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Show Business: The 10 Most Expensive Rap Videos Ever Made

The 2018 list ranks “Victory” as rap’s most expensive video at a reported $2.7 million, followed by “2 Legit 2 Quit” and “What’s It Gonna Be.”
From TheFinanceBase Team3 min to read
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The 2018 Music Crowns feature reproduced by Tom’s Blog puts Puff Daddy’s “Victory,” featuring The Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes, at the top of its ten-video ranking, with a reported cost of $2.7 million. The amounts below are publication-reported estimates, not verified production-accounting records; the list’s order and figures follow that 2018 feature.

The 10 most expensive rap videos in the 2018 list

These are nominal reported costs as printed in the Music Crowns feature reproduced by Tom’s Blog on December 23, 2018. The feature does not provide a shared budget methodology or primary records for the amounts.

  1. Puff Daddy featuring The Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes — “Victory”: $2,700,000

    The 2018 feature ranks “Victory” first and says it peaked at No. 19 on the US Billboard charts. CADA’s shorter 2022 list also places it first at a reported $2.7 million. Both are publisher-reported figures, not audited production accounts.

  2. MC Hammer — “2 Legit 2 Quit”: $2,500,000

    The feature describes a 15-minute production with James Brown and other celebrity cameos, visual effects, and an elaborate stage show. CADA’s 2022 list reports the same rounded amount.

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  3. Busta Rhymes featuring Janet Jackson — “What’s It Gonna Be”: $2,400,000

    The feature describes unusual outfits and visual effects. CADA also reports $2.4 million, describing liquid-metal imagery and dancers.

  4. Will Smith — “Miami”: $2,000,000

    The feature points to a large cast of extras, cars, a speedboat, and a waterside party as elements of the production. CADA reports the same rounded cost.

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  5. Missy Elliott — “She’s a Bitch”: $2,000,000

    The feature says the production involved specially designed costumes, effects, expensive lighting, and a rare set that required experts from Germany to assemble. Its $2 million estimate is not independently corroborated by the other reviewed lists.

  6. MC Hammer — “Here Comes the Hammer”: $1,300,000

    The feature describes this as an expensive video for an album track that did not become a major hit.

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  7. Fugees — “Ready or Not”: $1,300,000

    The feature describes war scenes, helicopters, motorbike chases, jet skis, boats, submarines, scuba diving, and sharks. While discussing the production, it attributes the line “people want to see drama, man” to Pras.

  8. Kanye West — “Stronger”: $1,200,000

    The feature reports nine days of filming in Tokyo, ten weeks of editing, and additional filming in New York. A separate 2023 list also reports $1.2 million.

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  9. Kanye West featuring Lupe Fiasco — “Touch The Sky”: $1,000,000

    The feature describes an Evel Knievel-inspired story and reports that the lawsuit was resolved shortly before Knievel’s death in 2007. A separate 2023 list also reports $1 million.

  10. Drake — “God’s Plan”: $996,631.90

    The 2018 feature says Drake gave away the video’s entire budget. A separate 2023 list rounds the reported cost to $996,632.

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How to read the ranking and the dollar amounts

This is a ten-entry ranking from one 2018 feature, not a definitive census of every expensive rap video. Other lists use different lengths and scopes: a 2023 ranking includes eleven entries, adds Wu-Tang Clan’s “Triumph” at a reported $800,000, and rounds “God’s Plan” to $996,632. CADA’s 2022 list is shorter and corroborates five entries near the top, including “Victory.”

Some figures recur across the lists reviewed: “Victory,” “2 Legit 2 Quit,” “What’s It Gonna Be,” “Miami,” and “Stronger” appear with matching rounded estimates. That agreement is useful context, but it does not establish that the estimates came from a common accounting method. Other videos’ absence from a particular list does not show that their budgets were lower.

For example, Stingray reports a $1 million budget for Jay-Z and UGK’s “Big Pimpin’,” which does not appear in the 2018 ten. That report alone cannot establish where it would rank or whether the lists apply the same eligibility rules.

What the productions suggest about cost

The descriptions point to recurring sources of expense: large or specialized sets, location shoots, vehicles and watercraft, stunts, visual effects, costumes, extensive casts, and long editing schedules. “Stronger,” for instance, is described as involving filming in Tokyo and New York as well as ten weeks of editing; “Ready or Not” is associated with an unusually broad range of action and water-based scenes.

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These are production details, not itemized budgets. The available reports do not say how much of any video’s cost went to a particular set, effect, performer, or shoot day, so they support comparisons of reported totals and visible production scale—not a precise breakdown of spending.

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