WaMu's 'cringe-worthy' rap: 'I Like Big Bucks'

Politico's Eamon Javers calls it "one of the more cringe-worthy moments of the mortgage meltdown." A Senate investigation has revealed that employees of the failed mortgage lender Washington Mutual performed a rap in praise of all the money they were pocketing during the housing bubble. At the company's 2006 "President's Retreat" event in Hawaii, employees riffed on Sir Mix-a-Lot's hip-hop hit "Baby Got Back" (relevant lyric: "I like big butts") with a number called "I Like Big Bucks."

Extolling luxuries, such as Botox injections and "that big new Benz" that their new wealth was affording them, the faux-rappers tossed play money into a crowd of cheering colleagues. JP Morgan Chase, which purchased WaMu's mortgage portfolio in 2008, asked that the transcript of the event be kept confidential. "Who could blame [them]," asks Michael Corkery at The Wall Street Journal. "Maybe you can somehow forgive bankers for destroying our economy," says Adrien Chen at Gawker, "but the lyrics of this rap... are unforgivable."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up