No, no-one except the paid employees are paid. I mean, I suppose you could say that we're all getting duped into providing value to a company, but I truly believe in the strength of the Rap Genius mission, and I don't think that that mission is irreconcilable with a for-profit company either—look at StackOverflow, for example. They too are very heavily community dependent, and have many contributors that don't get paid, but still provide the backbone of the site.

what about the "strength of the Rap Genius Mission" makes you believe in giving hours of your time to them for free? When they have some kind of an exit with this product you will get nothing, they will get a fortune.

I don't understand you.

there is more to life than money. some people value being part of a community, helping others or creating their identity enough to spend lots of time on it.

money is a simplistic proxy for adding value to the world, try understanding value instead of money and you might get richer yourself.