The MCs Who Built Their Own Empires

FOX’s Empire is arguably the breakout television hit of 2015. While the music and the soap opera dramatics have attracted viewers in droves, Empire is also a source of fascination for hip-hop fans: The show consistently mimics, and sometimes satirizes, reality. Terrence Howard’s character, Lucious Lyon, is a one-time rap star who has moved from the vocal booth to the boardroom to head up a hugely profitable media empire called, obviously, Empire.

Meanwhile, the show’s creators have acknowledged that they drew inspiration from a couple of real-life rappers and musical artists. Lyon is a unique composite of many real-life stories, with a few new twists. The fictional world of Empire aside, plenty of powerful MCs have set the standard for rap mogul-dom in the modern world. Here are the MCs Who Built Their Own Empires.

A producer first and foremost, Dr. Dre is one of the most famous and impactful rappers in the game thanks to N.W.A and his 1992 blockbuster solo debut album, The Chronic. While Dre’s third solo album, Detox, has remained indefinitely shelved for over a decade (though it may make a comeback under a new name), he has continued to build one of the most estimable empires in the music industry. His company Death Row Records revolutionized West Coast rap in the ’90s. After he started over from scratch with Aftermath Entertainment, he became even more powerful, launching the careers of Eminem and 50 Cent. But the move that cemented Dr. Dre’s legacy as a business mastermind is Beats By Dre, a massively profitable line of headphones and audio equipment (eventually purchased by Apple) that made him hip-hop’s first billionaire.

Most rap moguls start out as musicians and then master the business side. But for Sean Combs, business came first, fueled by his influential A&R work at Uptown Records. The grit and hard work Combs fostered at Uptown led to the creation of his own label, Bad Boy Records, which made the Notorious B.I.G. a star and still remains a powerful brand two decades later. After Biggie’s death, the artist then known as Puff Daddy ascended to multi-platinum heights as a rapper as well. But even as he remained famous as ever under the new moniker Diddy while continuing to release music, his business took precedent. With a diverse portfolio, including Sean John clothing, the Making the Band television shows, and Ciroc endorsements, Diddy continues to get checks.

Percy “Master P” Miller is one of hip-hop’s great self-made men, building No Limit Records from a New Orleans mom-and-pop organization into a thriving cottage industry with dozens of platinum albums. At the height of his fame, Master P balled in every sense of the word, releasing films, making his son Lil’ Romeo into a pop star, and even signing contracts with NBA teams. Even though it’s been over a decade since No Limit’s hits dried up, Master P is still estimated to be worth as much as half a billion dollars.

Bryan “Birdman” Williams is, like Master P, a New Orleans hustler who built a rap label (along with a stable of local MCs) into a billion-dollar business. One thing separating Birdman’s Cash Money Records from Master P’s No Limit is that the former has long outlasted the latter’s reign, with Birdman and his brother, Ronald “Slim” Williams, keeping the label current with a younger generation of stars like Drake and Nicki Minaj. Birdman has also continued rapping along the way, whether as a member of Big Tymers, alongside his protégé Lil Wayne on Like Father, Like Son, or most recently in his Rich Gang collaborations with Young Thug. These collaborative projects speak to his ear for nurturing talent more than the quality of his own rapping, but all of them have made him very, very rich.

Shawn “Jay Z” Carter has written some of hip-hop’s most quotable lyrics, but none epitomize Jay Z’s life as a rapper-turned-mogul better than “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man.” In his early years as a rap star, Jay moved through the industry with the help of Roc-A-Fella Records co-founders Damon “Dame” Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke. Since parting ways with his old running mates, Jay Z has only gotten richer and more powerful, serving as the president of Def Jam Recordings before forming his own Roc Nation entertainment and sports agency, in addition to the 40/40 Club franchise, a brand of champagne, and countless other business holdings. Plus, he married the biggest brand of all: Beyoncé.

From his first taste of fame as radio personality “Chris Lova Lova” in the late ’90s to the hugely successful rap career he launched soon thereafter, Ludacris has always been a multi-platform star. In addition to founding Disturbing Tha Peace Records in 2000, which released his own albums as well as hits by Chingy and Bobby Valentino (now just Bobby V), Ludacris consistently diversified his portfolio with action movies, his own brand of cognac, and several real estate holdings. And since the beginning of Ludacris’ career, the Ludacris Foundation has consistently used his fortune and fame to help for the good cause.

Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson rapidly became one of the biggest stars hip-hop had ever seen with the release of his 2003 album, Get Rich Or Die Tryin’. And within the next couple of years, he made his G-Unit Records label into a house of hits, with platinum albums by his G-Unit crew and several other solo artists. By the time 50 Cent’s sales started to falter in 2007, he’d already cashed in on a huge payday as a shareholder of the beverage company Glacéau (makers of Vitaminwater), which was purchased by Coca-Cola for billions. In 2015, a reunited G-Unit is recording again, but 50 Cent continues to make a mint on films, books, and the Starz network series Power.

For many rappers, branching out from music into other forms of media is primarily a business decision. But for Kanye West, moving beyond rapping and producing and into other arenas has been a product of the same creative passion that made him into a superstar from the beginning. West has occasionally taken time off from recording, spending millions of his own dollars to focus on his fashion career, culminating most recently in his adidas Originals showcase at New York Fashion Week. The multimedia company that he launched in 2012, DONDA, has become the embodiment of West’s ambition to change the world through design, on par with Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs.

William “Rick Ross” Roberts doesn’t just call himself “The Boss” because it rhymes with his stage name. The Miami rapper styles himself publicly after mafia movie kingpins and legendary drug runners—for example, his stage name is derived from 1960s kingpin Freeway Ricky Ross. While Ross may not be a criminal mastermind, he has proven to be a powerful rap mogul. His Maybach Music Group label made Wale and Meek Mill into major stars in their own right. Plus, Ross is the proud owner of a number of Wingstop chicken franchises throughout the southeast.