Ranked: Highest Paid Hip-Hop Acts of the Year
Jalen Hendrix
Jalen Hendrix
Hip-Hop, a genre that recently crossed over into the mainstream after decades of finding its voice, has now become a mainstream topic and obsession for people all over the world. Hip Hop has become so popular, that its biggest stars are now starting to inhabit huge salaries. These artists have some of the biggest net worths in the entertainment industry and have worked hard to keep it that way. The top 20 rappers and producers have all made platinum records, dance challenge hits, and have spent multiple weeks at #1 on the Billboard charts. Drake has done all of these things which is probably why he is the fourth highest on the Forbes list. Here are the top five highest paid artist in Hip Hop 2018.
J. Cole kicks off our list at number five. The Fayetteville, North Carolina native has had a great year. He came back stronger than ever after a two-year hiatus bringing in $35.5 million. Cole’s career initially began in 2009 after becoming the first artist signed to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation record label. After a series of mixtapes, song features, and opening acts gigs, Cole released his debut album in the fall of 2011. “He’s one of my favorites, because he can talk about real situations and real problems,” says 15 year old Briana Marks .Since his debut he has released four more albums to date, all of which (besides his most recent) have become platinum. His last album KOD has already been certified gold.
Next on our list is non-other than Drake. The Canadian born actor turned rapper has become one of ,if not the biggest, acts in the world. Every album he has made is platinum, he has broken both chart and streaming records, and is now the first artist in history to reach over ten billion streams. The 31 year-old enters the list at number four, bringing in a whopping $47 million at the closing of the year. It seems like every year he releases the song of the summer and this year hit pretty hard. “In My Feelings” was the song off the B-side of his record-breaking album Scorpion that dropped this past June. The song is now world famous because of the dance challenge created by Instagram star The Shiggy Show. After Shiggy posted it on his Instagram, the dance was seen everywhere after countless celebrities started imitating the steps. The video for “In My Feelings” now has over 128 million views and counting after being released a little over a month ago.
Number three on the list is Kendrick Lamar. Lamar, 31, has had one of the best albums of the decade with 2017’s Damn . This year he raked in over $58 million alone which definitely marks a high point in the Compton rapper’s career. Aside from being one of the main producers on the Black Panther soundtrack, his biggest accomplishment of the year is winning the Pulitzer Prize Award for music in addition to three Grammys. Lamar also was the headliner for is parent label’s TDE tour which almost always had a sold out show due to its impressive lineup. It is clear that 2018 has been a great year for Kendrick Lamar.
Coming in at number two we have Sean “P-Diddy” Combs. The mastermind behind some of this biggest and most influential artist of the 90s has truly proved that he “can’t stop” and “won’t stop”. The Harlem native brought in $64 million this year and frankly that was expected. Aside from having a huge clothing line (Sean John), a vodka company, and his own personal bottled water company. Combs has moved to television. He is one of four judges of Fox music show competition The Four. As of summer 2018 Combs’ net worth is $820 million and it is pretty obvious he will not stop until he passes the billion dollar mark.
Last but certainly not least our number one spot goes to non other than Jay-Z. It is no surprise that the hip hop veteran earned a staggering $76 million this year. The rapper has created his own streaming service (Tidal), which now competes along with other music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music. This year the rapper embarked on a world tour with his super-star wife Beyonce’ after the release of their joint album Everything is Love in mid June. Almost every show so far has been sold out so far and the tour is now on its second leg. Jay-Z has released 13 solo projects in his career which started in the mid 90s. He has now become one of the best-selling rappers of all time and has yet to be dethroned.
J. Cole kicks off our list at number five. The Fayetteville, North Carolina native has had a great year. He came back stronger than ever after a two-year hiatus bringing in $35.5 million. Cole’s career initially began in 2009 after becoming the first artist signed to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation record label. After a series of mixtapes, song features, and opening acts gigs, Cole released his debut album in the fall of 2011. “He’s one of my favorites, because he can talk about real situations and real problems,” says 15 year old Briana Marks .Since his debut he has released four more albums to date, all of which (besides his most recent) have become platinum. His last album KOD has already been certified gold.
Next on our list is non-other than Drake. The Canadian born actor turned rapper has become one of ,if not the biggest, acts in the world. Every album he has made is platinum, he has broken both chart and streaming records, and is now the first artist in history to reach over ten billion streams. The 31 year-old enters the list at number four, bringing in a whopping $47 million at the closing of the year. It seems like every year he releases the song of the summer and this year hit pretty hard. “In My Feelings” was the song off the B-side of his record-breaking album Scorpion that dropped this past June. The song is now world famous because of the dance challenge created by Instagram star The Shiggy Show. After Shiggy posted it on his Instagram, the dance was seen everywhere after countless celebrities started imitating the steps. The video for “In My Feelings” now has over 128 million views and counting after being released a little over a month ago.
Number three on the list is Kendrick Lamar. Lamar, 31, has had one of the best albums of the decade with 2017’s Damn . This year he raked in over $58 million alone which definitely marks a high point in the Compton rapper’s career. Aside from being one of the main producers on the Black Panther soundtrack, his biggest accomplishment of the year is winning the Pulitzer Prize Award for music in addition to three Grammys. Lamar also was the headliner for is parent label’s TDE tour which almost always had a sold out show due to its impressive lineup. It is clear that 2018 has been a great year for Kendrick Lamar.
Coming in at number two we have Sean “P-Diddy” Combs. The mastermind behind some of this biggest and most influential artist of the 90s has truly proved that he “can’t stop” and “won’t stop”. The Harlem native brought in $64 million this year and frankly that was expected. Aside from having a huge clothing line (Sean John), a vodka company, and his own personal bottled water company. Combs has moved to television. He is one of four judges of Fox music show competition The Four. As of summer 2018 Combs’ net worth is $820 million and it is pretty obvious he will not stop until he passes the billion dollar mark.
Last but certainly not least our number one spot goes to non other than Jay-Z. It is no surprise that the hip hop veteran earned a staggering $76 million this year. The rapper has created his own streaming service (Tidal), which now competes along with other music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music. This year the rapper embarked on a world tour with his super-star wife Beyonce’ after the release of their joint album Everything is Love in mid June. Almost every show so far has been sold out so far and the tour is now on its second leg. Jay-Z has released 13 solo projects in his career which started in the mid 90s. He has now become one of the best-selling rappers of all time and has yet to be dethroned.