"Got Money" is the third single by American rapper Lil Wayne from his album Tha Carter III. The single features American rapper T-Pain. Both Lil Wayne and T-Pain use the Auto-Tune effect in the song. The single was released as a digital download on iTunes on May 27, 2008. Lil Wayne and T-Pain performed the song at the BET 2008 awards and the 2008 MTV Music Video Awards. MTV also ranked the song as the number 19 Hip-Hop song of 2008. The UKradio edit version, released by Universal Ireland, removes the intros and the outros of the song. Its duration is 2:38.
Music video
The official remix, featuring Young Money Entertainment artist Mack Maine, was used to make the music video. The video was shot and released on June 23, 2008, the same day the video for "A Milli" was shot, in Los Angeles and is a follow up to the cliffhanger of "A Milli." The video is directed by Gil Green. Lil Wayne has claimed on his video blog it was based on the film Inside Man. Ray J, Shorty Mack, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Birdman, Tyga, Brisco, Lil Twist, Lil Chuckee, Jay Rock, 2 Chainz, Kidd Kidd, and the producers of the song, Play-n-Skillz, make cameos in the video. The bank lobby shots are the same bank used in the film Set It Off. The music video premiered on multiple MTV channels on June 23, 2008. In the end, Lil Wayne is the only one arrested while the crew escapes with the money, including Mack Maine and Birdman.
There are multiple freestyles on the internet, such as the ones done by rappersYung Joc and Pitbull. The official remix features Mack Maine. Travis Barker recorded a remix to the song. Juelz Santana and Skull Gang Recorded a freestyle to the song entitled "What You Reppin?" and on the "Skull Gang Takeover" mixtape.
Chart performance
The song was the "Hot Shot Debut" of the week on the BillboardHot 100, entering at #13, making it one of Lil Wayne's highest debuts. This also made it his second highest peaking song in his solo career, although it's now his third highest peaking. 15 weeks following its Hot 100 debut, the song rose to a new peak on the chart of #10, giving Lil Wayne his third consecutive top ten hit from Tha Carter III. It has become his fifth top ten on Hot Rap Tracks, thus far peaking at #2. It has been most successful on U.S. Rhythmic stations, reaching number one on the Rhythmic Top 40. "Got Money" was nominated for the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards.
Lawsuit
In June 2011, producers Play-N-Skillz sued Lil Wayne for $1 million over the "Got Money" rights.
