What’s in a name? The story behind prostitution ring’s moniker ‘Cash Money Brothers’

Paul Sewell is a terrible human being. A pimp that goes by the name “God,” he tattooed his nickname on the bodies of women and underage girls he prostituted.

Bad dude. Just don’t call him creative.

Sewell, 49, a former counselor in Reading schools, was sentenced on Thursday to 23 years in federal prison for his role in the prostitution scheme.

He advertised under the name “cashmoneybrothersescorts” and worked around the city of Reading.

If that “cash money brother” moniker rings a bell, it’s because it has a long history, and it’s unclear if anything good comes from the name.

Is there no intellectual property control in the underworld?

The name Cash Money Brothers, and its abbreviation “CMB” appeared in pop culture in the 1991 film
“New Jack City”starring Wesley Snipes and Ice T. The movie depicted a crack gang that took over an apartment building, turning it into an urban dystopia.

Around the time that film came out, a Brooklyn drug crew with the same moniker began operating in New York City’s Lafayette Gardens housing project. Its leader, Damion “World” Hardy, would go on to be the ex-boyfriend of Lil’ Kim.

The Brooklyn CMB crew also made news in recent years over testimony that Hardy and Mike Tyson put bounties on each other’s heads. It appears the Brooklyn CMB crew was implicated in the June 2000 death of Tyson’s bodyguard, the New York Daily News reported. Tyson wanted the crew dead, and Cash Money Brothers wanted to get Tyson before he got to them.

Neither side got to pull off the plot. Hardy was sentenced to six life sentences for his role in the crew in 2015.

Police in Plainfield, New Jersey busted an entirely different street gang that called itself the Cash Money Brothers in 2006. That crew dealt heroin, and established control of two apartment complexes, according to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.

The name has, perhaps unsurprisingly, filtered into the realm of hiphop. Cash Money Brothers is the name of a fairly popular collection of mixtapes. There are at least two German — yes, German — rappers with songs called Cash Money Brothers.

It has also found its way into the world of business. Cash Money Brothers is the name of a unlicensed payday lender that was shut down in Detroit.