On Sept. 19, Forbes published their annual list of the World’s 20 Top-Earning Hip-Hop Stars. Kanye West topped the list with an yearly earning of $150 million. In second place is Jay-Z with $81 million and third is Drake with $75 million.
Kanye tops Jay-Z on this year's list of the world's highest-paid hip-hop acts to claim the crown https://t.co/09806oV8nO pic.twitter.com/shstgZg3i3
— Forbes (@Forbes) September 21, 2019
Forbes pointed the sales of Kanye’s Yeezy sneaker empire with Adidas, which reportedly is expected to reach $1.5 billion this year, as the bulk of his pretax income he earned within the calendar year.
“There was a beam of light on the idea of me making athletic footwear,” West stated in an interview with Forbes. The 21-time Grammy winner continued, “A paradigm shift. Like the Yeezy is desired as much as a Jordan.” Yeezy pulled in about half the revenue of the Nike Air Jordan line that originated in 1985.
Meanwhile, Jay-Z’s pretax income was earned from his On The Run II tour with wife Beyoncé. The couple reportedly earned $253.5 million from their fourth-month long trek, which they completed last year. Jay and Bey performed a total of 48 show—18 in Europe and 30 in North America. For their Aug. 25 and 26 concert at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the couple grossed $14.1 million.
As for Drake’s earnings, it all came from streaming with $75 million. The Toronto rapper’s Scorpion album was the most popular album of 2018, according to Billboard. The LP garnered 3.293 million SEA units (equaling 4.572 billion on-demand audio streams) from the set’s tracks last year.
Check out the full list of Hip Hop’s 2019 Cash Kings & Queens below.
20. Pitbull ($18 million)
19. Wiz Khalifa ($18.5 million)
18. Nas ($19 million)
17. Future ($19.5 million)
16. Birdman ($20 million)
15. Meek Mill ($21 million)
14. Swizz Beatz ($23 million)
13. Cardi B ($28 million)
12. Nicki Minaj ($29 million)
11. J. Cole ($31 million)
10. Childish Gambino ($35 million)
9. Migos ($36 million)
8. Kendrick Lamar ($38.5 million)
7. DJ Khaled ($40 million)
6. Eminem ($50 million)
5. Travis Scott ($58 million)
4. Diddy ($70 million)
3. Drake ($75 million)
2. Jay-Z ($81 million)
1. Kanye West ($150 million)