Nick Cannon is being very transparent about his past relationship with money early on in his career. The entertainer recently detailed how he blew straight through a hefty check he once received as a gift from Will Smith.
He explained how he went broke even after the veteran actor blessed him with a check in the amount of $200,000 and financial advice.
“Will found me at like 17, and by the time I was 18, the check came in, and at the time, I remember Will had a red Range Rover. And I was like ‘I want a black one,’” Cannon recalled during an appearance on Angela Yee’s “Money Pie” series. “And he’s the biggest movie star in the world, and this is ’98, end of ’98.”
Learning the Hard Way
Despite the fact that Smith tried to warn the “Wild ‘N Out” creator not to spend his newfound wealth on a luxury car, he still wanted to test the waters to maintain an image.
“Not even a year [later]- I totaled that car and lost it and was living back at my mom’s house … my mom’s was living in that condo back in San Diego a year later, thinking where I thought I had made it, and was rich, and was gonna be set for life.”
Smith was not giving advice just to be giving it. The veteran actor actually recalled a lot of his previous experiences with mishandling money and even used it as an example for Cannon.
“Yeah he was like, ‘I made a million dollars, won a Grammy, and I was broke. You know before this Fresh Prince. Don’t-like, save this money.’ And I was like ‘aight aight, I’m good.’ Like, you just gave me a whole television deal, this the first $200,000. This is gonna keep coming,” said Cannon, who initially dismissed the game that Smith was trying to put him on to.
Looking Back
Looking back, Cannon says that there are a few things he would’ve done differently, specifically when it comes to ownership.
“I rented my mom’s condo. I wish I would’ve bought it,” he admitted. “I wish instead of buying that, that Range Rover, I would’ve just bought my mom’s condo.”
