Forbes has released their annual Hip Hop Cash Kings list, ranking rap’s biggest earners on their income during the last financial year. Nicki Minaj is the only queen to make the cut with a cool $20.5 million nabbing her the sixth spot. Though she hasn’t released an album this financial year, her Myxx Moscato deal pays big. She’s moved up the list since last year, when she placed ninth.
Diddy came in at number one for the second consecutive year largely thanks to his Ciroc vodka deal. Jay Z takes the number two spot as Roc Nation continues to bring in cash. Like Diddy, Jay’s invested in two lucrative alcohol brands: Armand de Brignac champagne and D’Ussé cognac — the latter is a favourite of Young Thug. In third place: Cash Kings mainstay Dr Dre.
The list is pretty tight: most rappers are separated by one or two million dollars, maybe less. But the difference between the number four spot (Drake) and the number five (Wiz Khalifa) is massive: 14 million dollars. The biggest earners really are in a league of their own.
To formulate the list, Forbes “consider pretax income from touring, record sales, streaming, publishing, merchandise sales, endorsements and other business ventures.” They also collect data from “Nielsen SoundScan, Pollstar, Bandsintown, and the RIAA,” rounding out the picture by conducting “interviews with managers, lawyers, executives and a handful of the artists themselves.” Read the top fifteen below, or catch the full list here.
1. Puff Daddy, $62 million
2. Jay Z, $53.5 million
3. Dr. Dre $41 million
4. Drake, $38.5 million
5. Wiz Khalifa, $24 million
6. Nicki Minaj, $20.5 million
7. Pitbull, $20 million
8. Pharrell, $19.5 million
9. Kendrick Lamar, $18.5 million
10. Birdman, $18 million
11. Kanye West, $17.5 million
12. DJ Khaled, $15 million
13. A$AP Rocky, $14.5 million
14. J. Cole, Lil Wayne, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis tied at $14 million
15. Snoop Dogg, $12.5 million