All about the Benjamin

You’ve heard the saying “It’s all about the Benjamins” (thank you then-Puff Daddy, whose rap lyrics about conspicuous consumption coined the phrase). It’s all about reverence for the US $100 bill that features Benjamin Franklin’s portrait. He doesn’t much look like he’d fit in with the P. Diddy set, but it seems the guy was a player in his day.

America’s favourite founding father was also a bit of ladies’ man. The inventor (of the lightening rod, for one) was a self-made man and true capitalist. He worked hard, and even wrote the proverb “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” But he didn’t really subscribe to it himself….

In The History Channel’s 2009 biography he’s described as having a “lively libido.” He was a bit of a salon star in Paris (while working as a diplomat), where he learned French by lounging with mistresses—the 18th century’s “preeminent heartthrob.” And he remains a charmer today … as a bust, an action figure and on that illustrious $100 bill.

B TO THE E TO THE N…

The original businessman is now part of today’s pop-culture. “It’s All About the Benjamins”—or all about the importance of money and being rich—was the fourth single released from Puff Daddy’s debut album No Way Out (1997). And the song sparked the infamous phrase. Saturday Night Live later parodied it in a digital short rap video (“Lazy Sunday”) with the lyric, “It’s all about the Hamiltons,” referring to the US $10 bill.

In Canada, of course, we don’t have Benjamins. Here’s it’s all about the Bordens … as in Sir Robert Borden, the eighth Prime Minister who fronts our $100 bill. Not quite the same as Puff Daddy’s contribution to the rap thesaurus for money. Some other choice terms for the green stuff: paper, papes, scratch, scrilla, stacks, flow, chips, cheddar, moolah, loot, flow, fetti, ends, ducats, dough, dead presidents, cream, c-notes, chi-ching, cake, bankroll, big faces, bricks, butter … Or how about the rap trope of just spelling it out:
M to the O to the N to the E to the Y.

Words | Barb Sligl