Hip Hop’s Biggest Earner No. 1:
Dr. Dre
According to Forbes.com, the biggest hip hop earner for 2012 made $110 million. And he hasn’t put out an album since 1999/2000.
Incase you haven’t realized, Dr Dre, is in the number one spot.
The bulk of this income came from selling a 51% stake in his premium headphones company “Beats by Dr. Dre” (you know, the one that you see on just about every music lovers ears.. Big, usually white, or black, or blue..), to handset maker HTC.
HTC paid Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine $300 million for the privilege after the pair teamed up in 2008 to launch the headset.
I guess that’s one way to keep you’re name relevant in this ever changing hip hop world. All that, mean while the dying public awaits his much-too-long-over-due-and-I’m-not-even-sure-I’ll-even-want-it-any-more-album Detox.
Hip Hop’s Biggest Earner No. 2:
P Diddy
P Diddy, is the second highest earner, coming in with a measly $45 million thanks [and nearly half of his yearly income due..] to his share in profits from the Ciroc Vodka deal.
Forbes doesn’t really go into Diddy too much. I suspect that they’re still a bit baffled as to how Iovine and Dre conjured up such a magnificent plan to make headphones into such a mainstream accessary.
Oh, and Mr Diddy hasn’t released an album since his 2010 faallloooop Last Train To Paris.
And The Rest.. Hip Hop’s Biggest Earner No. 3, 4, 5 and 6
Before you shoot off to listen to your hip hop (through your Beats headphones), here’s the rest of the list of top hip hop earners for 2012:
Jay-Z – $38 million
Kanye West – $35 million
Lil Wayne – $27 million
Birdman – $20 million
So what does this have to do with me? Nothing, really. If anything, it should inspire you to get yo’ bizzniz head on. Those top earners are entrepreneurial like a mofo, and used music as a vehicle to exploit other business ventures.
For further reading go to Forbes.com and get the full story of hip hop’s biggest earners