Despite the allure of “fast money,” the stripper game is not an easy one. So it’s no surprise that many of them look at rappers as their Golden Ticket off the pole. Said “pole athletes” have to dance, literally, for hours in exchange for sweaty dollar bills; on “off” nights, they go home with, literally, pennies on the dollar; too many of them “age out” of the business without a Plan B (few Fortune 500 companies look favorably upon “makin’ dat’ass clap” as a listed skill set); and the list goes on. Many strippers are literally counting the hours until they can get out of the business.
And let’s not even discuss the travails of the 2014 Video Vixen: whereas a vixen could once command thousands of dollars per video, today’s vixen is lucky to get gas money and a bottle of water. Like the 2014 stripper, the 2014 video vixen also can find the allure of the “ballin'” lifestyle of the average rapper to be her way out of the trenches.
Alas, many are called, but few are chosen. Here’s Hip-Hop Wired’s list of rappers who played Captain Save-A-Vixen…
— Photo: WENN.com
Photo credit: WENN.com
15. Ice T
The OG-turned-actor turned in his pimp card when he wifed up model/actress/vixen Nicole “Coco” Austin. And despite their various trials and travails, Ice & Coco have emerged as one of hip-hop’s most enduring — and endearing — couples.
14. Juelz Santana
The Dipset general showed a softer side when he publicly declared his love for Kimbella Vanderhee, who is the mother of two of his children. Through evictions, reality show arguments, and Twitter ratchetry, LaRon & Kimbella have proven that the couple that goes to the strip club together, stays together.
13. Joe Budden
We could make a whole list of vixens & strippers that Joe has rescued — at least temporarily — from That Life. It’s almost a vixen rite of passage.
12. Bow Wow
This rapper-turned-BET host has, like Joe Budden, rescued more than a few girls from That Life, but he was most notably linked to Dollica Bryan.
11. Lil’Wayne
Weezy loves Dem Strippers & Vixens, but his most notorious conquest is the spelunking cave known as Karrine “Superhead” Steffans…whom he is seeing WHILE engaged to his current fiancee. Ratchetry!
Photo: WENN.com
10. 50 Cent
Much to the dismay of countless female fans (and, for some reason, L’Orel), Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson has taken Tatted Up Holly from the strip club to the big time, casting her in his videos and earning her hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers. He even got her a prime seat next to Paris Hilton during a New York Fashion Week show!
9. Slim Thug
The Houston rapper was “Still Tippin'” when he publicly claimed Houston stripper and sometime rapper (!) Jhonni Blaze…before Rich Dollaz claimed her & made her a recurring character on the upcoming season of “Love & Hip-Hop: NY.” (First Broke Pennies makes that ratchet hood bird Tiffy Lew Insta-famous, now this. Exactly what does he manage, outside of an aviary?)
8. Sean Kingston
Sean Kingston has had his share of “Beautiful Girls”…but none that he’s claimed so publicly as stripper/vixen Maliah Michel…who is also rumored to be a friendly withwealthy Saudi Arabian men.
7. Kanye West
Before he asked amateur porn star-turned-ubiquitous “socialite” Kim Kardashian for her hand (and ass…) in marriage, Yeezus dumped his long-time girlfriend, Alexis, for stripper & sometime model Amber Rose. Their subsequent breakup led to a whole album full of songs where shots were fired.
6. Stevie J
Once upon a time, Steven Jordan was the leader of Puffy’s Hitmen roster, churning out hits for everyone from MC Lyte to Mariah Carey. (His Wikipedia credits read like a who’s-who of pop & Hip-Hop music.) Today, he’s known as Stevie J, resident overbloated chipmunk of Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta, a simp who rescued Joseline Hernandez from a treacherous life of stripperdom.
5. Chris Brown
If you’re mad about the fact that Draya Michelle of Basketball Wives is seemingly everywhere, you can thank Chris Brown for making her a household name. Prior to dating Breezy, Draya was only known in small circles of Hip-Hop…and mostly for her less-than-desirable parenting skills.
4. Mos Def
Yasiin Bay is probably the last person anyone would expect on this list. But in 2005, he married stripper Alanna Wyatt…while still married to his then-wife, Maria Yepes (with whom he has two daughters). Wyatt filed for divorce two days later, and she published a tell-all book, “Breaking the Code of Silence” in 2012. Messy!
3. Drake
Before he started dating the Bajan princess, Drizzy Drake was wifing up Maliah Michele (ol’girl gets around…), whom he met on the set of one of his videos.
2. Wiz Khalifa
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, as the “Black & Yellow” rapper proved when he wifed up Amber Rose once her relationship with Kanye West was over. The couple now have a young son together, as well.
Photo: WENN.com
1. Tyga
The Young Money rapper is better known, these days, for who he’s dating than for what he’s rapping about: he wifed up former King of Diamonds stripper Blac Chyna (who is now Kim Kardashian’s “new bestie”) and they have a son, King Cairo, together. Despite reports of cheating & abuse, the couple is still sticking together and trying to make things work. Now that’s love!
