0 Forbes Names Wealthiest Hip-Hop Artists + A Look At Jay-Z's Early Hustling Days

Not to be confused with Forbes Hip-Hop Cash Kings List which focuses on annual income, this particular list focuses on an artist's net-worth by calculating current holdings, looking at past earnings, perusing financial documents and talking to a bevy of analysts, attorneys, managers and other industry players to find the nitty-gritty details.

1. Diddy ($475 million)
2. Jay-Z ($450 million)

3. Dr. Dre ($125 million)

4. 50 Cent ($100 million)

5. Birdman ($100 million)

Interestingly enough, the author of the article (Zack O'Malley Greenburg) is releasing a book next week entitled "Empire State of Mind" which will focus on the business acumen of Jay-Z. Below is a snippet of an interview the author did with Rap Genius that offers a bit on insight on what to expect.

RG: You are the dude who came up with the meme $450 million figure for Jay’s net worth: what are the sources?

ZOMG: Lots of ‘em. First of all, there’s his bank account(s), which I can only guess at — but I’ve got a good idea based on his earnings over the past 10 years, we track that here at Forbes. Then there are his stakes in a bunch of different businesses: an advertising company called Translation Marketing, co-owned with Steve Stoute (who was once bashed over the head with a champagne bottle by Puffy); the Nets stake, which isn’t worth shit, at least until they move to Brooklyn; a piece of a company called Carol’s Daughter, which makes hair products for little girls (not kidding); and a bunch of other secret stuff that you’ll have to read my Jay-Z book to find out about!

RG: When I was in college, I made $3K selling weed (also smoked another $3K) Simple — but fundamental — question: how much has Jay-Z made selling drugs by your accounts?

ZOMG: Well, he says he came into the rap game “100 grand strong, nine to be exact” in “U Don’t Know”. So it seems like he’s saying $900,000, and I take him at his word on that. I’ve realized that his lyrics are actually pretty honest if you listen carefully. In the mid 1990s, cocaine was selling for about $40k per kilo (which makes sense: “I could make 40 off a brick, but one rhyme could beat that”), and my sources told me Jay was moving a kilo a week. Really it depends on his acquisition costs. If he’s “paying LeBron” ($23k), that’s a fat $17k profit per month, or about $200k per year. So from 1990-1995, his peak dealing years, that translates to about $900,000, like he says. Of course, if he was actually paying Dwayne Wade ($3k), that’s a different story…

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