While the history of hip-hop has historically emphasized low-income communities expressing themselves in a syncretic form, the current wealth of its heroes is integral to the culture’s mythos. The underdog stories and the rags-to-riches narratives are something that thrives within this culture.
Naturally, rappers are at today’s forefront of representatives when it comes to hip-hop culture. Regardless of your perspective on the viability of their influence on their community, their names and reputations have greatly expanded, reaching a global scale in many cases. This is where the money made in music has moved toward other business ventures.
There have been many rappers that have dabbled into business. However, an entrepreneurial spirit is more than attaching yourself to business. It’s also about showing that you can start and grow your own enterprise. Even if these rappers aren’t the sole owners of these business ventures, they’re still at the top of their own business empires.
Let our list show which rappers have managed to leave the biggest mark on the business world with their entrepreneurial acumen!
Jay-Z
At this point, there’s hardly a more sage personality in hip-hop culture than Jay-Z. He hasn’t released much music in the last decade and a half, with 4:44 being the last album he’s released in the last decade (aside from the collaborative albums with his wife). Nowadays, he is more visible as a figure of black excellence and a business mogul.
We consider citing net worth to be somewhat pointless due to the consistent fluctuation of these figures. However, what’s clear about Jay-Z is that he is a true billionaire and that he rules over an empire of business.
That’s not to say that all his ventures and strategies have always been on the good side. All fans know that before he was complaining about how he failed to take advantage of buying DUMBO real estate, before marrying Beyoncé, and way before owning Roc-A-Fella Records, his entrepreneurship represented dealing narcotics.
Naturally, he rose beyond that, eventually going into music and releasing a slew of classics. After his fallout with Dame Dash, he eventually created Roc Nation. This is his crowning achievement at the moment, given its chokehold over the entertainment industry. The company branches in sports representation, event management, music distribution, and many, many more.
What’s underrated about Hov is that he’s always had the resourcefulness to learn from his mistakes. His failed ventures, such as his fractional ownership of his hometown Nets and the eventual loss after the failure of Tidal have been covered by his capacity to succeed in other business areas.
Ye (Kanye West)
Kanye West is on a trajectory that, to this day, it’s hard to assess and predict. His pathway into both the music and business world has been incredibly interesting for various reasons, but they are unpredictable, to say the least. This mercurial profile is one of the most loudly speaking aspects of this life, career, personality, and persona.
Ye’s ventures have been closely related to the things he excelled the most in: music and fashion. The self-proclaimed genius and Louis-Vuitton Don has been at the forefront of revolutionary behaviour in both, hence his influence in both fields. Despite his recent controversies, statements, and apparent instability, we cannot rewrite history.
He was the poster boy backpack rapper who had no street credentials but came from a black intellectual background. He made it cool to be a relatively nerdy but boastful personality while making good music. This is how he eventually came to create GOOD Music: his first attempt at establishing a record label around himself.
GOOD Music appears to be in a cryogenic state since most of its talent has distanced itself from the imprint. Nowadays, most of his ventures go either through his Donda or Yeezy brands. The last one is also synonymous with his name and branding, especially due to the dearly departed collaboration with Adidas that first attained him billionaire status and a force in the fashion industry.
Dr. Dre
Dre has been through some insane stuff throughout his 6 decades around the sun. He’s been around the brutal entrepreneurship of both Eazy-E and Suge Knight, both having a strong background in LA-based crime. However, Dre’s emphasis on making excellent music has helped him navigate muddy waters without going down with the raft.
Despite his controversial behaviour throughout the years and the acrimonious breakdown of Death Row Records, to which he was a key contributor, Dre had a few renaissances of sorts. The first would be his founding of Aftermath Entertainment, one of the countless subsidiaries of UMG.
However, we can say that his crowning achievement is the Beats Electronics brand, which had completely taken over the headphone discussion at some point. Down the line, both he and Jimmy Iovine, the Interscope execute who’s been his business partner for decades, made hundreds of millions after selling Beats to Apple in 2014.
P Diddy
Yes, the empire is crumbling, and his career, in music or business, appears to be as good as over. It feels like he flew too close to the sun and perpetuated too many habits from his early days. However, Diddy maintained an image of business acumen for much of his career in the public spotlight, which is a factual piece of history that is worth discussing.
Bad Boy Records, in a sense, was an exercise in a certain type of easy production and marketing. In this sense, Diddy learned how to market his brand by ensuring that he marketed himself. As a result, he was extremely visible throughout the 90s and 2000s.
In 1998, he released one of his best-known brands, Sean John, which was quite well-received in the fashion industry. Other ventures that he’s been closely associated with are the Cîroc and DeLeon alcoholic beverages.
Ice Cube
Despite being yet another old head on this list, Cube deserves his praise as a businessman for a couple of very important additions. Naturally, his being around enterprising people like his former NWA colleagues has led to him starting Lench Mob Records, which didn’t gain that much traction.
Moreover, his transition to film and television as his most visible sort of media was a career-defining move. The launch of Cube Vision in 1998 was his first step in this direction, producing his Friday series, Are We There Yet? and other projects that have been visible on both the big and small screen.
However, we wanted to talk about Ice Cube, the entrepreneur, due to the wild success of Big3. Who knew that you could bet on 50 free spins no deposit in the same place as where you can bet on 3-on-3 basketball played by celebrities and former ballers? The brand is exciting and is entering a new phase in the league’s continuous expansion!
Conclusion
Ultimately, business is a sly field that requires resourcefulness to ensure success. Even if it’s not a guarantee, these rappers appear to have made a mark on what a rapper can do with the money they make from music. As we can see, younger rappers dabble in their own business ventures, and such a list will definitely feature fresh names down the line!