Top 10 Richest Rappers In The World 2023
There is nothing more entertaining than updating this list every six months in response to new data.
We include all of the data that we are able to obtain from publicly accessible sources, despite the fact that it is typically the same players moving up or down one or two places based on recent investments. Although it's not completely accurate, it's pretty darn close.
As a rapper or hip-hop artist, it is possible to achieve extremely high financial standing.
You can break into Hollywood, start other businesses, like clothing lines, and make a variety of investments to significantly increase your wealth as your fame and income increase.
With two rappers featured in both lists, comparing this list to the artists with the most streams ever is also very instructive. You can guess which ones I mean.
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Even though a hip-hop artist's career is long and hard, it often comes down to connections more than skill. There are many rappers who work on their rhymes for decades but never make it big, but those who do have a great chance of making the following list of the world's top 10 richest rappers.
Wealthiest Rapper 2023
- Lil Wayne
- Master P
- Eminem
- Pharrell
- Drake
- Berner
- Kanye West
- Dr. Dre
- P. Diddy
- Jay-Z
10. Lil Wayne
NET WORTH: $170 Million
Weezy was making a lot of money as a Cash Money rap artist, but when he left Birdman (also on this list! ), his fortunes changed. Things really took off when he started his own label, Young Money. After Juvenile left the label, he became the hottest act on Cash Money because he was a member of the Hot Boys.
He also earned a lot of royalties during a time when he was the go-to person for guest appearances. With 109 songs to date, he is the first man to surpass Elvis Presley in the number of songs on the Billboard Hot 100. He has earned his place among the best-selling artists of all time, and as he continues to launch superstars like Drake and Nicki Minaj, his wealth will continue to soar.
Trivia: His real name is Dwayne, but he changed it to Dwayne because he was upset about his absent father. Wayne survived a chest wound from a gunshot when he was 12 years old, which he later admitted was an act of self-harm. Nirvana is the band of his choice. A portion of Jay Z's lyrics is tattooed on his leg, one of his many tattoos.
9. Master P
NET VALUE: $210 Million
While his record label No Limit Records ruled the rap scene, Percy Miller made staggering sums of money. During that time, he launched numerous stars, striking while the iron was hot and releasing up to ten times as many albums as in previous years. In the late 1990s, he signed Snoop Dogg to a three-album contract.
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He has made his way into movies, professional wrestling, and travel, real estate, stocks, toys, sports, cars, and other industries in his portfolio. He accomplished all of this without receiving any significant music awards. He is the king of income diversification.
Trivia: During the 1999 preseason, Percy had a contract to play for both the Toronto Raptors and the Charlotte Hornets. However, his contract was never extended because he was older than 30 at the time. Despite this, he was successful in the minor leagues. He ran the No Limit Soldiers, a WCW stable where his crew fought the West Texas Rednecks. Additionally, he appeared on Dancing with the Stars season 2.
8. Eminem
NET VALUE: $230 Million
Marshall Mathers is another Dr. Dre fan who started his own record label, Shady Records, and became a superstar himself. He is the first rapper to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song for his work in the film 8 Mile, in which he played the lead role. He has won 15 Grammy Awards.
Mathers is also an author. If he had invested as much outside of music as other artists have and had not been sued numerous times, he would absolutely be higher on this list. He is one of a few people on this list who has also been named one of the greatest rappers ever and also one of the fastest rappers in history.
Trivia: In elementary school, Eminem was attacked by a bully and suffered serious head injuries. The court dismissed the lawsuit filed by his family against the school, stating that schools are immune from lawsuits. Marshall's bully later filed a lawsuit against him for invading his privacy and portraying him negatively, and he wrote about this experience in the song Brain Damage. The verdict was delivered in rhyme form by the judge, who also dismissed this case. Eminem's mother has also filed a slander lawsuit against him.
7. Pharrell
Net worth: $260 Million
Pharrell Williams' production skills made him the go-to beat maker for hip-hop and R&B artists for years. He got his start as a member of the beat production duo the Neptunes and rose to prominence as the lead vocalist of N*E*R*D.
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He won 10 Grammys and an Academy Award as a result of this. He also worked as a coach on The Voice on television. He now runs I am OTHER, a record label and multimedia creative collective.
To top it all off, he has collaborated with numerous international businesses to develop brands of streetwear, sneakers, jewelleries, sunglasses, furniture, sculptures, textiles, and a plethora of other products. He is unquestionably working hard.
Trivia: Pharrell was named the world's best-dressed man by Esquire. He skateboards a lot and has a half-pipe in his house. He wrote the entire soundtrack for the animated film Despicable Me. He is the 12th artist to have held both the number one and number two spots on the Billboard Top 100 at the same time.
6. Drake
Net worth: $260,000,000
When Lil Wayne signed Drake to his own label, Young Money, in June 2009, his career really took off. He is now considered one of the kings of rap. He has won four Grammy Awards, the most recent of which was the 2012 Grammy for Best Rap Album for Take Care. He has also outsold a number of renowned rappers, including Jay-Z, Eminem, and Tupac. His position at the top of our list of artists with the most streams and bestsellers is not surprising.
Drake will undoubtedly keep moving up our list. The real question here is whether it will be because of his business acumen or his musical abilities. He owns OVO Sound, a record label, a fashion line called October's Very Own, numerous brand partnerships, and even a whiskey called Virginia Black. He is also the NBA team's global ambassador for the Toronto Raptors, his hometown team.
Trivia: Thanks to the acting agent father of one of Drake's classmates, he got his start in the public eye as an actor on the iconic Canadian teen show Degrassi. In one episode, his character Jimmy Brooks raps.
5. Berner
NET VALUE: $420 MILLION
Over 40 albums have been released by Berner, many of which have appeared on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart ($420 million). However, the majority of his wealth can be attributed to his involvement in the cannabis industry. Berner frequently credits his family for his entrepreneurial spirit. He has been employed since he was 13 years old, and between the ages of 18 and 25, he also ran a cannabis club.
Gilbert Berner Milam was born in San Francisco to Mexican immigrants from the first generation. He started rapping while he was in high school, and after he released his first album on his own label, he was soon signed to Wiz Khalifa's Taylor Gang Records. Berner made the news that he had been diagnosed with cancer in 2021 via Instagram. Fortunately, he informed his followers in March 2022 that he was cancer-free. He has our best wishes for his recovery.
Trivia: Since Forbes began in 1917, Berner was the first CEO of the cannabis industry to be featured on the cover.
4. Kanye West
Net worth: $500,000,000
$1.6 billion and Kanye is no longer a billionaire! Everyone knows Kanye. He got his start as an instrumentalist for Jay-Z's albums on his label. For years, the most successful rappers sought him out for his beats. He was eventually allowed to release his own record, which was a huge hit and launched his career as the best emcee of all time.
He has started his own record label, GOOD Music, like others. He is one of the artists with the most Grammy awards of all time, having won 21 of them. Nike and Louis Vuitton, among others, have collaborated with his clothing line Yeezy to produce footwear and other merchandise. He has worked in architecture, politics, design, acting, and many other fields.
His wealth is the topic of debate. At its height, Bloomberg put his net worth at $6.6 billion. This was because his brand Yeezy was valued at a whopping $4.7 billion after huge deals with Gap and Adidas. However, Adidas abruptly ended their partnership, and Gap recently announced that they would wind down the Yeezy partnership. The rapper's anti-Semitic statements were condemned by the brand.
In September 2022, Forbes estimated that he was worth $2 billion. However, since the Adidas partnership ended, Forbes has also reduced its estimate to $400 million. $500 million is slightly higher than our estimate.
Trivia: Despite the fact that Kanye and Kim Kardashian divorced in 2021, they remain the most famous couple from any reality television show. His jaw was broken when he was in a car accident. The song Through the Wire, which is about this incident and was recorded with his jaw wired shut, has slurred vocals.
3. Dr. Dre
Net worth: $550 MILLION
Andre Young is worth a lot of money because he has a lot of different sources of income, like a lot of royalties, and he started artists like Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, Eminem, and 50 Cent. He has only released two of his own albums because he has been so focused on making other superstars. He is now one of the game's top 10 producers as a result of this effort.
Aftermath Entertainment, his own label, N.W.A., and Death Row Records gave him enough money and notoriety to pursue a career in film, philanthropy, and entrepreneurship. Our list has been lowered in part as a result of his recent divorce, which is said to have cost him more than $100 million. In our in-depth post about Dr. Dre's net worth, you can learn more about this.
Trivia: Dr. Dre built Beats By Dre into the most successful headphones brand in the world in terms of sales and marketing. In 2014, Apple paid $3 billion for the company, moving Dre up this list and almost to the top.
2. P. Diddy
Net worth: $1.0 BILLION
Not only is he one of the richest rappers, but he is also one of the top ten richest musicians worldwide.
His Sean John perfume line and clothing company have both achieved significant success. One of MTV's best reality shows, Making the Band, was his. He has appeared in a few films and invested in numerous businesses, including Ciroc, a premium spirits manufacturer. He has won a lot of awards for his music, including 12 Grammys.
Trivia: Like many of the world's wealthiest individuals, including Kanye West, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs, Puff Daddy dropped out of college. He dropped out of college to study business, but Forbes says that didn't stop him from being one of the top 40 entrepreneurs under 40 in 2002.
1. Jay-Z
Net worth: $1.5 BILLION
He is the wealthiest rapper in the world and has won more than 22 Grammys and sold more than 100 million records. However, compared to what he earns from his clothing line Rocawear and his record label Roc-A-Fella, that only makes up a small portion of his income. Additionally, he invests in a number of projects, such as Tidal, a music streaming service, and Roc Nation Sports, his company in which he is a licensed sports agent.
He joined the Songwriters Hall of Fame as the first rapper. He currently has the record for the most Billboard 200 #1 albums, with 14 albums. He is now investing in films, television, and smartphone apps.
Trivia: He and Beyonce had a lot of money, but they couldn't outbid Minecraft creator Notch for a Beverly Hills mansion. The Brooklyn Nets basketball team has him as a part-owner.
