The Money - Intellectual

[Intro: Jme]

You know when you've gone way past the negotiation stage?

[Verse 1: Jme]

I cannot make money and still make sense

Fuck your pounds, fuck your pence

Fuck your dollars, fuck your cents

Fuck your euros, you fucking spenks

Just 'cause you're paying me Ps

You can't change the bullshit Jme sees

Any funny stuff, it's weighing in season

Take him straight to A&E, please

I perform and you have to pay

Equal service at the end of the day

But I know what you think, you thought

'Cause you've got the Ps, the ball's in your court

But it ain't, man will pop that ball with a shank

Don't ring me, I'll block that call and blank you for days

I've got Ps in the bank anyway

I could never be a tramp, I bathe

[Chorus: Jme]

I don't want the money anymore

Changed my mind, I'll have to withdraw

I don't want the money anymore

[Verse 2: Wiley & Jme ]

When Jme speaks, I know what Jme means

A few bundlings going on in the scene

It might look like I'm living my dreams

But you should see how they control an MC

I understand you're gonna pay me

But you don't pay me for what made me

Make the underground hate me?

Then I've gotta spray bars and make em rate me

( I don't want the money anymore )

That's the zone where it might take me

If I'm on a deal and I feel chained up

Then bro, I've gotta break free

When you spray bars for a living

Everybody wanna know who you're seeing lately

I know A&Rs who made certain artists

But they never made me

[Chorus: Jme]

I don't want the money anymore

Changed my mind, I'll have to withdraw

I don't want the money anymore

[Verse 3: Jme]

You know, you get to that turning point though

Didn't speak but you had a burning point though

Was gonna turn up but you turned down though

Never thought that you would ever turn down dough

Money don't make you, you make money

ABBA told me that money is funny

Jessie J told me it's not about the price tag

Sam Smith ain't got money on his mind, fam

Biggie told me more money, more problems

But I know less money don't solve them

So I make a few hits, then try to make a bit

And I don't let anybody tell me shit

I've got a sick flow and I know what I'm worth

I'm not a thick soul just roaming in the earth

You will get rickrolled if you try bring your purse

Have to pay for the team like Kane said

But we don't respect the ting

[Chorus: Jme]

I don't want the money anymore

Changed my mind, I'll have to withdraw

I don't want the money anymore

Sense is a homophone of “cents”, which is an American currency and will later be repeated in this same verse.

Also, a cent, in comparison, is a very small amount of money to say a dollar or a pound. The fact he can’t “make money and still make sense” implies that, if JME is getting paid very little for his hard work in the grime industry, it’s almost not worth his time.

Finally, JME here is also stating how money changes people. Adenuga is stating that many rappers/grime artists have lost touch with their roots due to fame and fortune – JME will refuse to let this change him (hence the album name, Integrity>)

Jme drops multiple references to popular tracks about money:

Jessie J’s “Price Tag” featured the chorus:

We just wanna make the world dance
Forget about the price tag

Sam Smith’s track “Money On My Mind” showed the lyrics:

I don’t have money on my mind
Money on my mind
I do it for, I do it for the love

Meanwhile, The Notorious B.I.G. had a song entitled “Mo' Money Mo' Problems.

Jme references fellow MC Kano and his track “Ps and Qs”, in which Kane raps the lyrics:

‘Cause they’re spreading the word down from raves that I been
And they’re bringing the purse out to pay for my team

ABBA were a Swedish pop group who made a song “Money Money Money”. JME is referring to the lyric, ‘Money, money, money. Must be funny, in a rich man’s world’.

Jme’s referring to the popular meme of sending someone a link, usually to a video, that looks like one thing; say a tutorial, but turns out to be Rick Astley’s famed hit “Never Gonna Give You Up”.