Steve 'Flash' JuonMeet Tysen “Money Man” Bolding. Born in The Bronx but raised in Atlanta, the young rapper is best known for the song “24,” a tribute he and Lil Baby did to honor Kobe Bryant after his shocking death in a helicopter accident. There’s no question if you knew who Money Man was before this opening paragraph it was because of the viral success of that one song. It was close to a hundred million views as I wrote this and if you add in streams on Apple or Spotify it’s way more than that total.
No rapper can rest on their laurels for long though. The world keeps moving and Money Man had to keep moving too, so here we are talking about “Purple Heart.” The biggest song I could find off this release was “Turnt,” clocking in at just over five million views on YouTube. While that’s nowhere near the levels of “24” (in fact it’s only 5% of it) that’s still a healthy respectable amount. Collaborating with Moneybagg Yo undoubtedly increased the performance just a little bit. A very attractive woman showing off her assets in the video will have some viewers “Turnt” too, even though ironically enough she’s not in the thumbnail. Seriously — why not? You already paid her for the video shoot. That’s money left on the table. Clickbait that shit.
The stream numbers for the rest of these songs are healthy — well at least on YouTube where those numbers are publicly visible. He averages between 500K and a million for songs like “Love in the Booth.” Perhaps that’s what happened to the model from the previously discussed video? Money Man is certainly showering her like money ain’t a thang, when he’s not busy warning his haters not to take any of his guap without facing serious consequences.
“If he run his mouth, I’ma have him beheaded
Bae, I’m the one, don’t you ever forget it”
I’ve been gracious so far but I’ve been hiding a fact that’s in plain sight if you play his music here or elsewhere — he sounds like every other vocally modified Atlanta area emcee. If the scale runs from Future at one end to Migos at the other end, he’d be right smack dab in the middle. Hey, it’s a formula, and it’s one that’s been proven to work. I’m not knocking him for following it, especially since that’s where he grew up and what his peers sound like. Regrettably it doesn’t add any depth to the material of “Purple Heart,” despite the title implying some war-like drama. Oh there’s definitely war on songs like “Understand This Lingo,” but you’ve seen this movie before.
“Never cross none of my day ones for them niggaz
I’ll come spray some’
Ready to use the .556, wish a nigga would say some'”
Money Man bounces back and forth between pitching woo to the ladies and hate to the haters. It’s as effective as it is redundant. I mean this in the most complimentary way possible but Money Man isn’t for me — he’s not bad but he’s not anything I haven’t heard already hundreds of times. He’s well produced and well packaged and feels entirely like what a corporate executive at a major record label thinks rappers are and rap music is. I congratulate Tysen on all of his success.