Kanye West Beats Jay-Z, Drake for Highest-Paid Rapper of 2019: Report
Kanye West has surpassed Jay-Z and Drake as the highest-paid rapper of 2019, according to Forbes.
On Thursday (Sept. 19), the business magazine published their annual list of the World’s 20 Top-Earning Hip-Hop Stars. ’Ye topped the list with a yearly earning of $150 million. In second place is Jay-Z with $81 million and third is Drake with $75 million.
Forbes cited the sales of Kanye’s Yeezy sneaker empire with Adidas, which reportedly is expected to reach $1.5 billion this year, as the bulk of his pretax income he earned within the calendar year.
Meanwhile, Hov’s pretax income was earned from his On The Run II tour with wife Beyoncé. The couple reportedly earned $253.5 million from their fourth-month long trek, which they completed last year. Jay and Bey performed a total of 48 show—18 in Europe and 30 in North America. For their Aug. 25 and 26 concert at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the couple grossed $14.1 million.
As for Drake's earnings, it all came from streaming with $75 million. The Toronto rapper's Scorpion album was the most popular album of 2018, according to Billboard. The LP garnered 3.293 million SEA units (equaling 4.572 billion on-demand audio streams) from the set’s tracks last year.
Rounding out Forbes’ top five on the list include Diddy at No. 4 with $70 million, Travis Scott at No. 5 with $58 million. Other artists gracing the list include Eminem, DJ Khaled, Kendrick Lamar, Migos, Childish Gambino and others.
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