With his Yeezy brand expected to hit $1.5 billion in sales this year, Kanye West has jumped Jay-Z to become Forbes’ highest paid hip-hop act for the first time in his career.
In the 2019 edition of Forbes’ highest-paid acts in hip-hop, Kanye West has come out on top with $150 million pretax income. Jay, meanwhile, sits at No. 2 with $81 million.
The Chicago native’s $150 million estimated income nearly doubles hip-hop’s first billionaire, Jay-Z, who clocked in at a cool $81 million to claim the second spot.
The top ten consists entirely of male hip-hop artists, as Eminem, DJ Khaled, Kendrick Lamar, Migos, and Childish Gambino round out the rest of the list.
The only female artists to make it into the top twenty are Nicki Minaj and Cardi B, who come in at No. 12 and No. 13 respectively with $29 million and $28 million in earnings. It’s also worth noting that Cardi is the youngest to make the list at 26, though she took to Twitter to not-so-subtly dispute Forbes’ numbers.
Where do Forbes be getting they numbers from cause they way off ?🧐
— iamcardib (@iamcardib) September 19, 2019
FORBES’ HIGHEST-PAID HIP-HOP ACTS OF 2019
- Kanye West – $150 million
- Jay-Z – $81 million
- Drake – $75 million
- Diddy – $70 million
- Travis Scott – $58 million
- Eminem – $50 million
- DJ Khaled – $40 million
- Kendrick Lamar – $38.5 million
- Migos – $36 million
- Childish Gambino – $35 million
- J. Cole – $31 million
- Nicki Minaj – $29 million
- Cardi B – $28 million
- Swizz Beatz – $23 million
- Meek Mill – $21 million
- Birdman – $20 million
- Future – $19.5 million
- Nas – $19 million
- Wiz Khalifa – $18.5 million
- Pitbull – $18 million
Read also: Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Rihanna Top ‘Forbes’ List Of Highest-Paid Women In Music