In Hip Hop you don’t need to make music to make Money

“Get rich or die tryin’” was the title of the 50 Cent album that made him a Global Hip Hop Phenom and propelled him into the Hop Hop Spheres of Stardom. By now it seems fairly obvious that he succeeded. For two reasons.

1. 50 Cent is still alive
2. He ranks second on Forbes’ List of Hip Hop Cash Kings 2007-2011 (only Jay-Z managed to make more money in that time-span)

What isn’t that obvious at all is what 50 Cent has done to become rich. Yes, he made an album that sold well. But, if you thought, that the Hip Hop artists got rich by making music, it seems, you're wrong. Music does not keep them rich.

Generating income from music is a very volatile business. Styles and preferences change quickly, while icons of sub-genres remain the same. Just look at Timbaland (no. 5 on the list). In 2007 he was at the top of his game, he had produced albums by Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado (whose two albums combined for 7 No. 1 singles between them), and his own cash cow “Timbaland Presents: Shock Value” hit the streets with every top name in the business making an appearance. At the time, Timbaland had the sound. Not just a sound or his own sound. Timbaland had the sound. The sound that everybody wanted to have that year. Everyone wanted to sound like that. 

And it is a great sound. Just listen to practically any track from Nelly Furtado’s “Loose” or Justin’s “FutureSexLoveSounds”, close your eyes, and the sound takes you back in time. But then new years came around and all of a sudden it is 2008. All of a sudden, the Timbaland sound is “so last year”.

Everything he’d done in the early noughties led straight to “Timbaland Presents: Shock Value”. It was the zenith of his career. But that only lasted so lang, and after that he just didn't have the sound anymore. Now people want a different sound and Timbaland has been nowhere near the position he had in 2007.

Artist	Income 07'-11'
Jay-Z	$251 Mill.
50 Cent	$216 Mill.
P. Diddy	$158  Mill.
Kanye West	$100  Mill.
Timbaland	$81  Mill.
Dr. Dre	$80  Mill.
Pharrell Williams	$76  Mill.
Snoop Doggy Dogg	$73  Mill.
Ludacris	$68  Mill.
Lil' Wayne	$66  Mill.
Eminem	$66  Mill.

The same thing can be said about the remaining artists on the Forbes list. They are not rich because of their ability to release new music (there's a correlation of 0.08 between money made and number of albums released). What sets the Cash kings apart is the fact that they have successful business ventures not directly related to music. Jay-Z is part-owner of the Brooklyn Nets and is the creator of apparel company Rocawear. 50 Cent made half his fortune on the list from selling his stake in a company he founded Glaceau to make a vitamin water drink and has many other interesting companies in the pipeline.

So 50 Cent might have made his initial fortune by making music, but it’s his entrepreneurial spirit and business savy that keeps him in the Top 10 of Hip Hop’s Cash Kings.