Move over Dr Dre, you are no longer the highest earning hip hop entrepreneur in the business. That title now belongs to P Diddy. Falling to number four on the Forbes Hip Hop Cash Kings List, Dre has now been surpassed by Drake and Jay Z as well.
Diddy is believed to amassed his fortune from several sources. The success of his TV channel Revolt TV, which launched in October 2013, has attracted a large amount of viewers thanks to New York’s number one hip hop station Power 105.1 and its morning show The Breakfast Club syndicating the channel and increasing its fan base exponentially.
His other ventures include his Sean John clothing line, his investment in the alkaline water brand Aquahydrate and his vodka brand Ciroc. He’s also got new album No Way Out 2 in the works. Yes, it’s true. Diddy is a one man hype/brand-machine.
Second on the list is one half of music’s most influential power couple, Jay Z. His business investments vary slightly from Diddy’s, but that hasn’t stopped him earning a whopping $56 million in the past year. Describing himself as “the man who write checks with the hand that don’t write,” the mogul has his fingers in many pies, from entertainment company Roc Nation and Armand de Brignac champagne, as well as performing 22 shows on tour with wife Beyonce. All of these don’t even include what Jay Z has earned from his stake in the fledgling streaming service Tidal.
Drake comes in third, accumulating $39.5m in the past 12 months from his critically acclaimed and absurdly profitable 50-date tour, which earned almost $1 million dollars a night. In addition to his critically-acclaimed mix tape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, the 28-year-old has scored deals with giants Sprite and Nike.
Despite Dre slipping to number four on the list, that hasn’t stopped him from being ridiculously rich in general. The mogul took home $33 million in the last year, a huge decline from his previous income of $620m. The decline could be attributed to the sale of his company Beats by Dr Dre to Apple, although he no doubt still receives royalties from the sales. In addition, he produced the blockbuster biopic Straight Outta Compton, which was an international critical and commercial success.
Nicki Minaj was the only female to appear on the list, with a fortune listed at $21 million.
Forbes’ hip hop cash kings 2015
- P Diddy – $60m
- Jay Z – $56m
- Drake – $39.5m
- Dr Dre – $33m
- Pharrell Williams – $32m
- Eminem – $31m
- Kanye West – $22m
- Wiz Khalifa – $21.5m
- Nicki Minaj – $21m
- Birdman – $18m