Danielle Bregoli, aka Bhad Bhabie, is already familiar with real estate at the age of 18. Five years after appearing on “Dr. Phil ”- her mother pleaded for his help to control her“ car-stealing, knife-wielding, twerking 13-year-old daughter ”- which spawned the memorable saying:“ Cash me ousside, howbow dah? ”The would-be rapper is considering cash for a $ 4 million fully furnished home in Boca Raton, Florida with space for her two dogs, three cars (a Bentley, a BMW, and a souped-up Jeep) and a “walk” to pay for in a closet that big enough to put a bed in, ”she says resolutely as she sits next to her manager Dan Roof at a steakhouse in the San Fernando Valley one afternoon in mid-July.
The waterfront mansion she has in mind is a 20-minute drive from Boynton Beach, where Bregoli grew up, but a world away. Boca’s median personal income is $ 67,531; in Boynton Beach 10% of the population live below the poverty line. And while Bregoli spends some of her time in Los Angeles, where she rents a 6,000-square-foot contemporary in Woodland Hills, she sees Florida for what it is: a tax haven.
The incredulous self-made multimillionaire says, “All my cars and things are registered in Florida. I will not pay these taxes! “
Bregoli in a pink unitard with bright pink hair holds a microphone close to her face against a black background (Cooper Neill / Getty Images)
Bregoli is the first to claim that her financial success has been achieved with little support from the music industry. Bhad Bhabie was signed to Atlantic Records in 2017 at the age of 14 based on the strength of the viral “These Heaux,” which earned her the honor of becoming the youngest female rapper to debut on the Billboard Hot 100. Hop heavies like Lil Baby, Ty Dolla $ ign, YG, Lil Yachty, Kodak Black and City Girls on their 2018 debut album “15”. (Right now, she is at the top of her collaboration wish-list: Young Thug.) But she eluded a place on popular playlists like Spotify’s Rap Caviar, despite garnering hundreds of millions of streams on the platform. (Spotify representatives were not available to comment.)
Bregoli and her team suspect the label didn’t properly promote their music, but company sources contradict this claim, pointing to the reluctance of the DSPs when it came to playing Bhad Bhabie that went beyond Spotify.
The story goes on
According to music industry insiders, Bhad Bhabie has a credibility problem among hip-hop gatekeepers. “It’s hard to take them seriously,” says one such flavor maker. “She encourages irresponsible behavior,” offers another, pointing to her racy texts and real stupidities that were recorded on social media and later analyzed in meticulous detail from game to game by Bregoli on Instagram Live.
Bregoli in a floor-length, sparkling dress and ponytail dead at the camera (Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images for dcp)
Antics aside, Bregoli is no fool when it comes to money. Although legally banned from accessing her bank account as a minor, she raised a small fortune through branding deals, including more than $ 2 million in product placements on Bhad Bhabie videos and online advertising for fashion nova clothing brand. Elsewhere on social media, Bregoli makes $ 40,000 per post to her 9 million Snapchat followers, not to mention promotions for her 17 million Instagram followers, YouTube views (she has 7.6 million subscribers) and Royalty from their platinum-certified singles and 1 billion plus streams. On deck: Beauty, hair and nail products with the name Bhad Bhabie (last count, Bregoli counted 70 tattoos on each part of the body, although she has so far left her face untouched).
“My chief executive, who has been with me since I was around 15 when my mom was in control, tells me, ‘Everyone thinks you’re going to screw it up, but I think you’re going to do great. ‘”She says of her finances. “And when I turned 18 I started making as much money as I started making OnlyFans. And when I say earn money, I mean I could retire immediately if I wanted to. “
Bregoli looks over her tattooed shoulder into the camera in a close shot on the red carpet (Axelle / Bauer-Griffin / FilmMagic)
The subscription platform OnlyFans, launched in 2016, has made a name for itself as the favorite of sex workers, who can bill subscribers or “fans” for exclusive content that Instagram considers too provocative. Six days after her 18th birthday in April, Bregoli made $ 1 million in her first six hours on the platform, breaking the OnlyFans record and generating a fair amount of criticism (although Bregoli is scantily clad, she assures that she is only shows what she is comfortable with). to which she responded by showing the proverbial middle finger to the world as she has done countless times before. Since her debut, that number has grown exponentially, though she and Roof refuse to go into details. “Imagine where it is now months later,” says Bregoli.
“Bhad Bhabie found a way to turn a negative situation into a life changing moment and catapult yourself to social media fame, but what’s next?” Says marketing expert and cultural curator Karen Civil, who notes that “Her arguments and fights seem to be in the foreground ”. Civil adds: “With her (music) career stagnating, I wonder if rapping is really her endgame?”
To this end, Bhad Bhabie, who has “separated” from Atlantic, wants to release her own music. “I don’t make music because I need money for it,” she says and is happy about a kind of co-sign from Cardi B. Her former label colleague recently said on Instagram: “I’m so proud of Bhad Bhabie, her growth is beautiful. … I hear (she makes) a lot of money. I’m talking about millions. When people make a lot of money, I respect that. I don’t care how they do it. “
The feeling coincides with the theme of her new song “Role Model,” which Bregoli says was inspired by a real Joseph County, Michigan judge who (virtually) reprimanded a teenager in his courtroom, warning her, ” Is that ‘Cash me out, girl, your role model? ”(The teen embarrassed replied,“ No, sir, it isn’t. ”) The upcoming video of the song in which Bregoli plays the school teacher in black stilettos and leather includes one Message about the exchange.
a young Bregoli in jeans and tank clasped hands and telephone in front of a large green background of a kind of bush (gotpap / Bauer-Griffin / GC Images)
Pretending to be none other than she is, Bregoli says it is up to parents to properly raise their children, including monitoring their exposure to explicit texts. “Even Cardi B doesn’t shit when her kid comes over,” she says, referring to the song “WAP” starring Megan Thee Stallion. “You are the one who should limit your child’s youth.”
This is a rich statement from the rebel herself, whose stunts received her national recognition, but Bregoli takes no responsibility and does not apologize. “I never wanted to be famous,” she says soberly. “I didn’t work all night to make a name for myself. It was handed to me. And instead of being a shame and a joke for the rest of my life, I became something successful and something that people may or may not look up to for the right reasons. I don’t give an f —. “
This story first appeared on Variety.com.
Comments are closed.