Music

Dr. Dre made more than twice as much as the next richest on Forbes' hip-hop money makers list

by Tyler Munro

It’s been more than a decade since Dr. Dre released his last album, but he’s still managed to top Forbes’ list of hip-hop’s top earners by raking in $110 million in the past year (well, May 2011-May 2012 to be specific), more than doubling the next richest money maker on the list.

Where’s the incentive to write and release new music? Why write songs when you can peddle shitty sounding headphones through hordes of 20-something athletes? Dr. Dre hasn’t put out an album in close to 13 years, and why would he? At this point Detox is going to struggle to be anything but a let down, and Diddy’s right behind him on the list (at $45 million for the year) with just two albums to his name in the past 5-years (parts of which were heavily ghost-written).

Hip-hop’s biggest rappers see the game as a business, but at least Jay-Z comes in third by balancing his empires with the massively successful Watch the Throne. Kanye, if you’re curious, came in fourth, just $3 million behind H.O.V.A.

Drake meanwhile came in at #6, earning just over $20 million in the same period. Check out the entire list here.