Songfacts®:

• One of the biggest strip club songs ever recorded, "Money Maker" pairs Ludacris with Pharrell Williams, who produced the track with his Neptunes partner Chad Hugo and sings the hook. The phrase "shake your money maker" means to shake your butt when you're dancing. If you do it like someone is proffering money, it means to shake your butt like a stripper, which is what Ludacris and Pharrell are asking.
• The term "shake your money maker" goes back aways but was popularized by James Brown on his 1970 hit "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine," which repeats the line. The Black Crowes named their 1990 album Shake Your Money Maker.
• Ludacris and The Neptunes were both red hot at the time. The song was the first single from Luda's 2006 album Release Therapy, his third consecutive #1 on the US albums chart. The Neptunes were coming off #1 hits they produced for Snoop Dogg ("Drop It Like It's Hot") and Gwen Stefani ("Hollaback Girl"). Ludacris had also broken into acting by this point, starring in the Fast And Furious films as well as the Oscar-winner Crash.
• "Money Maker" won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Song, and Release Therapy won for Best Rap Album. These were the second and third Grammys for Ludacris, who won Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for his verse in "Yeah!" by Usher. It was the third Grammy for Pharrell, who along with Chad Hugo won Producer Of The Year in 2004 and Best Pop Vocal Album for Justin Timberlake's Justified.