"If you buy a diamond chain," the Houston rapper advised, "make sure you got enough where you can do that. That got to be your free money. You got to put out more money than you spend."

Monica, the Grammy-award winning R&B singer, told about her struggles with credit cards and advised against signing up for more than one card or charging big-ticket items.

But when Joseph Simmons, aka Rev Run from the hip-hop group Run-D.M.C., tried to explain how to get equity out of a home, he used his own house purchase as an example. Simmons, brother of Russell Simmons, said he paid $1.5 million for his home and then sold it for $6 million. In addition, he said he made extra money by using the house as the set for his popular reality-TV show.


It seems there was little discussion on the rigors of saving. Without a strong effort to encourage that these young people are just managing debt which these rap stars admit being hit or bust.