Birdman and 50 cent are the richest Hip Hop
artists in the world currently...in that order.
Didddy is now worth $700million. Wow! See
the full report below...
Back in 2007, Sean "Diddy" Combs
teamed with Jay Z and 50 Cent to create
a song titled "I Get Money: Forbes 1-2-3
Billion Dollar Remix." Less than a decade
later, rappers are closing in on ten-
figure fortunes, and he's the nearest of
the bunch.
Diddy leads the pack with an estimated
fortune of $700 million, an increase of
$120 million over his net worth last
year. The change comes largely from the
addition of Revolt TV—the new, music-
focused, multi-platform channel of
which he's the majority owner—to his
already-hefty portfolio.
Diddy has plenty of competition in the
race to $1 billion. His top challengers
are Dr. Dre, who ranks second with $550
million, and Jay Z, in third place with an
estimated $520 million. The former
leapfrogged the latter on this year's
Forbes Five thanks to a large stake in
Beats By Dr. Dre, which he cofounded
with Interscope chief Jimmy Iovine in
2008.
The company controls an astounding
two-thirds of the premium headphone
market, with annual sales reportedly in
excess of $1 billion and growing. Private
equity firm Carlyle invested $500 million
for a minority stake last year, pushing
Beats' value past $1 billion and likely
closer to $2 billion.
"Beats has a unique brand—it speaks to
a nice young demographic, which is
really interesting to marketers," says
Peter Csathy, former president of
Musicmatch, an early digital music
purveyor acquired by Yahoo YHOO
+0.11% in 2004 for $160 million. "When
I think about Beats, I think about it as a
lifestyle, I think of it as a media
company, not just a hardware and
music-focused company."
Jay Z's fortune continues to grow at a
healthy clip, too. He's made multiple
nine-figure deals in the past, including
his $204 million Rocawear sale in 2007
and his $150 million pact with Live
Nation in 2008. But much of his recent
growth comes from Roc Nation, his
record label and management firm that
recently added a sports agency. The
outfit gets a single-digit cut of pacts like
Robinson Cano's $240 million monster
agreement.
Bryan "Birdman" Williams, whose net
worth would be over $300 million if he
didn't share his fortune with brother
Ronald "Slim" Williams. The duo
cofounded Cash Money Records two
decades ago; Cash Money continues to
grow with a roster that includes Drake,
Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne. Birdman has
also diversified with Cash Money
Content, GT Vodka and the YMCMB
clothing line.
Rounding out the list is 50 Cent, who
owes most of his fortune to his $100
million haul from the sale of
Vitaminwater in 2007. Now he's trying
to repeat the feat with companies
like SMS Audio and
SK Energy beverages. In the meantime,
he'll reboot his music career by taking
his G-Unit Records independent and
releasing new album Animal Ambition in
June.
Culled from Forbes.
Note: This story is an expanded version of a
piece that ran in the May 5, 2014 issue of
FORBES magazine.
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