Got Money

Album: Tha Carter III (2008)
Charted: 10
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • In this track Lil Wayne is assisted by T-Pain. The southern rapper told MTV news that T-Pain is one of the people in music who inspired him. He declared: "I am music. That's me, Jack. I found a new love for music, and I got to owe it to a lot of people in the game. They don't even know. I got to owe a lot to T-Pain. He made me really look at myself. I always look at somebody like, 'I can't do what you do, but man, I damn sure wish I could.' So when I figure out what I could do about that, I go and do it. So every time I get a chance to say it, T-Pain, Prince, Wyclef, Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, Alicia Keys, Lenny Kravitz - all these are people I looked at the past two years. I viewed them seriously and was like, 'Wow, I could do that without being totally them.' I can present it as Lil Wayne."
  • On this song both Lil Wayne and T-Pain utilize the auto-tune device, which was originally popularized by the latter.
  • This was produced by Play N Skillz, who are Texan brothers Juan "Play" and Oscar "Skillz" Salinas.
  • Skillz told Rhapsody about this track: "We did the track in New York and right before we were gonna dump the track into the computer, the engineer stepped on the plug accidentally and turned off the MPC. So we had to come back the next day and redo the whole track. That s--t was still in my head though."
  • Play (from the same Rhapsody interview): "Pitbull was gonna use it, but T-Pain didn't finish the hook in time. N.O.R.E. and Slim Thug recorded over it. Fat Joe was interested. Rick Ross passed over it. So we started shopping it, but nobody took it. November ['07], T-Pain's manager reached out to me, telling me Wayne wanted it. Then, one day, I got it on my iPhone with Wayne and T-Pain's vocals on the actual track. Then we couldn't come to the mixing or the mastering, which we were upset about. Wayne doesn't let you come unless he has personal relationship with you, which we didn't. Skillz is such a music guy that he doesn't care about the money, he cares about the situation. So he was like, 'F--k it, they can't have it.' But I'm more of the business head, like, 'Nah, it's Carter III and we're going to get this single.' [Wayne's engineer] Fabian Marasciullo, did a great job on the record."
  • Jonathan Davis of KoRn recorded a Rock version of this song in September 2008. On his website, Davis said the song is "not representative of the album I’m working on but it was just something fun I wanted to try." >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Bertrand - Paris, France

Comments: 3

  • Alejandro from Sacramento, CaT-Pain was a great in this song, he really complimented weezy's style of music.
  • Edward Pearce from Ashford, Kent, EnglandYes it was true that it was Cher who originally popularised the Autotune device but it was T-Pain who popularised its use in hip hop.
  • Charlie from Rockville, MdActually Auto-tune was popularized by Cher hence its nickname the "cher effect"
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater RevivalFact or Fiction

Is "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" about Vietnam? Was John Fogerty really born on a Bayou? It's the CCR edition of Fact or Fiction.

Glen Burtnik

Glen BurtnikSongwriter Interviews

On Glen's résumé: hit songwriter, Facebook dominator, and member of Styx.

Lajon Witherspoon of Sevendust

Lajon Witherspoon of SevendustSongwriter Interviews

The Sevendust frontman talks about the group's songwriting process, and how trips to the Murder Bar helped forge their latest album.

Jon Anderson of Yes

Jon Anderson of YesSongwriter Interviews

From the lake in "Roundabout" to Sister Bluebird in "Starship Trooper," Jon Anderson talks about how nature and spirituality play into his lyrics for Yes.

Richard Marx

Richard MarxSongwriter Interviews

Richard explains how Joe Walsh kickstarted his career, and why he chose Hazard, Nebraska for a hit.

British Invasion

British InvasionFact or Fiction

Go beyond The Beatles to see what you know about the British Invasion.