Hip-Hop stars Bringing in the big bucks

Hip Hop rappers are making their millions not just through their music but their businesses. 

Sitting atop a personal fortune of 700 million dollars, Sean Combs who is better known in the music scene as "P. Diddy” is among a coterie of rapper businessmen who have gone from inner city streets to the pages of the Wall Street Journal.

The king of West Coast rap, Dr. Dre, a US record producer and entrepreneur, will soon become hip-hop’s first billionaire, if a proposed sale of his headphone and music streaming company Beats to Apple goes through.

“It’s a great landmark. After all, it’s a deal with, by some measures, the greatest company in the world,” said Dan Charnas, author of the book “The Big Payback. The History of the Business of Hip-Hop”.

“But that would also make sense in the context of the rise of the hip-hop entrepreneurs,” Charnas added, referring to the long years hip hop has spent knocking on the doors of US capitalism.

A deal reached nearly 30 years ago between the now legendary record label Def Jam and music giant Columbia paved the way but it took until the mid 2000s to see the kings of hip-hop sign lucrative deals turning their personal brands into very big money.

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