Have you heard of @Fakewatchbusta?

It’s an Instagram account that exposes fake luxury watches on the wrists of hip hop artists. The guy who runs the account has been getting a lot of press for his ability to convincingly show us why the Rolexes, APs, and Hublot’s that some of your favourite rappers wear are horrible fakes.

He’s not only called out big players (Rick Ross, Soulja Boy, Jada Kiss) but also their jewellers. In some cases the jewellers responded via Instagram ADMITTING TO SELLING FAKES TO HUGE NAMES. Of course those posts were soon deleted but they still remain on @Fakewatchbusta.

There are trilogies of movies that have less interesting plotlines. But here’s the thing, this movie is not over, this guy is just warming up. And after seeing that Rick Ross has a fake watch on, it made me wonder if this is an indication of his, and therefore most, hip-hop’s young money millionaires, true wealth.

It’s quite reasonable to think that the average emerging rapper has a lot more in common with the average emerging band in terms of money they are bringing in via music. Yet the narrative from most emerging bands, let’s say Mac DeMarco, or Local Natives, is that they are poor, but happy, and working hard doing what they love. The narrative from rappers, let’s say Waka Flocka Flame, or Gunplay, are that they are so wealthy that they can afford to spend tens if not hundred thousands of dollars to make their wrist so icy. Fakewatchbusta appears to have an attention to detail that most of the general public and these rappers lack and is showing us that, no, they can’t afford the real thing.

But here’s the thing: NOBODY REALLY CARES. I am a huge MMG fanboy, I KNOW THAT RICK ROSS WAS A SECURITY GUARD. I DON’T CARE. HIS MUSIC IS BETTER THAN MOST RAPPER OUT THERE. In fact I love that Rick Ross built himself to become this millionaire mogul. That’s a narrative that is fun to watch and play out. There are not enough rappers out there that understand that it’s the WHOLE VISION that is important, not just the icy watch.

Obviously the other narrative going on is that these dudes are drug dealers too typically. Pusha T is famous for his cocaine hustle as is Jay Z and countless rappers before them. But let’s not kid ourselves it’s a lot of work to be an emerging artist in any genre, and to truly make it you have to put EVERYTHING INTO YOUR MUSIC. So the idea that Gunplay buys a $3000 dollar fake AP is a lot more reasonable than a $30,000 AP.

Also good to remember is that John Mayer and Cee-lo were recently outed as part of the fake watch world, so it’s not out of the question to think that, truly in some cases they were fooled into it. But how dumb do you have to be to think that you can get a $30,000 watch for $3000? Clearly that is informed stupidity, because you know that your fans don’t really care as long as you can deliver “Keys to the crib” on your next record.

Personally, I look forward to seeing more rappers busted on Fakewatchbusta because it’s really humanizing a genre that has long been able to get by on smoke and mirrors, and it’s actually exposing me to more rappers. I’m a new fan of Gunplay, fake Bumblee, or not.