In Keri Hilson’s 2010 song “Buyou,” she sings about her significant other whose economic situation has changed. She sings, “Used to take me to dinner, used to take me shoppin/now you askin me for my paper.” Interestingly, if we take a look at unemployment rates after the 2008 recession, men were harder hit by the recession, creating the female breadwinner situations she sings about.

Men had an unemployment rate near 2 percent higher than females in 2008 due to declines in male industries like construction and manufacturing.

Featured on the song, J. Cole raps “Paid for the dinner and the movie and the popcorn/How you figure it’s gon’ last?/ He just sit up on his ass/And play that damn Xbox that you copped for him.” Hilson’s significant other is being lazy, and that may be due to generous unemployment benefits after the recession. Unemployment benefits were extended as long as 99 weeks, giving people more incentive to stay long term unemployed, and many did.

Although the song is hypothetical and anecdotal, it does explain a societal phenomenon and a larger economic trend.