Theres this underground rapper name tru life from Nyc. He didnt sell any records during his rap career. He went to prison on 2009 and came home in 2020 and joined the rapper “future”s entourage and nowadays i look at tru lifes instagram and the guys living in a mansion and owns multiple properties and always on private jets with expensive jewlery.
Keep in mind, he doesnt even rap anymore and he supposedly manages this new artist call jey one thats not even a platinum artist.
So my question is, how do these entourage guys make all this money and live this lavish lifestyle? Is future just handing out free checks to them or is there some kind of loop hole to making these millions?
This is not hating in anyway btw. Its just i always see these entourage guys balling out and i wanna know what is their actual source of income because it doesnt add up in my head
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They’re paid by the artist to be around or some have menial titles like security or assistant or something
I can say that for some not all members of the entourage may have specific skills or provide contributions to the “major” artist that are worth the money like he might not have made it as a rapper but you take 5 others like him and they all collaborate on ideas that all get presented to us by 1 voice which in this case is Future. I know artist who have been signed to rappers for this exact reason…one of them is also under Future
When being famous and rich (like a rapper) its important to keep people around you that you can rely on.
Someone who you know will have your back no matter what, and speak up if you song is trash.
And, alot of rappers comes from hoods where people are tuff, so your homies can have you back instead of hiring the right security.
Not only that, but you help your homies too, and give them stuff to maintain, like manager, assistant, security or other important stuff. Might as well give the money to your homies, than someone you don’t know.
Dude these guys are super fucking broke I know enough people in the rap business a lot of that stuff is rented for shoots and stuff. Either that or they are straight up involved in money laundering/gang stuff either way don’t believe it for a second
A lot of them get some kind of pay from the rapper.
MC Hammer famously blew all his money by hiring everyone from his old neighborhood for something.
If he’s an idiot he is ten feet underwater in debt, but some of the guys get their name added as staff paid by the record company some are technically managers or producers and contractually get a piece of the profits or it could be with the logistics already in place to move a large amount of equipment and personnel around the country a bag or 2 of illicit substances get added and then gets distributed. Then there is the money laundering
They probably get paid a base salary that isn’t a million dollars. Things like boats and planes can be shared through a group arrangement. Probably take loans for cars, run up a bunch of credit card debt. Celebrities are known to dry out pretty quickly because the lifestyle is often beyond their means even while at the top.
There’s also networking. Maybe the entourage do XYZ thing for Rapper A. Rapper A befriends Singer D, the entourage can do XYZ for Singer D. Make appearances. Can be any level of service from dog walking to shoe shining or make up. Having already been vetted and worked with someone famous makes you more appealing to other celebrities rather than sourcing someone who might not want to deal with the limelight.
some of these guys set up face time or introductions to people for a fee, or otherwise use their association with the artist to make money off of other people. like “oh, you want Future on your project? I’m his homeboy, I can make it happen for this much…”
it’s called Patronage, and it goes back to the Renaissance.
I wanna throw out a crazy idea for you: sometimes people post things on Instagram that aren’t true, or portray themselves as a lot more affluent than they actually are.
ig is not real life, mansions and cars and even girls can be rented
Drugs
what makes you think he owns his mansion and multiple properties.
Are you sure they own those properties. All of that other stuff they probably don’t have to pay for. Besides a normal payroll I’m sure entourage people might get gifted like a car, or watch, every now and then. If life is anything like the tv show, lol
Complete guess but the mansion, jewellery etc is probably owned by the guy who actually makes the money (Future, in your example) and bro lives in it rent free, gets paid by Future to hang around and do some behind the scenes stuff and look good on socials.
There are usually multiple different things at play. 1) is a lot of the most lavish things (hotel, airfare, vehicles, trips, food/catering) are paid for by someone else (the main rapper/talent, record label/production company, etc) 2) some of these guys are officially on the payroll as an assistant, security or something else. 3) credit, a lot of these guys are living beyond their means through credit cards, loans or other lines of credit that they are probably making the minimum payments on 4) a lot of these fringe artists that are associated with a mainstream artist are also scamming people. They are charging for performances, or features on other indie level artist’s songs, video appearance fees, etc. The “scam” is making people think they by doing business with them, they’ll the foam exposure to the bigger artist. That almost never happens. IE pay Tru $5k to get on a song thinking Future will hear it and want to sign you. Or a show promoter books them for $5k thinking Tru will bring Future to chill/perform.
Tru did have a deal with Def Jam/Rocafella before he went away and was doing a lot of shows/features in the city too so he may have had money stashed away before his bid. If it was wisely invested, that would’ve been a nice nestegg after coming home. Plus he had a lot of powerful friends and in entertainment, those kinds of connections and relationships are priceless.
It’s called a support system. You, rapper, support your system.