The US dollar is sinking like a stone and that's putting it mildly. The greenback is in such bad shape that super model Gisele Bundchen, investor Warren Buffett - even gangsters are rejecting it in favor of the Euro.

And that applies to both real gangsters and musical gangstahs. First a word about the real gangsters. Spain is the entry point for illegal drugs in Europe.

Mafia kingpins there have changed their currency of choice for money laundering. It used to be the one hundred dollar bill. Now it's the 500 euro note. The Russian mafia also favors the 500 Euro note for its storage currency.

Now, about the musical gangstahs...

That's Jay Z. On the track Blue Magic from his new CD American Gangster. When he raps about spending his bread, he doesn't mean dollars. In the video for Blue Magic, Jay Z's driving through the streets of Harlem flashing huge stacks of euros. And that money is not just a prop in Jay-Z video. Some experts see him as an economic forecaster, of sorts.

GRAHAM: "What's been interesting to me is watching publications such as the Wall Street Journal and Foreign Policy magazine, watching them react. They're very much obsessed and have been joking around calling Jay-Z the next Alan Greenspan."

That's journalist and pop culture critic Renee Graham.

She says hip-hop tastemakers like Jay Z have long been attracted to Europe's symbols of affluence...from Cristal champagne to the Cote d'Azur to the smooth ride of a Rolls Royce phantom.

GRAHAM: "From its earliest years hip-hop has always loved luxury and wealth and anything that shows you've made it. The Euro really helps emphasis that point. And I think what Jay-Z is trying to do in this Blue Magic video is show that he's an international man, he's a man of the world. He's not dealing in dollars, anyone can deal in dollars, but he's dealing in Euros."

Here's the biggest problem with the 500 euro note becoming the standard currency of hip-hop: what do you call it?

Benjamins worked fine when hundred dollar bills were the gold standard.

But euro notes feature European building design.

And let's face it, it just doesn't sound cool to say, "It's all about the...modern 20th century architecture."