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MTV Cribs was one of the most beloved and outrageous shows of the early '00s. From Mariah Carey's lavish, 11,000 square-foot penthouse to Redman's Staten Island shack, the show gave everyday people an inside glimpse of what it's really like to be a celebrity. Cribs was renowned for showing glamorous mansions and luxury cars, a trend standard for many past MTV shows that took the place of actual music. Without the show, the phrase "this is where the magic happens" would have never been used to describe a bedroom.
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MTV Cribs was one of the most outrageous shows of the early 2000s
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purporting to give everyday people an inside look at what it's like to be a celebrity
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Billed as Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous for the TRL crowd, the show was renowned for its over-the-top displays of wealth and self-indulgent excess
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However, many of the homes featured on the show were less than genuine
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and MTV regularly manipulated viewers into believing that its celebrity guests were living much larger than they actually were
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Today, we're going to take a look at the different ways MTV's Cribs totally lied about celebrity homes
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Okay, time to find out what was cribbed on Cribs. Pop star JoJo, real name Joanna Noelle Levesque, released her debut single, Leave, Get Out
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when she was still just 13 years old, making her the youngest solo artist in history
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to top the U.S. Billboard Mainstream Top 40 chart. Sadly, Rebecca Black did not reach the same heights
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With so much success at such a young age, you'd probably think JoJo was earning Culkin money
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and had a pretty nice place to call home. Except when she debuted her episode of MTV Cribs
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the tween-aged pop star actually didn't live in a home at all. She later admitted that she and her mother
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had been living out of suitcases and staying mostly in hotels at the time
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Instead of rushing to snag a luxury condo at a police auction in time for the taping
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JoJo borrowed her uncle's house. According to the star herself, that wasn't my house
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That wasn't my stuff. When I was sitting on the spinny thing, that was his kids
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JoJo would eventually recall the whole experience as being ridiculous. The singer regretted the decision, saying
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I should have bawled harder and been like, welcome to my crib. Look at how luxurious it is
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And I should have run it out of place. But no, I just used my uncle's crib
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So that was me lying on cribs. You have to question the wisdom of MTV Cribs doing an episode about a 13-year-old in the first place
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A tour of a middle school bedroom might make great television, but not for any of the reasons MTV would have wanted
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Ja Rule is known for being a famous rapper, as well as getting smoked by Vin Diesel and Paul Walker in the first street race ever featured in a Fast and Furious movie
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He probably owned a pretty impressive house in the early 2000s, but you wouldn't know it from his appearance on Cribs
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For whatever reason, the rapper decided to rent a mansion for the weekend and passed it off as his own when MTV started
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rolling their cameras. That would be bizarre enough on its own. But Ja made a mess of the situation, literally
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He was eventually sued by the actual owner in 2004 for trashing the property and for letting MTV film there
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without permission Luckily Ja Rule got his act together in time to put together the Fyre Festival British pop star Robbie Williams had quite the career He scored seven number one singles in the UK
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and 11 of his 12 studio albums have reached number one. In fact, he made six of the top 100 biggest selling albums
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of all time in the UK. He also has a collection of some of the worst tattoos
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in recorded history. He was the Ben Affleck back tattoo of the aughts
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The point is, Williams could definitely afford an extravagant home. And on his episode of MTV Cribs, he indeed showed off some undeniably impressive celebrity digs
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But those digs just so happened to belong to a different celebrity. The true owner of the home Robbie tried to pass off as his own was Jane Seymour
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star of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Maybe he's just a really big fan
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Robbie Williams is far from being the only pop star who tried to pass off a different celebrity's home as his own
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Take, for instance, Dame Dash. In his episode of Cribs, he showed off a truly impressive abode right in the heart of London's
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Chelsea area, which boasts some of the world's most expensive real estate. It made great viewing
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for your average MTV watcher, but for those in the know, it was suspicious. The music mogul was
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suffering from some major financial problems at the time. In 2010, Dash lost two Tribeca lofts to
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foreclosure and reportedly had $7.3 million left on the mortgages. In 2013, he claimed he was $100,000
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behind on rent in his Carmel, New York mansion. What landlord lets you get $100,000 behind on rent
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Somebody's asleep at the wheel. So how is it that he managed to afford a luxury home in Chelsea
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Rumor is he rented it from Mariah Carey. Speaking of Mariah, her episode of Cribs
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stirred up some controversy as well, but not for the reasons you might think
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Mariah Carey broke onto the scene in the early 1990s and became the first artist to have her first five singles
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reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100, including emotions and vision of love
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With a career few could hope to ever rival, she has amassed a fortune, as well as some extremely nice houses
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including the one she allegedly rented to Dame Dash. Unsurprisingly, her Cribs episode is one of the most watched in history
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The insanely lavish home, which boasted 17 floors and houses a piano that once belonged to the legendary Marilyn Monroe
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is 100% real and 100% Mariah's. She also makes some 100% Mariah claims
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During the episode, she says some strange and occasionally outlandish things, such as insisting she has only used her shower once
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and has trained her pet fish to be nocturnal in order to match her schedule
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I mean, if you can train fish to do something, is that what you train them to do, swim at night
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Some have since speculated that she made those things up, either to lean on the show over format or to have some fun by trolling her fans a bit or maybe a little of both But the claims could also have been completely genuine After all Mariah is a Streisand
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diva. For example, the pop icon famously revealed on her Instagram and in subsequent interviews
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that she gave birth to her twins while listening to a playlist of her own music. It's understandable
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She's got some great tunes. Narcissist. So honestly, it's not that hard to believe she
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makes her fish stay up all night and works out in high heels. You do things a little differently
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when you've been a world-famous pop star your entire adult life. In February of 2003, rapper 50 Cent released the album Get Rich or Die Tryin'. Hailed by all music
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as the most hyped album debut by a rap artist in a decade, the title suggested that the artist was
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rolling in cash, or at least soon would be. After all, he made a movie of the same name in 2005 that
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never got a sequel, and he's clearly still very much alive. The star of the hit video game, 50 Cent, Blood on the Sand
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perpetuated his high roller image in his appearance on MTV Cribs, in which 50 showed off his lavish collection of sports cars
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which included three Ferraris. However, later developments would call into question whether those cars were actually his
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By some estimations, 50 Cent had already amassed a fortune of $30 million at that point, and if so
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he could have easily afforded the cars if he wanted them. Nonetheless, in his 2015 bankruptcy filing
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the rapper made it clear that he was only renting the lavish cars he often touts as his own
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No judgment, 50 Cent. Everybody has to stop by a rental center at least once in their life
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50 Cent isn't the only one who didn't actually own his impressive car collection
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The rapper Birdman, whose real name is Brian Christopher William, is the founder and CEO of Cash Money Record
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as well as the guy who discovered Lil Wayne. During his appearance on MTV Cribs
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he showed off a gorgeous 1972 Chevy Phantom Donk conversion that did not belong to him in any way
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that ownership is traditionally defined. Turns out, it was merely on loan for his episode
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The car reportedly belonged to a Cincinnati business owner, but it went along with Birdman's image at the time
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So MTV arranged for him to borrow the vehicle for the episode. Shad Moss, better known as Bow Wow
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and once upon a time as Lil Bow Wow, is no stranger to bending the truth
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In 2018, the rapper got himself into some hot water over when he posted a stock photo of a private jet on Instagram and claimed it as his own
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You really need to learn about reverse image searches if you're going to lie on the gram
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So it probably isn't a huge surprise to learn that Bow Wow also misled viewers about his car collection on Cribs
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The then 21 rapper showed off his Bentley Lamborghini and Cadillac Escalade But much like 50 cent and Birdman wheels the cars were reportedly rented for the occasion How do we know Well each car was emblazoned with the word prestige
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the name of a luxury rental car company in Miami. Oh, boy. You've got to start paying attention to those tiny details
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Back in the early 2000s, when Destiny's Child was enjoying massive mainstream success
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and Beyonce was on her way to becoming one of music's biggest icons, the whole group actually lived together
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in a house in Houston, Texas. At least, that's what MTV Cribs would have you believe
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While it's hard to tell if this slumber party fantasy was actually true, what fans do know
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is that the group used its appearance to shill for Candy's shoes. Beyonce took cameras into Kelly Rowland's room
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where she uncovered a Candy shoebox filled with mementos from old boyfriends
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Destiny's Child got an endorsement from the company at the time in their own line of designer shoes
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At the very least, you kind of have to respect that hustle. When it came to producing Cribs, the belief seemed to be that audiences wanted to see their celebrity heroes
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living outlandish, over-the-top lifestyles, like Richie Rich once he got old enough to fire his business manager
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And while that was undeniably an element of the show's appeal, it didn't always produce the most memorable episodes
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Sometimes the unvarnished truth is way more entertaining. For example, Redmond's episode of Cribs emerged as one of the most popular episodes of all time
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precisely because it made no attempt to maintain a fake image of celebrity glamour
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Rather, it completely turned the show upside down. Redmond's small Staten Island home looked like a college dorm room explosion
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It was cramped and cluttered, littered with dirty laundry, and didn't even have a working doorbell
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When cameras showed up, Redman was wrapped up in a blanket, and his cousin was still asleep on the floor
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Celebrities, they are just like us. MTV was less than pleased, and tried to convince the rapper to rent a more extravagant home instead, but he refused
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Instead, he enthusiastically gave a tour of his home, as though it were any other episode, albeit with a twinkle of chaotic glee in his eye
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When you watch that segment, it's clear he's having fun skewering the show's trademark decadence
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The episode wound up being one of a kind and opened a few viewers' eyes to the manipulative
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tactics employed by reality television. As for Redmond, he would later explain that he tried moving to a more affluent neighborhood
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but found himself getting harassed by police too often and just felt more comfortable in
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his modest digs. And as of 2017, he still lives there. In an interview with Hot 97, he said, I wouldn't know what to do with a big house
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although hopefully he started keeping his cash someplace secure, like under a mattress
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