Social media personality Ari Fletcher recently went viral for gifting boyfriend, rapper Moneybagg Yo land for his birthday. She surprised him with 28.8 acres for his 30th birthday. Then, she and a host of family and friends waited for him on the property with the deed and a host of cameras to commemorate the moment. In the clip, you can overhear someone telling him, “Cars can be replaced, but land they’re not making any more of.” Fletcher could not contain her excitement yelling, “There go your deed, this your **** for sure. Paid for, ain’t no payments, no nothing. Everything is over with. 28.8 acres!”
The ladies of The Real covered the story on their show and drew some hate from Moneybagg Yo, who felt like host Garcelle Beauvais was “hating” on his gift. He tweeted, “Not Fancy hating on my gift. Love is love mind ya business.” He referred to her as Fancy, the name of her character on The Jamie Foxx Show. Girlfriend Ari Fletcher chimed in, saying, “Y’all don’t know the half of what he does for me mentally or financially. ” She followed that up with “Focus on getting your own land your husband.” The pair, however, are not married yet.
While discussing the gift with her co-host, Beauvais stated that she would not feel comfortable exchanging this kind of gift without being married, pointing out that Moneybagg and Ari have yet to tie the knot as far as we know. “I feel like if a man gave me 28 whatever acres, I would feel obligated to stay with him if it didn’t work. I would feel guilty.” Although she feels like it’s a big gift, something Jeannie Mai pointed out might not be as bad as we think.
Mai mentioned that property in Atlanta is relatively cheap, and at least it would grow in value. While the girls seemed to somewhat agree, Beauvais still could not agree with that type of gift without being committed by marriage. Adrienne Bailon took the opportunity to bring up something from her own relationship that was similar. She reminded her co-hosts that she, at one point, requested that she and her husband Israel Houghton exchange “fake rings” instead of real ones and invest their money in property. “I absolutely said, ‘do not get me a real ring.’ I didn’t understand. I understand for himself and his pride, but those things genuinely do not matter to me. I would have preferred a home.”
Loni Love chimed in say, “I hope that she brought property for herself and her family.” She also goes on to say that she hopes Fletcher teaches her man how to pay taxes and take care of the land, and clarified that when she says “don’t act married if you’re a girlfriend,” she is talking about emotionally and not gifts. The group also brought up actress Tiffany Haddish who recently said she would prefer boyfriend Common brought her an apartment building instead of a ring if he ever proposed.
“Come at me with a deed, baby, don’t come at me with a ring. Because if you’re trying to buy my life and change my last name to your last name, a ring ain’t gonna do it,” Haddish said to People Magazine over the summer. Do you agree? Are engagement rings overrated now?
