Forbes Hip Hop Cash Kings List has changed around a bit this year.  Dr. Dre. Now Tops the List as the biggest earner do to his High-end “Beats by Dr. Dre” premium headphone company. Just six years ago Dre was walking on the beach getting sand between his toes chatting with Jimmy Lovine about starting a shoe line. Jimmy told him forget sneakers, let’s sell speakers. 

Now According to Forbes Dre earned $110 Million dollars last year. $100 Million came from HTC paying $300 Million to buy a 51% stake into his “Beatz” headphone company. Dre being the great business man that he is then turned around and bought half of the stock back this summer.

With Dr. Dre topping the list of Hip Hop’s Biggest Earners it’s no wonder why he  still hasn’t finished his long-awaited “Detox” album.

“I understand why Dre didn’t finish “Detox,” former Def Jam president Kevin Liles said with a laugh. “It’s called Beats.”

Dre like a few other hip-hop heavyweights make most of their money outside of music.

Diddy although none of his artists will NEVER, EVER, EVER make the list came in second with $45 million thanks to his share of profits from Ciroc vodka of course.  If he keeps coming up with all of these splendid flavors like Peach he will be a Billionaire soon.  Ciroc is so popular that it suffered from knock off  production like Louis bags.  Earlier in the year “Watermelon” flavored Ciroc surfaced on the street.. If you run into a bottle you should know that you are drinking at your own risk. Diddy has not made that flavor yet. 

The man who is married to the baddest chick in the game, Jay-Z, who was last year’s top earner, now comes in third this year. Although he is still a cash King he’s suffered from quite a few financial losses this year. His empire is actually crumbling(read about that here.)

Jay only pulled in $38 million last year. Half of that came from his music and the other half from outside ventures like his ownership stake in the Nets and a deal with Duracell.

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