What is Joseph Ducreux?

Joseph Ducreux / Archaic Rap is an image macro that overlays rap lyrics rewritten in verbose archaic English onto an 18th century self-portrait by French painter Joseph Ducreux.

Where did Joseph Ducreux come from?

The image macro started on 4chan in 2009 with the caption 'Disregard Females, Acquire Currency', a rewrite of a Notorious B.I.G. hook from the 1995 track 'Get Money'.

What does Joseph Ducreux mean?

The joke is a decoding puzzle: readers translate the caption's verbose faux-archaic English back into the original modern rap lyric.

How do you use Joseph Ducreux?

Overlay Ducreux's smirking portrait with a rap lyric that has been rewritten line by line in over-formal 18th century phrasing.

Is Joseph Ducreux still popular?

It counts as a classic 2009-era image macro that peaked on 4chan and Meme Generator; usage is less common today.

Joseph Ducreux

2009image macroclassic

Published September 3, 2026

Joseph Ducreux / Archaic Rap is an image macro pairing an 18th century French self-portrait with rap lyrics rewritten in verbose faux-Shakespearean English. The format took off on 4chan in 2009 after someone captioned the painter's smug grin with 'Disregard Females, Acquire Currency', a period-style rewrite of a Notorious B.I.G. lyric5. It became one of the earliest image macros to make translation itself the joke.

image macro memes hip hop memes classical art parody memes 4chan memes late 2000s memes

Overview

The trick behind Joseph Ducreux is simple: pick a modern rap lyric, usually crude or boastful, and rewrite it word for word in pompous archaic English so the reader has to decode the caption back to the original song. Ducreux's 1793 self-portrait, titled 'Portrait de l'artiste sous les traits d'un moqueur', anchors the format because his exaggerated grin and pointing finger already read as smug commentary aimed straight at the viewer1.

Popular macros pull lines from Notorious B.I.G., Lil Wayne, and other rap staples, then translate them into phrasing that would fit in a period play. Fans built out the format with YouTube compilations where narrators voiced the archaic captions in theatrical tones2.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

4chan

Date

2009

Joseph Ducreux was a French portraitist born June 26, 1735, best known for unusual self-portraits including the 1793 painting where he smirks and points directly at the viewer1. In 2009, an anonymous editor turned that painting into an image macro captioned 'Disregard Females, Acquire Currency', an archaic rewrite of Notorious B.I.G.'s hook from the 1995 single 'Get Money'3.

How It Spread

After starting on 4chan, Joseph Ducreux / Archaic Rap moved to Meme Generator and other image boards, where user submissions expanded the format with more archaic rewrites of hip-hop tracks. On April 8, 2011, a Tumblr post photoshopped Steve Buscemi's face onto the Ducreux portrait, and the image was reposted to Reddit the same day; a Quickmeme page for the Buscemi variant followed, often paired with 'The Big Lebowski' quotes rewritten in the same over-formal style3.

YouTube uploads pushed the joke beyond image boards, with recited-lyric videos drawing repeat views for their deadpan narrations of translated rap4.

How to Use This Meme

Making a Joseph Ducreux macro typically means grabbing a well-known rap lyric and rewording it into over-formal 18th century English. Common convention keeps the meaning identical but swaps every casual word for something a period-drama actor might say.