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Cash Kings 2012: Hip-Hop's Top Earners


Six years ago Dr. Dre was walking along the beach with Interscope Records chief Jimmy Iovine, pondering whether or not he should launch his own shoe line. “[Forget] sneakers,” said Iovine. “Let’s sell speakers!”

It might have been the best piece of advice the rapper-producer ever received. In 2008 he teamed with Iovine and a handful of other partners to launch Beats By Dr. Dre, which now sells more than half of the country’s premium headphones ($100 and up). That’s music to the ears of Dr. Dre, who collected $100 million pretax when handset maker HTC paid $300 million for a 51% stake in the company last year.

With $110 million in pretax earnings, Dr. Dre is this year’s Hip-Hop Cash King—despite the fact that his long-awaited album, Detox, remains on the shelf. He’s not the only one on the list who banks the bulk of his bucks outside the recording studio. Diddy ranks No. 2 with $45 million, thanks mostly to a share of profits from Diageo’s Ciroc vodka; Jay-Z ranks third with $38 million, pulling in more than half his annual earnings from ventures including ownership stakes in cosmetics company Carol’s Daughter, the Brookyln Nets and a joint venture with battery maker Duracell (for more, check out my Jay-Z biography, Empire State of Mind).

“The reality of it is, you want to do something that you own,” says frequent Jay-Z collaborator Timbaland, who ranks No. 20 on the list with $6 million. “You want to own what you put your heart into. That’s how you make money.”

Kanye West ranks fourth on the list with $35 million, fueled by his Watch the Throne album with Jay-Z and the ensuing tour, followed by Lil Wayne at $27 million. The diminutive rhymester’s latest album, Tha Carter IV, sold a million copies in its first week; he also launched clothing line Trukfit and a partnership with Pepsi’s Mountain Dew, the first major product endorsement in the veteran rapper’s career.

Lil Wayne is joined on the Cash Kings list by labelmates Drake (No. 6) and Nicki Minaj (No. 8), who banked $20.5 million and $15.5 million, respectively, thanks to new albums, tours and product endorsements with companies like Kodak and Pepsi. Their boss, Cash Money co-founder Bryan “Birdman” Williams, ranks seventh with $20 million. Even lower down on the list, artists are getting paid considerable sums to shill products.

“We’ve received a lot of income based around endorsements,” says former Def Jam President Kevin Liles, who now manages a host of artists including No. 18 Young Jeezy. “A lot of brands are saying, ‘Hey, there’s a value proposition, instead of this freewheeling spending … I have some guaranteed curators and travel agents that can help me reach the consumer in a better way.’”

Full Coverage: Hip-Hop Cash Kings 2012

Yet for a few artists, music alone is a viable path to earning millions. No. 9 Eminem sold more albums last decade than any artist, and continues to cash in from his extensive back catalog and occasional tour dates, pulling in $15 million.

Ludacris rounds out the top ten with earnings of $12 million (for more, see “Ludacris Dreams: A Rap Mogul Diversifies”). The multihyphenate mogul’s non-musical ventures include Conjure cognac, headphone line Soul, voiceovers for RadioShack and roles in movies such as Fast Five and New Year’s Eve.

“We work so hard that we never get a real chance to stop and reflect on what we’ve done sometimes,” says Ludacris. “So the FORBES list is a great representation of, ‘You know what, wow, we are out here working as hard as hell!’”

To compile the Cash Kings list, which charts pretax earnings for all living artists whose work is primarily classified as hip-hop or rap, we looked at income from touring, record sales, publishing, films, merchandise sales, endorsements and other ventures. Management, agent and attorney fees are not deducted; earnings are tabulated from May 2011 to May 2012 and based on data from Pollstar, the Recording Industry Association of America and Nielsen SoundScan, and from interviews with numerous managers, lawyers, record executives and some of the artists themselves.

All in all, hip-hop’s top 20 earners pulled in $415 million last year, the most since 2008’s $515 million. The more recent total got a heavy boost from Dr. Dre’s impressive haul, but it doesn’t mean he’s resting on his financial laurels. Earlier this summer, he and his partners bought back half of the 51% stake in Beats that they sold to HTC nearly a year ago—meaning that fans waiting for his new album might have to hold out a little longer.

“I understand why Dre didn’t finish Detox,” says Liles, with a laugh. “It’s called Beats.”

Portions of this story appear in the September 24th issue of FORBES magazine. For more on the business of hip-hop, check out my Jay-Z biography Empire State of Mind. You can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

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  • aj hopkims aj hopkims 2 years ago

    forbes need to quit overrating jay z. kanye or rihanna isnt signed under jay z. he manages them only. he signed willow smith. lol (true) talk about j hotels that he didnt finish. the truth is that the bank wouldnt finance the rest of the project because he didnt put down enough money. banks want 25 percent for new ventures. he say he stopped the venture because of the economy. get real, you cant even name a hotel that went out of buisness during this recession. hotels are recession proof. they are just like the truck driving industry ,essential for buisness.even rag hotels stayed in buisness, so tell that lie to some one else. during that same year, i seen a city build 20 new hotels in one city in florida. read the live nation deal. its debt. debt makes your net worth go down not up.no one isnt just going to give you a 150
    million.where do they do that at. it has to be paid back, its a 360 deal, they make money off him in every way. if he had so much money, why he didnt fund his own venture, with a bank so he wouldnt have to “split profits” as the deal says. he sold rocawear but he had to split that money with kareem and dame dash, plus pay taxes. so he only made 30 some million off that.
    so show me all this money he made. he was renting a private jet, and didnt pay them. they had to file a lawsuit. so you have all this money with no private jet. now beyonce came and bought him one. a bugatti also. she spending more money on him and he suppose to be the baller. forbes get real. tell the people the truth.

  • aj hopkims aj hopkims 2 years ago

    people believe anything forbes say without questioning it. did you know the person who write these list is jay z homeboy! he got to hype jay z up. he wrote the book for jay z. he trying to sell books. stay in jay favor for a second book. he knows jay z will kick him to the curve , because that is how jay z roll. this is why kanye west stay to the topof the list. you all know he aint hotter than lil wayne. wayne sell more albums than him and everything. they put him on top but cant really explain how he makes all this money!


    Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not Jay-Z’s homeboy: http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2012/09/06/jay-zs-review-of-the-book-i-wrote-about-him/

  • aj hopkims aj hopkims 1 year ago

    you know what i mean. read my other comments and explain yourself to the people. you are running from the questions. you cant justify yourself with these numbers

  • aj hopkims aj hopkims 1 year ago

    all this truth i put on this page and all you can respond to is some homeboy junk. man get out of here. you are blind to the truth. you just like jayz. just admit it. its called favoritism. you cant explain how kanye makes more money than lil wayne. tell the truth about jay z two biggest deals and how he splits profits with all his partners. tell that truth!! while your only responding to some homeboy stuff!!!!

  • What is AJ on about. Anyways We alll waiting to see this years top earners. Hope 2Chainz makes it and T.I makes it too. Maybe a better raking for RickRoss and Kanye.

    Zack O’Malley Greenburg continue serving us with actual fact other than the falsified one on the telly.

  • aj hopkims aj hopkims 1 year ago

    im on this truth stuff. im a buisnessman in this industry. do you know how forbes put these numbers together. they dont have these people tax statements.rich people dont give out thier statements. read all my comments. its backed by documents. this is why zack wont respond to them because they are the truth that he cant deny or defeat.

  • aj hopkims aj hopkims 1 year ago

    you are running from the facts. read my post and let the people know the truth. let them know how jay z couldnt even come up with enough money to start building j hotels. Then he tried to blame it on the economy. What hotel closed down due to to recession. none, they are recession proof. Hotels make money during good and bad times, so dont blame the economy. then beyonce bought him a private jet, becuase the last jet he was using was a rented one. and they filed a lawsuit saying he owed them money. So how your worth half a bill and cant come up with money to build up a hotel. And why would you go in buisness with live nation, whom you have to split profits with. Put your own self in buisness and keep all the money. They giving him money to start his own ventures. well hell, go to a bank, pay them back, and you keep all the money. But with live nation, he has to pay them back, then split profits. plus he have to give up rights to his music. Are you saying he dont 25 million to give himself to start his own buisness and keep all his own hard earned money.

    Use Bank– pay back money, keep all the profit
    Use live nation– pay back money, give up rights to music, then “SPLIT” profits

    which one makes more business sense.– you will only choose LIVE NATION
    if you dont have your own money to finance your OWN DREAMS. Why else would you split your paycheck with someone else.


    Explain how Kanye makes more than Lil Wayne? Sure: he makes more per show. They did a comparable amount of shows, but during our scoring period, Kanye’s avg gross was $1.9m per night, which he split with Jay-Z, so just under $1m gross per night. Lil Wayne’s avg gross was $685k. That’s straight from Pollstar, an unbiased data source. And along with Kanye’s production income, it accounts for the difference in earnings ($35m vs. $27m). That’s the truth!


    Thanks for the kind words, will do!