Maybe Ice Cube was right. With Beats By Dre bringing in so much money for the legendary West Coast producer/rapper, it's no wonder we can't get
Detox. Hip-hop icon Dr. Dre rocked Coachella with an all-
star cast of collaborators past and present (and
even deceased) this year with more skill than half
the guys half his age who are promoting new
albums, all while banking his way to becoming the
highest paid rapper of the year. How'd he do it? Beats by Dre, of course, which now
accounts for more than half of the high-end
headphone market. According to the brand-new list
of hip-hop's highest-paid earners featured in Forbes magazine's September 24 issue, Beats by Dre was responsible for $100 million of Dre's pretax $110
million haul over the past year. The N.W.A. rapper/
producer, who launched the careers of Snoop Dogg
and Eminem, got into the speaker game at the
urging of Interscope's Jimmy Iovine, who was one
of the partners who benefited when handset maker HTC spent $300 million purchasing a 51 percent
stake in Beats. Dre managed to pass his peers like Diddy, Jay-Z,
Kanye West and Lil Wayne, who rounded out the top
five. Like Dre, Diddy's annual payday had little to do with
album sales or touring revenue. Most of his $45
million came from Diageo's Cîroc vodka, according
to the Forbes report. More than half of Jay-Z's $38
million came from his pieces of the Brooklyn Mets,
cosmetics company Carol's Daughter and other ventures. Jay helped Kanye make a bunch of his
$35 million of course, thanks to the Watch the
Throne album and tour. Tha Carter IV was a smash,
but Wayne's cash from Trukfit (his clothing line) and
his sponsorship deal with Mountain Dew certainly
didn't hurt, either. Weezy pulled in a reported $27 million. Young Money Entertainment and Cash Money
Records stayed true to their names by landing a few
more artists on the Forbes list, as well. Drake's $20.5
million was enough to put him in #6, with Cash
Money co-founder Bryan "Birdman" Williams just
behind at #7 with $20 million. The crew's own Nicki Minaj, the first ever female on MTV's Annual Hottest
MC's list, was #8 with $15.5 million. For those
keeping score, that's four slots in a row dominated
by Young Money. Eminem doesn't have any headphones, vodka or
soda pop deals to deal with, but he still managed to
make $15 million this year from his back catalog
and shows. Last year, Marshall won a lawsuit against
Universal Music Group involving royalties from
digital sales of his music. As MTV's Rap Fix noted in a story, "Forbes magazine might have to make some room for Eminem," and indeed they did. Slim Shady
was #9 on the Forbes list. Dre wasn't the only rapper in the top 10 with
headphones on the market. Soul, the headphone
company launched by Ludacris, helped put him at
the #10 spot with a $12 million take that also came
courtesy of roles in "Fast Five" and "New Year's Eve,"
plus Conjure cognac and those smooth Radio Shack voiceovers. The rest of the Top 20: Pitbull ($9.5 million); Rick
Ross and Wiz Khalifia (tied with $9 million each);
Snoop ($8.5 million); 50 Cent ($7.5 million); Swizz
Beats, Pharrell Williams and Young Jeezy (tied with
$7 million each); Mac Miller ($6.5 million); and Akon,
Timbaland, Tech N9ne (tied with $6 million each). Of course, all of the hip-hop entrepreneurs in
Forbes' "Cash Kings 2012: Hip-Hop's Top 20
Earners" have some sort of history with the VMAs , as either performers, winners, presenters and/or
spectators over the years. Tune in tomorrow to
watch the music moguls do their thing!