Carter Jr., spent more than $1.3 million from the grant on private-jet flights and over $460,000 on clothes and accessories, many of them from high-end brands like Gucci and Balenciaga. He billed taxpayers more than $175,000 for expenses related to a music festival promoting his marijuana brand, GKUA, including clothing for artists associated with his record label.

He also used grant money to cover nearly $15,000 worth of flights and luxury hotel rooms for women whose connection to Lil Wayne's touring operation was unclear, including a waitress at a Hooters-type restaurant and a porn actress.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/lil-wayne-chris-brown-covid-relief-funds-svog-grant-2024-12

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Much more at the link. This is an extremely long article.

Found this thanks to a Bluesky post from Judd Legum:

https://bsky.app/profile/juddlegum.bsky.social/post/3ldltp2rr5c2r

[underpants]

1. Good intention taking advantage of. This is similar to a Depression program

The Federal government paid a lot of musicians who toured work sites and to generally keep the public entertained.

Archaeology as we know it too.

The WPA and CCC employed both professional archeologists and untrained staff to conduct archeological examinations, curation, and perform historical research by surveying sites such as Irene Mound in Georgia, Catoctin Mountain Park, Dinosaur National Park, and Big Bend National Park.

Through these efforts, the American public became familiar with the practice of archeological excavation and its value as a science. In addition, work relief archeological projects trained a new generation of archeologists, creating a widespread interest in archeology, and providing employees with essential archeological training and diverse skills.


https://www.nps.gov/articles/work-relief-archeology.htm#:~:text=Out%20of%20work%20Americans%20were,in%20the%20decade%20that%20followed.

[choie]

10. I hardly think there is a comparison between the artists, musicians and others

who were employed by the WPA to overfed, millionaire performers who used the pandemic money for $15,000 flights, hotels and other bullshit.

[underpants]

11. It was meant to keep venues open

Smaller local playhouses and music venues.

[choie]

12. Yes, that was what it was meant to do.

Not funding Lil' Wayne's obscenely luxurious lifestyle.

[MichMan]

2. Let's hope the DOJ will start prosecution of these criminals n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Blame their agents

[Autumn]

4. their agents weren't the ones who qualified them to the pandemic-relief program,

that was a feature put in for for the wealthy. Politicians also cashed in on that.

[uncledad]

5. musicians - Lil Wayne?

Last edited Wed Dec 18, 2024, 02:31 PM - Edit history (1)

Those two things should not be mentioned in the same universe. Lil Wayne and Auto-tune is more like it

[OldBaldy1701E]

7. I use 'performer' when this kind of thing comes up.

I spent almost fifty years working on guitar, bass, piano, and singing. His success not withstanding, I am not aware of any ability that qualifies him as a 'musician'.

But, I could be wrong. He may be able to play an instrument. I did not see any mention of it while perusing his wiki page. But, he may...

[MuseRider]

8. LOL

[tonekat]

6. The idea of paying taxes

to a criminal administration, is truly revolting.

[LPBBEAR]

9. Rap isn't music

its a con game. It's also an insult to real musicians to call it music.