15 Songs About Bills – Paying Bills, Living a Luxury Life

Let’s be honest, everybody hates paying bills.  It’s a pain in the neck, and the pain gets even greater if you don’t have much money in the first place.  So in this article, I’m going to list for you my favorite songs about bills, which consists of artists singing about being overcome with bills, wanting other people to pay their bills, and everything in between.

Songs About Bills That You’ll Love

Let’s begin with a song by Cage the Elephant.

Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked by Cage The Elephant

One of my favorite songs about paying bills is “Aint No Rest For The Wicked.” This is the perfect song about money struggles; people trying to just scrape by and doing things that are not ethical. Some people choose to do bad things to get money to pay their bills. 

The beginning of the song paints a picture of a man meeting a prostitute, and he asks what made her turn to this lifestyle. She then lists all of her problems, including bills and having children to provide for. The song’s title can also mean that people who do bad things won’t ever catch a break and are in an endless cycle of misery. In the end, “there ain’t nothin’ in this world for free.”

All N My Grill by Missy Elliot

The theme for “All N My Grill” centers around not wanting a man who cannot hold his own in the relationship. In the hook, Missy sings, “can you pay my bills? Let me know if you will, cuz a chick gotta live.” 

Missy is tired of taking care of a man that, at the third try at their relationship, still isn’t contributing. When you are the one paying for everything, it can get frustrating and add to your growing level of stress and anxiety. 

Unfortunately, money runs the world, we need it to do just about everything. This song hopefully puts it into perspective for people that may be in the same situation; you need someone who is an asset to you financially, not a liability. 

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I Like Dat by T-Pain & Kehlani

If you take this song and tweak the melody, you will get T-Pain’s 2007 “Buy U A Drank (Shawty, Snappin’).” In 2007, T-Pain’s song was about buying women at the club a drink; that is the type of woman he was after. 

Now, in his newer song, T-Pain sings, “she don’t want the drink, she want the rent paid.” He’s singing about an independent woman who has her own money to buy herself whatever she wants; all she wants is someone to help pay her bills and rent. To me, this song is the end goal; having enough money to not worry about what bills your partner can or cannot pay.

Miss Independent by Ne-Yo

Here’s a little bit of a different take on this particular subject matter.  Because on this song, Ne-Yo is singing about a loving a woman that’s truly independent, that doesn’t need a man for anything—even to help her pay her bills.

‘Cause she work like a boss
Play like a boss
Car and a crib, she ’bout to pay ’em both off
And her bills are paid on time

On this song, Ne-Yo finds it sexy when a woman can handle her own.  He’s most attracted to a woman that’s a boss, someone that’s never dependent on his financial stability. That’s the kind of girl that stays stuck on Ne-Yo’s mind.

I Will Buy You A New Life by Everclear

This song opens with: “here is the money that I owe you. Yeah, so you can pay the bills.” Make no mistake—Everclear is getting straight to the point with wanting to pay for his woman to have a better life. Paying her car and house payment—even a garden (where her flowers can bloom). 

A common fantasy in our media is someone who is down in their luck, coming into money; either by marriage or other opportunities. Dreaming of having enough money where you no longer have a care or a bill in the world would be fantastic. And for someone like Art Alexakis to be able to give that type of life to someone he loved must have made him feel great. 

Bills, Bills, Bills by Destiny’s Child

With the smoothness of 2000’s R&B, great harmonies, and beats, it’s not shocking that today’s generation is still listening to this gem. 

The beginning of this song address how at the honeymoon stage of a relationship, some partners will take you places and spoil you; showing you the best side of them that they have to offer. Then, they get comfortable and stop doing the things that they once did. Destiny’s Child addresses how a partner will make a point to pay for everything at the start, then begin making you pay for things and borrowing your car. 

In the middle half of the song, Beyonce starts to question how this type of relationship would work out if she needed someone to lean on when times got hard. By the end of the song, she can’t put up with another second, unless she were to receive some help.  So you gotta pay those bills…or the whole relationship is done.

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Bills by LunchMoney Lewis

On days that I have an extra tough time getting out of bed to go to work, I listen to this song to motivate me to get going. 

The lyrics lay out the reasons why LunchMoney Lewis needs to work—he’s got bills and mouths to feed. Listening to this song can help people who may not know that we all go through these feelings and that it will get better, you just have to “work, work, work every day.”

Rent Money by Mary J. Blige

Relationships are hard, and when you have a partner that doesn’t fully return the same energy that you give, it can be devastating. This song is about a woman who put her all into a man; giving him all her love and money. And now she’s “in over my head” because her rent is due, and she spent all of her money on her man. 

This song is a look into Mary J. Blige’s life when she divorced Kendu Isaacs. In an interview with People, she said “I thought someone loved me, right? Turns out, he was a con artist and he didn’t, and now he’s coming after me for all my money.” Discovering Mary J Blige’s real-life inspiration for “Rent Money” really puts the lyrics into perspective. It goes to show the importance of picking a partner with strong character, because even if the relationship doesn’t work out, you still want to be civil and respectful of one another. 

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Lord Have Mercy On The Working Man by Travis Tritt

Between today’s job market and inflation, it’s hard to get by. The lyric “why’s the rich man busy dancing while the poor man pays the band” is telling you how hard-working class people have it.

Blue-collar workers deal with a lot of injustice; they work hard and seldom get paid appropriately for it. This is a great rebel song to the establishment—or just listen to it when you are fed up with the job system.

Pay Ya Bills (Feat. Jeremih) by Pardison Fontaine

Pardison Fontaine talks about having all of the money in the world for a girl that appreciates him—and pretty much giving it all to her. On this track, he’s paying her phone bill, car payment, and any other bills that she may have. 

He’s not talking about just throwing money at random women, of course, but making sure that the one he cares for feels valued and pampered. The beat in “Pay Ya Bills” makes it hard to not vibe out to—it has a slow tempo that I feel allows you calm down and hone in on the lyrics.  You are not distracted by loud beats or instrumentals here. This would be a great song to listen to if you’re lucky enough to have someone emotionally pick you up off the mat at your lowest moment—while also paying your bills.  

Just Got Paid (Ft. French Montana) by Sigala, Ella Eyre, Meghan Trainor

If you are looking for a song to rock out to to after just getting paid, this is it. This song is about living a luxurious lifestyle–on a budget that doesn’t support it. I know a few people who live this type of lifestyle. The very second that payday comes, they go out and live it up; then when the bill comes due, they don’t have the finances to pay it.

At some point, you need to take a step back and look at what is important. It’s hard to save money in general—spending money is more fun and even cathartic in a way. But you can’t live like that all the time because your bills won’t wait for you. 

The Skills To Pay The Bills  by Beastie Boys

Getting up and going to a job you hate, all because you have bills to pay, is a horrible situation. But if you are talented or have skills that can earn you money, it can be life-changing for not only your financial situation but your mental health. 

The Beastie Boys certainly have the skills to pay the bills. If you are in a situation where you can monetize a skill or hobby, I’m sure you might feel just like the Beastie Boys do in this song. 

Just Fine by G. Love

The opening verse to this song hits home for me. I remember when I was fresh out of college and broke. The bills kept coming and there was nothing I could do about it but stress out. 

Then one day, I just didn’t care. I took a day off from the stress of paying bills and found something that made me happy. Though this song is slightly different; G. Love talks about having overdue bills, but still finding time to find a girl. This song reminds me of some hard times that I’m able to look back on and realize that I’m doing okay and there’s more to life than just paying your bills. 

The Debt I Owe by Lou Reed

With a slow beat, Lou Reed opens his song up with how every day he thinks about how he has more debt than he can ever pay. Owing “more money than I’ll ever see” is something that I have constantly thought about with my student loan debt. 

I constantly think about how much my car or home costs, and the fact that I have never even seen close to that amount of money. The realization of just how much money you owe is enough to stress some people out. The slow melody to this song, and Lou Reed’s voice, weirdly give me a calming sensation. Maybe it’s because this song makes you realize owing money and having bills is common and that shouldn’t stop you from doing what you love.  

Sallie Mae Back by Dee-1

Bills are a common pain point most Americans share, with student loans being one of the biggest debts. Dee-1 was making payments on his student loans; when he signed a record deal, he used some of his money to completely pay Sallie Mae back. 

This song is his story about how he was dealing with not only the stress of having student loans, but Sallie Mae calling multiple times a day from different numbers.  When speaking with Debt.com about his song topic of student loan debt he said, “It didn’t click with me till a couple months before graduation: ‘Whoa, I gonna have to pay it all back!” If you ever had to deal with student loans, this song paints a detailed picture of the repercussions of signing your name on those Sallie Mae loans. 

I was raised in the generation where everyone was told to go to school, even if you did not know what you wanted to do with your life. This resulted in an exuberant amount of student loans being taken out. For many people, paying their student loans off is their view of success; with that goal post seeming like it is forever moving further away from us. If you ever have paid off your student loans entirely, I’m sure you were feeling as proud as Dee-1 did. 

Conclusion

Hopefully you enjoyed this long list of songs about bills.  Please go back and listen to some these songs whenever you need an extra boost of confidence that you can overcome your daunting pile of bills.

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