I like the book "The Millionaire Next Door" for teaching the value of frugality and living below one's means.

(My son, who is now 18, would definitely NOT respond to rap, except to tune it out/turn it off.)

We talk about money in our house; we always have. Why we comparison shop, how to look for value, saving for the future, how much things cost, including things like water and electricity.

When the kid was very small, he was very into Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and his dad and I used to buy them for him. When the kid was a little bigger, we started giving him an allowance which allowed for his purchasing his own Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and suddenly, the kid "needed" far fewer of them. He learned to save his money; a good measure of how much he wanted something was to test whether he'd spend his own money on it, or share the cost of it.

I think it's very important to give a child all he really needs and some of what he wants, and give the kid an allowance that lets him buy/save for some of his wants; if he needs more, then he can work for the extra cash (doing extra chores -- over and above the normal ones -- to earn it, or earning it some other way). Kids, and some adults, too!, need to learn the difference between need and want, and experience is often their best teacher for this.

All that said, I also believe in teaching a child to take advantage of opportunities that arise; in our house, this is phrased as "Money can be replaced; opportunity (often) cannot." Spend money on experiences that enrich life, not on crap that needs dusting!

Not that I've given much thought or have many opinions on this topic....!