If you spend enough time on the internet (five minutes), you have likely seen the photo of Paris Hilton wearing a tank-top that reads “STOP BEING POOR.” The picture was taken in 2005, at the height of her famous-for-being-famous fame, but as the “Stars Are Blind” singer recently revealed, the shirt was Photoshopped. It actually reads “STOP BEING DESPERATE,” but Ziwe still believes in the power of “STOP BEING POOR.”
Ahead of a new episode of her eponymous variety series on Showtime, comedian Ziwe dropped the music video for the income inequality anthem, “Stop Being Poor,” with help from I Think You Should Leave legend and Together Together star Patti Harrison.
A sample verse: “If you are a poor person then just go out and find a job / If you can’t secure a job, then go to college, don’t be a blob / If you can’t afford the tuition then try to get employed again / And if you still can’t get a job, go work for your rich uncle then.”
Ziwe told Rolling Stone that “Stop Being Poor” is the “song of the summer. I co-wrote this satirical anthem with the writer Jordan Mendoza after watching millions of Americans struggle to pay their bills during the Covid shutdown at a time when stimulus checks were few and far between.” She also called Patti Harrison “Baddie Harrison,” which is a solid nickname. You can watch it above — and watch Ziwe on Showtime on Sundays.