Forbes magazine has published lists of the highest-paid hip-hop artists since 2007, and Eminem was included in all of them but one.
Having started with naming this list “Hip-hop Cash Kings”, in several years Forbes came round to realising that hip-hop is a serious business and hip-hop artists consistently impress their audience by the amount of money they make not only from their music, shows and promoting other companies, but also investing in hi-tech companies, buying start-ups, designing athletic wear, producing TV shows, etc.
The battle for the top of the list is continuous and mostly involves 50 Cent, who topped the Forbes Hip-Hop Cash King list in 2008, P Diddy, who was on the first position 4 times, Jay-Z, who was on top 5 times and has never left the Top 3, Dr.Dre, who only reached the first place twice but whose whopping $620M made in 2014 still stand unreachable, and Kanye West, who finally made it to the top in 2019 after years of holding on to Top 10 (and sometimes Top 3). Jay-Z and Kanye West have never missed a year of being included in this list – all 13 years.
The result next to their – 12 years – can demonstrate only Eminem. Eminem left the list of the highest-paid hip-hop artists only once, in 2017. Even if his name is not at the very top of the list of people making money, it is always in the list of people whose music brings them steady income competitive with inventive newcomers and experienced businessmen.
