The Apple-Beats Deal May Make Dr. Dre America's First Hip Hop Billionaire

Dre: The King of Hip Hop? 

 
by: M Quintero-Moore, BACKLINE MAGAZINE

The King is Dead! Long live the King? That may be the case in the world of Hip Hop and who the wealthiest artist is (or will be). The reigning king, Sean "Diddy" Combs may have to step down as Hip Hop's richest bad boy, and relinquish his crown to Dr. Dre after Apple announced its acquisition of Beats Electronics for a reported $3.2 billion.

With this acquisition, Beats principle Dr. Dre (Andre Romelle Young), co-founder of Interscope stands to become the wealthiest hip-hop artist insiders speculate.

In Dre's own words he stands to be "the first billionaire in hip-hop, right here from the mother f-ing West Coast, believe it! (apparently some of us can't get past that dated East Coast/West Coast thing....sigh)

Dre was quoted from a video he posted to Tyrese Gibson's Facebook page soon after the Apple-Beats announcement was made public.

Last month, Forbes listed Sean "Diddy" Comb's annual survey with $700 million in earnings. Most was from his deals with Ciroc and his new venture, Revolt.tv. Dre is on Diddy's heals at $550 million, largely due to his to his stake in Beats, which (according to Forbes) controls two thirds of the premium headphone market, and has annual sales reportedly in excess of $1 billion. (headphones...really?)

Dre owns about 1/4 of the company, and stands to make between $640 million and $800 million before taxes. Add to that, his current earnings listed at $550 million in 2013, plus his now "less-important" streams of income (album sales, publishing royalties, etc etc.) Dre's net worth could make him America's first-ever Hip Hop Billionaire. As one journalist put it, "That's a lot of G-Thangs"