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Who forgot about Dr. Dre?
The Compton producer, artist, entrepreneur has made the top of the list of Forbes’ Top Earning Musician of the Decade after earning $950 million in the last 10 years.
A big piece of that came from the $3 billion sell of Beats By Dre headphones in 2014 to Apple. At that time he crowned himself hip hop’s first billionaire during an Instagram Live after having 20{cab9cddcb62ce95ea194379d6aced806413da7d7d88aacc5f0a5c6f6268343b0} stake in Beats during the sell. He has also earned some money from the release of one album in 2015 which was exclusively released on Apple Music named Compton.
Following Dre comes Taylor Swift who earned $825 million, and Beyoncé who earned $685 million this decade. They are followed by U2 ($675 million), and Diddy ($605 million) rounds out the top 5. Jay-Z is the only other hip hop artist to make the top 10 after earning $560 million this decade.
Forbes’ data comes from “looking at touring data from Pollstar, music consumption numbers from Nielsen and interviews with managers, agents and many of the stars themselves. The list doesn’t include behind-the-scenes earners such as agents, managers and promoters, nor does it deduct living expenses or taxes.”
They also did not include musicians who had passed away. Michael Jackson would be first on that list after his estate earned $2.37 billion following his passing.