This morning, Forbes released their annual hip-hop Cash Kings list, and to no surprise, Dr. Dre sits alone at the top, due in large part to his sale of Beats Audio to Apple. The criteria for the list consists of an artist's pretax earnings from touring, record sales, publishing, merchandise sales, endorsements, and other ventures.
Because of the Apple deal, Dre clocked in at $620 million this year, while Diddy and Jay Z came in a distant second place tied at $60 million, with Drake and Macklemore and Ryan Lewis closing out the top five at $33 and $32 million respectively. Artists that cracked the rest of the top 10 this year include Kanye West, Birdman, Lil Wayne, Pharrell, and Eminem. The entire list with each artist's figures can be seen below.
1. Dr. Dre – $620 million
2. Jay Z – $60 million
2. Diddy – $60 million
4. Drake – $33 million
5. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – $32 million
6. Kanye West – $30 million
7. Birdman – $24 million
8. Lil Wayne – $23 million
9. Pharrell Williams – $22 million
10. Eminem – $18 million
11. Nicki Minaj – $14 million
12. Wiz Khalifa – $13 million
13. Pitbull – $12 million
14. Snoop Dogg – $10 million
15. Kendrick Lamar – $9 million
16. Ludacris – $8 million
16. Tech N9ne – $8 million
16. Swizz Beatz – $8 million
16. 50 Cent – $8 million
20. Rick Ross – $7 million
20. J. Cole – $7 million
20. DJ Khaled – $7 million
20. Lil Jon – $7 million
20. Mac Miller – $7 million
[via Forbes]
