Kanye West, US rapper and record producer, has been named hip-hop’s highest earner for the year 2019,
according to Forbes.
The 42-year-old songwriter, who is on the verge to release
‘Jesus is Great’ , his highly-anticipated debut gospel album, raked in about $150 million over the past year to knock Jay Z, fellow rapper, off the top spot — a feat he is achieving for the first time in his career.
“Yeezy is expected to top $1.5 billion in sales this year—or about half of what Nike’s Air Jordan pulls in—boosting West’s pretax income to $150 million over the past year and making him hip-hop’s cash king for the first time ever. Another career first: West out-earned Jay-Z, who ranks second on this year’s list with $81 million, buoyed by the tail end of his On The Run II tour with wife Beyoncé,” said Forbes.
Jay Z claimed the second spot with $81 million, while Drake, the most-streamed artist of any genre, rounded out the top three with $75 million pretax income.
Diddy followed behind at $70 million, while Travis Scott claimed the fifth spot with $58 million.
Nicki Minaj, who recently retired from the music scene, and Cardi B were the only female artists to make the top twenty.
Some of the notable hip-hop stars, who did not make the list, Lil Wayne, Birdman, Dr. Dre, and Chance the Rapper.
Here are the world’s 20 top-earning hip-hop stars below:
- Pitbull ($18 million)
- Wiz Khalifa ($18.5 million)
- Nas ($19 million)
- Future ($19.5 million)
- Birdman ($20 million)
- Meek Mill ($21 million)
- Swizz Beatz ($23 million)
- Cardi B ($28 million)
- Nicki Minaj ($29 million)
- J. Cole ($31 million)
- Childish Gambino ($35 million)
- Migos ($36 million)
- Kendrick Lamar ($38.5 million)
- DJ Khaled ($40 million)
- Eminem ($50 million)
- Travis Scott ($58 million)
- Diddy ($70 million)
- Drake ($75 million)
- Jay-Z ($81 million)
- Kanye West ($150 million)
MusicTrend.com 