The Forbes Five: Meet Hip-Hop's Wealthiest Artists 2014

According to Forbes, Diddy, Dr Dre, Jay Z,
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.