(AllHipHop News) Did Dr. Dre become Hip Hop’s first billionaire? No, but he is closer than anyone else. Today (May 28th), it was officially announced that Dr. Dre’s Beats by Dre has been sold to Apple for $3 billion. During a recent interview, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine discussed the historic deal and what it means for both brands.
The deal for the leader in the premium headphone market was originally speculated to be for $3.2 billion, however the deal reportedly stalled for unspecified reasons. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine spoke about the deal earlier today for USA Today. Cook does not give any concrete details on what Dre and Iovine’s roles will be at Apple, however does state their importance:
Dre and Jimmy bring us the artists’ lens. We’ve had that from a relationship point of view but there’s nothing like having that under our roof, that expert ear of audio. So when you take all of those intangibles, you get excited.
Apple has a scheduled Worldwide Developers Conference this Monday (June 2nd) and Cook promises “Apple will be doing some great things in the near term that are exciting and you’re going to love them.” Iovine describes the deal as one that will help relations between music distributors and labels:
They feel like one of them has gotten into a game where they can have impact. Where what we do will be understood. We’ve managed to bridge those worlds, because we come from music but we’ve worked in software and hardware.
According to the article, Dre was silent for most of the interview except to chime in on the financial benefit of this deal on his personal banking account:
Financially I’m in a place I never dreamed of. Now I’m just ready to get started with the work.
Hours before the Beats by Dre sale was announced, Interscope Record’s President and Chief Operating Officer John Janick will succeed Jimmy Iovine as Interscope Records’ Chairman and CEO.
