Don’t you hate it when you have to get out of bed to earn the taxpayer money being used to bailout your company? Maybe you should perform a rap parody about it.
That’s exactly what president and CEO of AIG Global Real Estate Robert Gifford did back in 2010 in the midst of a $182 billion taxpayer bailout to save the company from collapse after the financial crisis. A video recently posted by Mother Jones shows Gifford at a company dinner performing a parody version of Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind,” one so cringe-worthy that even if it wasn’t about a big corporation messing around with your hard-earned cash, you'd be nauseous.
"I was hanging out all comfy, at my crib in bed. Now I have endless meetings with...the Fed," Gifford says in a stilted, sing-song-esque series of vocalizations that he most likely thought sounded like rapping. The "these lights will inspire you" lyric was replaced by "big write-offs will inspire you," by the way.
This week, the U.S. Treasury finally exited the AIG bailout, the largest in government history. But when the government had a stake in the company, employee spending on perks like golf outings, company events and meals wasn't uncommon, the New York Daily News reported in August. So too were demands for extravagant executive pay packages.