Ro$$ Mac is the Wall Street rapper. He spent three years on Wall Street working on the high-yield sales and trading desk for Morgan Stanley. He has combined his passion for rap music and the financial market into something that informs urban culture and parlayed his expertise into a financial literacy platform called Maconomics. His new EP, Maconomics 101, showcases his rapping skill as he drops with jewels intended to change the financial landscape in the Black community.
Rolling out spoke with Mac about his music, the importance of legacy and how the coronavirus will affect the markets.
Why is it important for you to share economic information through your music?
I think music is one of the strongest influences we have as a culture. We grow up singing along to lyrics that sound good, but we have no idea what they mean. We use Google to figure it out. I want an inner-city kid to Google what a 529 plan is or what the S&P is. That’s why I love my platform. Rap is a genre of music that glorifies making money, but no one is talking about how to really make it the Wall Street way.
Explain the importance of generational wealth.
Generational wealth affords your children the luxury to do things you could never fathom. I have White peers that I went to college with who were already exposed to wealth before school, so their entire perspective on schooling was different. While I was thinking about getting a good job, they were already thinking about creating their own dream job.
The average African American household net worth is about $6,000 vs. the White American net worth of over $100,000. It’s important to leave our kids and grandkids with more than we started with. It will propel the next generations to come.
Click to read his thoughts about coronavirus’s impact on saving and investing.
