Premiere Of A24’s “Uncut Gems” – Red Carpet

How Hip-Hop Superstar Travis Scott Has Become Corporate America’s Brand Whisperer

Nine years ago, two unlikely lunch partners sat down at the Hollywood Diner in Omaha, Nebraska. One, Warren Buffett, was a regular there. The other, Jay-Z, was not. The billionaire and the rapper ordered strawberry malts and chatted amiably, continuing the conversation back at Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway offices.



Buffett, then 80, walked away impressed with the artist 40 years his junior: “Jay is teaching in a lot bigger classroom than I’ll ever teach in. For a young person growing up, he’s the guy to learn from.” This moment, which was originally captured in our&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/1011/rich-list-10-omaha-warren-buffett-jay-z-steve-forbes-summit-interview.html#5c2e29d66480" target="_blank">2010 Forbes 400 package</a>, made it clear that Jay-Z already had a blueprint for his own ten-figure fortune. “Hip-hop from the beginning has always been aspirational,” he said.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/arts/2019/04/01/inside-nipsey-hussles-blueprint-to-become-a-real-estate-mogul/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Inside Nipsey Hussle’s Blueprint To Become A Real Estate Mogul (opens in a new tab)">Inside Nipsey Hussle’s Blueprint To Become A Real Estate Mogul</a>



Less than a decade later, it’s clear that Jay-Z has accumulated a fortune that conservatively totals $1 billion, making him one of only a handful of entertainers to become a billionaire—and the first hip-hop artist to do so. Jay-Z&#8217;s steadily growing kingdom is expansive, encompassing liquor, art, real estate (homes in Los Angeles, the Hamptons, Tribeca) and stakes in companies like Uber.



His journey is all the more impressive given its start: Brooklyn’s notorious Marcy housing projects. He was a drug dealer before becoming a musician, starting his own label, Roc-A-Fella Records, to release his 1996 debut,&nbsp;Reasonable Doubt. Since then he’s amassed 14 No. 1 albums,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/jay-z" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">22 Grammy awards</a>&nbsp;and over $500 million in pretax earnings in a decade.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf144d6142c500008f463fb/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Forbescover-jay-z-buffett"/></figure>



Crucially, he realized that he should build his own brands rather than promote someone else’s: the clothing line Rocawear, started in 1999 (<a href="https://content.edgar-online.com/ExternalLink/EDGAR/0001144204-07-058548.html?hash=c289c7e04f5c956d46d401084fa3cfcaf2c0db9bcd375e90576f2e974a8a6105&amp;dest=V092473_EX3I_HTM#V092473_EX3I_HTM" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sold</a>for $204 million to Iconix in 2007); D’Ussé, a cognac he co-owns with Bacardi; and Tidal, a music-streaming service.



Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean, the superproducer behind some of Jay-Z’s biggest hits (“<a href="https://tidal.com/browse/video/44153680" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">On To The Next One</a>,” Beyoncé’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nr8hPnZfMU" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Upgrade U</a>”), looks at Jay-Z as something others can model: “It’s bigger than hip-hop … it’s the blueprint for our culture. A guy that looks like us, sounds like us, loves us, made it to something that we always felt that was above us.”



“If he’s a billionaire now, imagine what he’s about to be,” Swizz Beatz says. “Because he’s only just starting.”



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2018/03/02/forbes-five-hip-hops-wealthiest-artists-2018/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="The Forbes Five: Hip-Hop’s Wealthiest Artists 2018 (opens in a new tab)">The Forbes Five: Hip-Hop’s Wealthiest Artists 2018</a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What’s Jay-Z Worth?</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">To calculate his net worth, we looked at the artist’s stakes in companies like Armand de Brignac champagne—applying our customary discount to private firms—then added up his income, subtracting a healthy amount to account for a superstar lifestyle. We checked our numbers with a roster of outside experts to ensure these estimates were fair and conservative. Turns out, Jay-Z really is a business, man.</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf199a2cd1f12000a2b1a80/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Armand de Brignac</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$310 million</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19739cd1f12000a2b1a37/960x0.jpg?cropX1=1&amp;cropX2=2635&amp;cropY1=53&amp;cropY2=2195" alt="Armand-de-Brignac-bottles"/></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Jay-Z has used his music to shill the $300 gold bottles of the &#8220;Ace of Spades&#8221; champagne since launching the brand with the 2006 video “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS4U-HAHwps" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Show Me What You Got</a>.&#8221; More recently, his verse on Meek Mill’s “<a href="https://genius.com/Meek-mill-whats-free-lyrics" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">What’s Free</a>&#8221; put a half-billion-dollar value on the wine, which seems like a bit too bubbly a number.</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19a06cd1f12000a2b1a86/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Cash &amp; investments</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$220 million</h3>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">A vast investing portfolio includes a stake in Uber worth an estimated $70 million. He&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/07/the-inside-story-of-the-rise-and-rise-of-uber/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;purchased his piece for $2 million back in 2013—and then wired founder Travis Kalanick another $5 million in an attempt to increase his holdings, but was rebuffed.</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19a269736330008aab875/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">D’Ussé</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$100 million</h3>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Jay-Z’s cognac, a joint venture with beverage giant Bacardi, moves almost 200,000 cases and has grown nearly 80% annually. “Jay-Z resonates with consumers who are attracted to the ultra-premium lifestyle,&#8221; says Eric Schmidt, Beverage Marketing Corp.’s Director of Alcohol Research.</h3>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Tidal</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$100 million</h3>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">In 2015, Jay-Z&nbsp;<a href="http://mb.cision.com/Main/1052/9718782/340280.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">submitted</a>&nbsp;a bid to purchase the Scandinavian streaming service’s parent company for just shy of $60 million. He relaunched Tidal later that year with a roster of celebrity investors including his wife, Beyoncé, and other music luminaries, from Kanye West to Calvin Harris.</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19a3c9736330008aab87b/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Roc Nation</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$75 million</h3>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">This wide-ranging entertainment company started over a decade ago as part of a joint venture with concert giant Live Nation. Roc Nation represents some of the top stars in the entertainment through its sports agency (Kevin Durant, Todd Gurley) as well as its record label and artist-management arms (Rihanna, J. Cole).</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19a539736330008aab87e/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Music catalog</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$75 million</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19aaccd1f12000a2b1a9d/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-albums"/></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Before the beginning of his stint as Def Jam’s chief in 2004, Jay-Z&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2010/09/22/jay-zs-50-million-music-box/#1ff867a750de" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">negotiated</a>the eventual return of his master recordings from the aforementioned label that helped launch his career; in a separate deal with EMI, he clawed back his publishing rights. Wise move: his hits now clock close to 1 billion streams annually.</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19ad0cd1f12000a2b1aa0/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Art collection</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$70 million</h3>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">In the song &#8220;<a href="https://genius.com/Jay-z-picasso-baby-lyrics" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Picasso Baby,</a>&#8221; Jay-Z boasted about a “Basquiat in my kitchen corner.&#8221; He probably wasn&#8217;t kidding. For over a decade, he’s been scooping up masterpieces like Basquiat&#8217;s “Mecca,” purchased in 2013 for a&nbsp;<a href="https://nypost.com/2013/11/20/jay-z-buys-basquiat-painting-for-4-5m/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;$4.5 million. &#8220;He&#8217;s rapped about it all in detail,&#8221; says Fab 5 Freddy, a contemporary and friend of the late painter. &#8220;Jay-Z helped educate millions of hip-hop fans mentioning Jean-Michel.&#8221;</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19ae8cd1f12000a2b1aa3/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Real estate</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$50 million</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf15020142c500008f46713/960x0.jpg?cropX1=392&amp;cropX2=2524&amp;cropY1=40&amp;cropY2=1848" alt="This is the incredible $88 million mansion Jay Z and Beyonce purchased in August 2017, the home has 8 bed, 11 bath and is 30,000 square feet"/><figcaption>CJT/ MEGA/ NEWSCOM</figcaption></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">After welcoming twins in 2017, Jay-Z and Beyoncé bought a pair of homes to match: a $26 million East Hampton mansion and a $88 million Bel Air estate. Jay-Z also owns a Tribeca penthouse, snagged for $6.85 million in 2004.</h3>



&#8211;Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg;Forbes Staff

gettyimages-911232700-594×594

Artist, Icon, Billionaire: How Jay-Z Created His $1 Billion Fortune

On a blazingly bright morning at the end of the South By Southwest music and technology conference, Rico Nasty takes the stage at the Fader Fort in Austin as part of a panel discussion—and finds another way to increase her earnings. Clad in a swirly black-and-lime-green jumpsuit, she shows off her threads as cameras flash; after the event, she spends a few moments talking up her outfit.



“I bought it a few days ago, and I’m probably going to wear it once, and there’s going to be a lot of pictures in it,” the 21-year-old rapper says before outlining her plan to sell the jumpsuit on the peer-to-peer shopping app Depop, as she does with most of the clothing she wears in public. “We’ve made like, probably $20 thousand in the past two months.”



Born Maria-Cecilia Simone Kelly in Brooklyn, Rico started rapping in high school before releasing a string of mixtapes. She signed to Atlantic Records and has yet to release her formal debut studio album, but she’s already among music’s most promising up-and-comers, earning her a spot on our list. And with more women like Rico rising up the rap charts, we’re formally changing the name of our ranking to Hip-Hop Cash Princes and Princesses.



The list, presented in full below, comprises the genre’s top ten recording artists and producers under the age of 30 in terms of future earning potential, as judged by an expert panel; no repeats are allowed. This year’s list of judges includes the late Nipsey Hussle,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2015/03/31/nipsey-hussle-independent-musics-next-mogul/#4da2eb107219" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a 2015 Cash Prince</a>&nbsp;who sent his picks just days before his tragic passing; songwriter and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/30-under-30/2019/music/#7f9b76294c40" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">30 Under 30</a>&nbsp;honoree Mickey Shiloh; and NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, who found a lot to like about Rico.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cc0b7e44bbe6f4b9c1c8820/960x0.jpg?cropX1=2&amp;cropX2=1198&amp;cropY1=0&amp;cropY2=1196" alt="Rico Nasty"/><figcaption>Rico NastyGETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



“Rico Nasty is one of the best shooting guards in hip-hop right now,” says O’Neal, whose résumé includes careers as a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2018/07/31/how-shaq-became-the-biggest-dj-on-the-planet/#2ffbe2652252" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DJ</a>&nbsp;and rapper. “Like a shooting guard, she is able to score in many ways and adapt to the style of play.&nbsp;She is dynamic and always working on her craft, improving&nbsp;her game, updating her sound.”



First, Rico had to work her way off the bench. After moving from New York to Maryland as a child, she started rapping during her teenage years and her mother started working as her manager. For Rico’s first gig, they paid $200 to rent out a performance space, figuring they could more than double that sum by charging $20 per head for tickets. Only six people showed up.



Rico remembers reorganizing her life after that: She moved out of her mother’s house and started working to build her career from the ground up. That meant churning out mixtapes and interacting with her fans on a one-on-one basis—both on social media and in person as she tried her hand at live performances once again around Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia.



“I’m bringing them out to the shows, and we’re getting our nails done and shit,” she says, recalling her first efforts to bring fans into her corner. “This is my opportunity to make these people lifelong friends, in a sense.”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cc0b81c4bbe6f4b9c1c8851/960x0.jpg?cropX1=0&amp;cropX2=1199&amp;cropY1=0&amp;cropY2=1198" alt="Blueface"/><figcaption>BluefaceGETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



In 2017, Rico’s single “Poppin” took off on YouTube and was featured on HBO’s&nbsp;Insecure; the following year, she signed to Atlantic and released another mixtape,&nbsp;Nasty. Her pay for live shows started to climb in tandem. From her days struggling to top $100 per concert, she zoomed to an average of $7,000 per gig before snagging an estimated $35,000 guarantee for her performance at Coachella last weekend (she wouldn’t confirm the precise amount).



“Five figures,” she says coyly. “That shit feels amazing to say out loud.”



Rico still has ways to go before she gets to the level of the festival’s headliners, whose gigs fetch seven-figure guarantees. In the meantime, she’s working on other ways to extend her brand. In addition to her work with Depop, she recently launched a line of headphones with Skullcandy. And, with the marijuana accessory provider Hemper, she gets a per-unit cut on sales of Rico Nasty-branded bongs, rolling papers and air fresheners.



Says judge Mickey Shiloh of Rico: “Somebody that creates their own lane like this is bound to make waves for the long run.”



<figure><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fe.infogram.com%2F_%2Fm53aylm29HQT9WEa7gS5%3Fsrc%3Dembed&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Finfogram.com%2F1p0kymjdzexlnkuexywx27rk15bnqlm1zg0&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Finfogram-thumbs-1024.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6c5afec8-17d1-4fef-a76d-17476e99104f.jpg&amp;key=3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=infogram"></iframe></figure>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">Hip Hop Cash Princes: Introducing The Class Of 2019</blockquote>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">6LACK</h2>



“6LACK’s tone is completely his own,” says Shiloh. “His songwriting is also what takes his artistry to an entirely new level … it’s like everything you can’t find the words to say, he says effortlessly.”



—



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie</h2>



The Bronx-born rapper is no stranger to the Cash Princes universe, having collaborated with list of alumni including 21 Savage and Offset of Migos. He’s becoming a star in his own right: A Boogie’s second album,&nbsp;Hoodie SZN, topped the chart shortly after its December 2018 release.



—



<figure><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fe.infogram.com%2F_%2FuacRVIPqDmi0SMYtNsp6%3Fsrc%3Dembed&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Finfogram.com%2F1pvkm2j9zn66qkbxe1n7q01nqkur6egnpdz&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Finfogram-thumbs-1024.s3.amazonaws.com%2F495bb690-869a-43e4-84a1-c0b3ea8ee538.jpg&amp;key=3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=infogram"></iframe></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Bad Bunny</h2>



The trap rapper blends hip-hop with Reggaeton as seamlessly as he weaves English and Spanish lyrics into wildly popular songs like Cardi B’s “I Like It,” his first U.S. chart-topper. He now grosses more than $500,000 per tour stop.



—



<figure><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-32/html/container.html" width="970" height="250"></iframe></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Blueface</h2>



The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2019/02/28/can-cash-money-the-label-that-launched-drake-and-nicki-minaj-strike-platinum-again/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cash Money Records</a>&nbsp;signee rose to prominence with his smash song “Thotiana”—from his 2018 mixtape&nbsp;Famous Cryp­—which has climbed to No. 8 on the U.S. singles charts. He was a top pick from Nipsey Hussle; both stars have crossed gang lines to record with Cash Princes alum YG.



—



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Juice Wrld</h2>



Five questions with the Chicago-born “Lucid Dreams” hip-hop star:



Forbes: What was your first job?&nbsp;“Factory job creating car parts.”



What’s the app you can’t live without?&nbsp;“Soundcloud.”



How many hours per week do you work now?&nbsp;“168.”



Worst advice you’ve received?&nbsp;“To change my style of music in order to try and be more popular.”



What is your greatest achievement?&nbsp;“I haven’t reached it yet.”



<figure><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fe.infogram.com%2F_%2FVJlSEumS6SG8BTJwF1f6%3Fsrc%3Dembed&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Finfogram.com%2F1px212d9np7620hqn6mkvmplymcn555z5ml&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Finfogram-thumbs-1024.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6d7c7145-09ec-48cb-8ef6-91a0f292ec22.jpg&amp;key=3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=infogram"></iframe></figure>



—



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Lil Baby</h2>



The Atlanta-born emcee is already accumulating princely numbers: His 2018 debut,&nbsp;Harder Than Ever, earned gold certification for sales of more than 500,000 units. He now grosses over $70,000 per tour stop.



—



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Gunna</h2>



The Georgia native got started with the help of Cash Princes alum Young Thug, whose YSL label co-released Gunna’s studio debut&nbsp;Drip Or Drown—which soared to No. 3 on the&nbsp;Billboard&nbsp;charts—in February. His single “Drip Too Hard,” with listmate Lil Baby, earned triple-platinum certification.



—



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Russ</h2>



Five questions with the hip-hop star who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2018/12/07/at-26-hip-hop-star-russ-is-earning-15m-a-yearand-showing-how-to-succeed-in-music-now/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">earned</a>&nbsp;$15 million last year:



Forbes: What was your first job?&nbsp;“Busboy.”



What’s the app you can’t live without?&nbsp;“Uber Eats.”



How many hours per week do you work?&nbsp;“168.”



Worst advice you’ve ever received?&nbsp;“Be realistic.”



What’s your greatest achievement?&nbsp;“Being in a place where I can take care of my family.”Play Video



Russ: How I Maintained Control Over My Music | 30 Under 30 2019| 3:05



—



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Rico Nasty</h2>



“I’ve never heard anything like what comes out of Rico Nasty’s mouth,” says Shiloh. “She’s trap, she’s urban, but she’s also rock with hints of screamo … somebody that creates their own lane like this is bound to make waves for the long run.”



—



<figure><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-32/html/container.html" width="728" height="90"></iframe></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Tierra Whack</h2>



With a quirky tone and thoughtful visuals, the Philadelphia upstart made her major-label debut last year at Interscope with the critically acclaimed&nbsp;Whack World. The social-media-friendly album featured 15 one-minute songs. She earned a Grammy nomination in the Best Music Video category this year for her 2017 single “Mumbo Jumbo.”



—



<figure><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fe.infogram.com%2F_%2FSg6h6E0CozNJv08bzZZB%3Fsrc%3Dembed&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Finfogram.com%2F1pgpd9jj1p6l1yc93266mzpy17iwn0xkww1&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Finfogram-thumbs-1024.s3.amazonaws.com%2F22422677-26f0-4b08-86ea-33f9dfb620fb.jpg&amp;key=3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=infogram"></iframe></figure>



—



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Methodology</h3>



Our list of Hip-Hop’s Cash Princes and Princesses ranks the genre’s top ten recording artists and producers under age 30 in terms of future earning potential. No repeats are allowed. This year, the honorees were selected by a panel of five judges: Nipsey Hussle, the late&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2015/03/31/nipsey-hussle-independent-musics-next-mogul/#4da2eb107219" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2015 Cash Prince</a>&nbsp;who sent in his picks just days ahead of his untimely passing; 30 Under 30 honoree and songwriter Mickey Shiloh; basketball legend and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2018/07/31/how-shaq-became-the-biggest-dj-on-the-planet/#2638d60c2252" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">professional DJ</a>&nbsp;Shaquille O’Neal; and&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;editors Zack O’Malley Greenburg and Natalie Robehmed.



-Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg; Forbes Staff

1920×0-hh

Hip-Hop Cash Princes And Princesses: The Class Of 2019

Last June, when Jay-Z and Beyoncé welcomed twins to their family, they did what many couples do in the wake of a new arrival&#8211;move to a bigger home&#8211;on quite an epic scale. Over the next few months, they shelled out $26 million for an East Hampton mansion and scooped up an $88 million Bel Air estate, adding 21,000 square feet per newborn. That&#8217;s the sort of thing you can do when one partner is a pop demigod and the other is the richest rapper on the planet.
Jay-Z upped his net worth from $810 million to $900 million over the past year, seizing hip-hop&#8217;s cash crown for the first time since Forbes started counting back in 2011. The Brooklyn-born mogul&#8217;s jump is due mostly to the rising value of his interests in Armand de Brignac champagne and D&#8217;Ussé cognac, on top of nine-figure ownership stakes in his Roc Nation empire and Tidal streaming service.
&#8220;We always complain about, &#8216;We don&#8217;t own this, we don&#8217;t own that.&#8217; … Here he is, this man who owns that,&#8221; superproducer Swizz Beatz told me in an interview for my book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Diddy-Jay-Z-Hip-Hops-Multibillion-Dollar/dp/0316316539/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Diddy-Jay-Z-Hip-Hops-Multibillion-Dollar/dp/0316316539/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8">3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z and Hip-Hop&#8217;s Multibillion-Dollar Rise</a>. &#8220;The sky is not the limit: it&#8217;s just a view.&#8221;
Jay-Z, Diddy and Dre are not only the wealthiest hip-hop acts on the planet, but the richest American musicians of any genre. Longtime Forbes Five champ Diddy ranks No. 2 this year despite increasing his fortune slightly in the past 12 months; tepid trends in the vodka and cable TV sectors have affected his interests in Ciroc and Revolt, but heady growth at DeLeón tequila, his joint venture with beverage giant Diageo&#8211;and massive annual earnings totals in recent years&#8211;have kept his net worth trending in the right direction.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2017/12/05/kendrick-lamar-conscious-capitalist/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Kendrick Lamar: The Conscious Capitalist</a>
Dre ranks third with $770 million, creeping upward thanks to the market trends boosting his nine-figure windfall from Apple&#8217;s $3 billion buyout of Beats in 2014. The superproducer is also in line to receive a slug of Apple stock this summer worth well over $100 million; depending on the tech giant&#8217;s share price at the time, he could leapfrog Diddy and Jay-Z when that happens.
After the top three, there&#8217;s a long drop before the fourth and fifth names on the list: Drake and Eminem, tied at an even $100 million apiece. The youngest impresario of the bunch, 31-year-old Drake has earned more than $250 million since 2010, before taxes and spending; an equity stake in Virginia Black whiskey and pricey estates in Toronto, Canada, and Hidden Hills, California, pad his holdings. His inclusion on the Forbes Five represents yet another career goal achieved.
&#8220;If I&#8217;m not on your list this year, I&#8217;d be gravely disappointed,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2013/02/14/drake-making-the-forbes-list-is-my-objective-every-year/#a5e3a5b26c57" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Forbes back in 2013. &#8220;That&#8217;s pretty much my objective every year … other than making good music.&#8221;
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2017/10/13/dj-khaled-rolls-hip-hops-boldest-star-shows-off-major-keys/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: How DJ Khaled Rolls: Hip-Hop&#8217;s Boldest Star Shows Off His Major Keys</a>
Eminem isn&#8217;t known as a businessman like some of the other names on this list, but he&#8217;s still the best-selling rapper of all time and moved more albums in the U.S. during the 2000s than any act in any genre. Fresh off new album Revival, he makes his Forbes Five debut as former listmember Birdman&#8211;Drake&#8217;s Cash Money Records boss&#8211;slips below the $100 million mark in the wake of some <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/jose-lambiet/article190619084.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/jose-lambiet/article190619084.html">apparent</a> liquidity issues.
To compile the Forbes Five rankings, we follow the same procedures used to calculate our <a href="https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">list of the world&#8217;s billionaires</a> (our annual update arrives Tuesday): valuing major assets, poring over financial documents, and speaking with analysts, attorneys, managers, other industry players and, in some cases, the moguls themselves.
So who will be the first hip-hop star to reach the billion-dollar mark? Trends in the spirits world could continue to play a key role for Jay-Z and Diddy. After the furious rise of vodka in the first part of this decade, fueled largely by flavored variants like those of Ciroc, the market has shifted towards cognac, whiskey and tequila.
&#8220;D&#8217;Ussé fits right in there,&#8221; says Eric Schmidt, Director of Alcohol Research at Beverage Marketing Corporation. &#8220;I think DeLeón is poised for growth … it could one day be the next Patrón, but it&#8217;s a long road.&#8221;
Jay-Z, meanwhile, shouldn&#8217;t be slacking off anytime soon: though he and Beyoncé bought their East Hampton abode outright, according to public records, their $88 million Bel Air mansion comes with a $52.8 million mortgage. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg</a>, FORBES STAFF

The Forbes Five: Hip-Hop’s Wealthiest Artists 2018

Kendrick Lamar: The Conscious Capitalist

As DJ Khaled careers through the midday traffic clogging New York&#8217;s Columbus Circle &#8211; one hand on the wheel of a black Rolls-Royce Dawn convertible, the other raising an iPhone to stream his exploits via Snapchat &#8211; he lays out the aggressively optimistic, blustery, motivational, tautological and oddly compelling philosophy that guides his vehicular preferences and his life in general.
&#8220;You can want a Hyundai, if that&#8217;s what you want. Me, I want a Rolls-Royce,&#8221; he explains. &#8220;I want the drop-top Dawn. I want a Wraith with stars on the roof. I want Phantoms with footrests to massage my toes. That&#8217;s what I want, and that&#8217;s because we the best.&#8221;
As the car pulls up to a stoplight, Khaled looks back at his phone. &#8220;Forbes magazine wants to talk to Billy,&#8221; he enthuses, using his latest self-assigned nickname, meant to signal his billionaire ambitions and music-chart prowess. &#8220;Billboard Billy!&#8221;
I gently note that the light has turned green.
&#8220;I was ready, my brother, I was ready,&#8221; he says, lowering his phone. &#8220;So where we going?&#8221;
He already knows, of course. We&#8217;re off to go car shopping at the Porsche and Bugatti dealerships a little farther downtown. Khaled&#8217;s career, meanwhile, is going the opposite direction: all the way up. His last two albums, Major Key, in 2016, and this year&#8217;s Grateful, have both gone to No. 1, thanks to collaborations with Drake, Rihanna and Justin Bieber. He also owns several businesses named after his We the Best catchphrase, including a record label, a publishing company and a headphone line. He collects six-figure nightly fees for DJ gigs and millions more from deals with Mentos, Champ Sports, Apple and other brands -arranged by himself and Jay-Z, who signed on as his manager last year after seeing Khaled become a social media superstar with more than 15 million followers across Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter.
&#8220;What we are seeing from Khaled now is really who he is; the cameras are just capturing his natural state,&#8221; Jay-Z wrote in a section of Khaled&#8217;s new bestselling book, The Keys. &#8220;That&#8217;s why the world is so drawn to him.&#8221;
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/uncategorized/2017/09/28/worlds-highest-paid-hip-hop-artists-2017/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The World&#8217;s Highest-Paid Hip-Hop Artists 2017</a>
With that success comes scads of cash &#8211; $24 million over the past 12 months alone &#8211; more than enough to nurture his Rolls-Royce habit. Khaled&#8217;s collection, spread across homes in Los Angeles and Miami, includes a 2017 convertible Dawn like the one he&#8217;s piloting today (&#8220;I always want to feel like I&#8217;m at home&#8221;), a 2017 Arabian-blue Wraith coupe (&#8220;It&#8217;s my everyday car&#8221;), a 2016 metallic-black Ghost sedan (&#8220;I sit in the back seat&#8230; that&#8217;s when I&#8217;m my business&#8221;) and the recently unveiled $430,000 Phantom VIII, which claims to have the &#8220;most silent&#8221; interior of any car in the world (&#8220;I&#8217;m gonna be one of the first to get it,&#8221; Khaled says proudly).
&#8220;What I love about Rolls-Royce is, you look at me, it&#8217;s like you&#8217;re looking at a Rolls-Royce,&#8221; says the bearded, barrel-chested 41-year-old Khaled. &#8220;It&#8217;s just powerful; it&#8217;s smooth; it&#8217;s iconic.&#8221;
It&#8217;s that sort of unbridled self-assurance that has fueled his steady rise and enabled his late-blooming trajectory. Born Khaled Mohamed Khaled in 1975 to Palestinian immigrants in New Orleans, he grew up in Florida, where he started DJ&#8217;ing and selling mixtapes as a teenager. Employing the fake-it-till-you-make-it ethos often celebrated in the hip-hop world, he made a down payment on a new $30,000 red BMW M3 in 1991, tricking it out with a state-of-the-art speaker system.
One day, Khaled was cruising around Miami when he started to smell smoke. He pulled over and got out of the car, thinking one of his amps might have blown. It was a good thing he did: The car soon caught on fire, he says as we weave through midtown in the Dawn. (&#8220;DJ Khaled, we the best, baby!&#8221; screams a passerby. &#8220;That&#8217;s right, we the best!&#8221; he replies, barely interrupting the flow of his story.) &#8220;The car blew up,&#8221; he continues. &#8220;No lie. Like a movie.&#8221;
For his next car purchase, Khaled scaled back considerably, buying a used Honda Civic for about $12,000. By 1995, he was gaining traction as a DJ and producer, opening for legends like Notorious B.I.G. and Nas, and he soon got himself back into an M3 &#8211; this time a blue one. &#8220;Even if I couldn&#8217;t make the payment, I just had the mentality &#8211; I gotta be in that whip,&#8221; he says. &#8220;Image is everything.&#8221;
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/cover-story/2017/05/01/top-10-bankable-artists-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The 10 Most Bankable Artists In Africa</a>
For Khaled, that meant retiring cringeworthy aliases like Terror Squadian and Arab Attack and settling on his current nom de DJ. After hosting radio shows in Miami in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he released his first solo record, Listennn &#8230; the Album, in 2006, featuring appearances by stars such as Lil Wayne, Kanye West and John Legend. The album underscored Khaled&#8217;s primary talent &#8211; not singing, rapping or even producing, but bringing together an ensemble cast of popular performers &#8211; and went to No. 12 on the charts.
Khaled celebrated by buying a Bentley coupe and then almost immediately upgraded to a baby blue Rolls-Royce Phantom, which cost him $400,000. He supported his new hobby by churning out platinum singles such as the 2010 earworm &#8220;All I Do Is Win,&#8221; which featured T-Pain, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris and Rick Ross.
&#8220;My Phantom was the hottest Phantom in the game,&#8221; he says. &#8220;After that, I didn&#8217;t stop. I&#8217;ve been Rolls-Royce ever since.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_33854" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-33854" class=" wp-image-33854" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/DJ-Khaled-and-son-e1507883409850-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" />DJ Khaled sits in the back seat of one of his three Rolls Royces with his son Asahd. (Photo by Ethan Pines for Forbes)</div>
Khaled says the reason he loves the brand is that he feels equally comfortable driving or being driven in a Rolls; he usually has a driver operate his Ghost and pilots the Wraith himself. And, yes, there are stars on the ceiling; contrary to popular belief, it&#8217;s a standard option, not a custom request.
While some ultraluxury brands have alienated hip-hop&#8217;s new elite (in 2006, one of the executives behind Cristal champagne famously told The Economist, &#8220;What can we do? We can&#8217;t forbid people from buying it,&#8221; prompting a Jay-Z boycott), Rolls-Royce has wisely embraced its popularity among rap stars. The company sometimes provides Khaled with vehicles when he&#8217;s traveling for high-profile events, and Rolls has been rewarded with product placement in his videos and social media feeds.
&#8220;He&#8217;s an enthusiastic, evangelical Rolls-Royce owner,&#8221; says Gerry Spahn, head of communications for the Americas at Rolls-Royce, &#8220;and we&#8217;re thrilled that he wants to be associated with the best of the best.&#8221;
If Khaled&#8217;s automotive preference isn&#8217;t clear from the composition of his collection (his only luxury cars without a Flying Lady on the hood: a Cadillac Escalade and a Range Rover), he makes it clear as we pull up to the Bugatti dealership. He refuses to go inside, despite the fact that we&#8217;d planned test-drives ahead of time. (&#8220;I&#8217;d rather be in a Rolls.&#8221;) After some prodding, he agrees to visit the Porsche showroom next door.
Upon entering, I ask Khaled what he thinks of the mahogany Cayenne E-Hybrid SUV on display. &#8220;What&#8217;s that?&#8221; he inquires. I point to the vehicle next to him and explain that its motor is powered by both gasoline and electricity. His response: &#8220;I don&#8217;t know nothing about it.&#8221; We stroll through the showroom, shifting gazes from a gleaming Panamera 4 sedan to a lean Macan GTS SUV to a menacing 911 GT3 that goes from 0-60 in 3.2 seconds. But he doesn&#8217;t even want to go for a test-drive.
&#8220;I&#8217;m a big boy,&#8221; he says. &#8220;That interior got to be fit for a big boy, you know what I&#8217;m saying? &#8230; Maybe you should buy me one, and I&#8217;ll tell you how I like it after that.&#8221;
The only car Khaled really wants is the one he&#8217;s already ordered: the new Phantom, redesigned for only the eighth time since its debut in 1925. The mansion-on-wheels comes with a 7.5-liter, 563-hp, V12 twin-turbo engine, Eames-chair-inspired seats and even a dashboard &#8220;gallery&#8221; designed to accommodate slivers of bespoke artwork.
For DJ Khaled, though, it&#8217;s not just the physical appointments that inspire his loyalty to Rolls-Royce. The company impressed him, he explains, by sending him a free Rolls-branded child seat when his son, Asahd, was born last winter.
&#8220;When he turns 16,&#8221; Khaled says, &#8220;I&#8217;m getting him a Rolls-Royce out the gate.&#8221; &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg</a>, FORBES STAFF

How DJ Khaled Rolls: Hip-Hop’s Boldest Star Shows Off His Major Keys

Sean “Diddy” Combs got his first job at age 12 delivering newspapers, nestling each delivery inside the screen door of every home instead of tossing it in the front yard. These days, he brings that same attention to detail with products like Ciroc vodka, DeLeon tequila and Aquahydrate water, involving himself in every aspect of the product down to the font of each logo.
“I’ve always understood that if I give the customers my best and service them differently, whether music, clothing or vodka, I’ll get a return on my hard work,” he recently <a href="https://www.forbes.com/100-greatest-business-minds/person/sean-combs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explained</a> to Forbes. Earnings from those brands &#8211; plus proceeds from his Bad Boy Reunion Tour and selling a chunk of his Sean John clothing line for an estimated $70 million &#8211; puts Diddy atop the hip-hop heap once again with total pretax earnings of $130 million in the 12 months to June.
Drake, the world’s most-streamed artist over the past two years takes the No. 2 spot with $94 million. Despite his gaudy recorded music numbers, the Canadian emcee made the bulk of his bucks on the road during his wildly successful Boy Meets World Tour. He also earns millions for shilling Apple, Sprite and Nike. Jay-Z ranks third with earnings of $42 million, and there’s more on the way: this summer he signed a new pact with touring giant Live Nation that will pay him $200 million through the coming decade.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/cover-story/2017/05/01/top-10-bankable-artists-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Top 10 most bankable artists in Africa</a>
Hip-hop’s top 20 acts earned a grand total of $619.5 million last year, up 38% from last year’s $448.5 million total. Even without Diddy’s $70 million windfall, overall earnings are up 22.5%, thanks in large part to hip-hop’s dominance in the burgeoning world of streaming: over the first half of 2017, it&#8217;s the most popular genre in terms of consumption, <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/7964815/hip-hop-power-list-2017" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accounting</a> for a quarter of all digital spins.
Our list reflects this new reality, particularly though the presence of newcomers like Chance the Rapper (No. 5, $33 million) and Lil Yachty (No. 20, $11 million). Though 24-year-old Chance has never sold a physical album, instead distributing his music freely via streaming services, he smartly uses musical ubiquity to cash in on festival gigs and arena dates, as well as deals with brands like Apple and Kit Kat. The 20-year-old Yachty, meanwhile, rode gaudy streaming numbers and 100 live dates to his debut as a Cash King.
Other big names include Kendrick Lamar (No. 6, $30 million), whose new album Damn. came out in April and soared to the top of the charts; the critics&#8217; darling now grosses more than $1 million per tour stop. On the more pop-oriented end of the spectrum is DJ Khaled (No. 9, $24 million), boosted by six-figure DJ gigs and millions in earnings from deals with Champ Sports, Apple, Mentos and others.
“People probably thought I was crazy to just spend my last penny to invest in myself,” Khaled <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2017/09/27/how-dj-khaled-rolls-hip-hops-boldest-star-shows-off-his-major-keys/#2638b34732ee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tells Forbes</a>. “Now it&#8217;s paying off … one thing I learned is some investments might take years to kick in, and they are kicking in.”
<a href="https://www.forbes.com/hip-hop-cash-kings/#49c52a8b5bce" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full Coverage: The World&#8217;s Highest-Paid Hip-Hop Acts 2017</a>
Other notable names on the list include Cash Money Records founder Bryan “Birdman” Williams (No. 12, $20 million), who gets a boost from having three acts in the Top 20: the aforementioned Drake; Nicki Minaj (No. 16, $16 million), the only female rapper on the list; and Lil Wayne (No. 17, $15.5 million).
To create our list, we add up pretax income from touring, record sales, streaming, publishing, merchandise sales, endorsements and other business ventures. Fees for managers, agents and lawyers are not deducted. Earnings are calculated from June 2016 to June 2017 and based on data from Nielsen SoundScan, Pollstar, Songkick, Bandsintown and the RIAA, as well as interviews with inside sources and a handful of the artists themselves.
Meanwhile, the next generation of hip-hop stars &#8211; younger even than Lil Yachty &#8211; is already on the move. Khaled&#8217;s son, Asahd, turns one this fall but already has 1.5 million Instagram followers, closing in on his dad&#8217;s 7.7 million. Says Khaled: &#8220;My son got a Rolls-Royce already&#8230; a Rolls-Royce car seat.&#8221; &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg</a>, FORBES STAFF

The World’s Highest-Paid Hip-Hop Artists 2017

He dreams big yet it all started in a small corner. It was in a corner of the dusty streets of Mafikeng in the North West province of South Africa where he first drew a crowd, in school theater, at the age of six.
He’s broken barriers, filled the 20,000-capacity Dome, in 2015, and this year, he’s pushed it further by attracting around 36,000 fans to Orlando Stadium in Soweto – most football teams fail to do this. He’s proved that nothing you put your mind to do is impossible.
This is Refiloe Maele Phoolo, known as Cassper Nyovest to the world. Rapping is his game.
He steps out of a minibus with his entourage, they stop for a selfie, and I’ve noticed how spruce his style is: a bandana, a R500,000 ($37,000) watch, gold neck chain and all-white outfit. A closer look at Cassper reveals puffy eyes; he is exhausted from back-to-back performances.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5532" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Casper-545-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
Cassper is best known for his hit song, Doc Shebeleza, and his ponytail that he cut off not long ago.
“It kind of made me look like a gimmick; there are certain things that hold you back. When you are animated it makes it too difficult to grow up. It was time to take it off because I am more mature now,” he says.
“I wouldn’t want to be this version of myself forever, I want to get better.”
All of this didn’t come easy.
The 26-year-old was born into a family of teachers, where education was important, yet he doesn’t have a qualification beyond school. He dropped out of school in grade 10, at the age of 16. His parents didn’t approve.
“It was a very emotional part of my life, and theirs as well because they are passionate about education. I sat them down and said look I’m not saying I wanna quit school and sit at the corners and smoke weed and drink my life away. I want to work, on my dream and my purpose,” he says.
Luckily they understood.
“I understand that school is very important, I wouldn’t say that school wasn’t for me but it’s just that my path was a little bit different from the normal life and what my parents thought I would do.”
He had a plan up his sleeve and went to the big city of Johannesburg for music.
“I was signed to a label called Impact Sound under Thabiso Tsotetsi; he didn’t wanna be associated with a child who dropped out of school so he watched from a distance. That’s when HHP, a fellow artist, saw me and we did a song Wamo Tseba Mtho,” says Cassper.
After two years of struggle in Johannesburg, he moved back home.
“My grandmother gave me a mattress because I didn’t have anywhere to sleep and it took a very long time for anything to happen.”
“Nobody cares who you are, people function by the monopoly of those who know each other, pull each other up, it’s not even about talents, it’s about connections and who you know,” says Cassper.
He used his sister’s last R100 ($7.50), meant for a transport fare, to buy himself a return ticket to Johannesburg.
Things started to turn around. Cassper started his career with Childhood Gangsters, a group he started with his friends. When it disbanded, he went to launch his solo career and produced the hits Gusheshe, Malome and Mama I Made It. He also shared stages with international artists Kid Cudi, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Wizkid and Wiz Khalifa.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5534" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Casper-316-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />
The rapper also started his own record label, Family Tree, the same year he released his debut album, Tsholofelo – a taste of sweet success followed by a string of awards.
“Artists get only eight percent of their record sales, [it’s the] industry standard, and 50 percent of their show money. I didn’t want that, I wanted 100 percent of everything,” he says.
His favorite line: “God is good all the time and all the time God is good.”
It hasn’t always been good for Cassper who was involved in a public fight with fellow South African artist Kiernan Jordan Forbes, known as AKA, which led to both artists recording diss tracks about each other. Much to the public’s surprise, after Cassper’s show at Orlando Stadium, a picture went viral on social media of the two artists congratulating each other.
“Kiernan and I have been cool for a while now. We didn’t even know what we were fighting for and it didn’t make sense anymore. We were just talking how the fight was pathetic and it was over and we had to move on. We couldn’t believe how far we had made it in our careers. Every time we see each other we greet, so that picture for me wasn’t like the moment everybody made it out to be.”
“Kids really look up to us and they would do anything and everything that we do. If I’m always in the paper for doing some dumb stuff, what am I teaching them?” he says.
A few months ago, Cassper was accused by his idol, Kanye West, of stealing his floating stage idea. The rapper denies this.
“I did that stage last year at the Dome before Kanye did his show. How could I possibly have stolen his idea? I just think that it’s great that my idol knows my name and we’ll have something to talk about the day we meet. For me, it was a compliment no matter how it came out.”
Cassper has been through a lot of bad publicity in his career; he says negativity is a thing of the past.
“I can’t deal with fights. I just become a person I’m not,” he says.
Cassper says getting to the top is the easy part; staying there is harder.
“The hardest part is maintaining the same spot. In South Africa, people move on very quickly and they forget and what you have done in your career doesn’t matter in South Africa.”
His worst fear is to be forgotten.
“I don’t ever want to get to a place where nobody knows who I am, where I’m not celebrated  and people don’t love me as much as they do right now, I don’t ever wanna get to that place.”
Even though Cassper fell short of filling up the 40,000-seat stadium by just a few thousand it did not dampen his sense of accomplishment and musical bravery. In 2017, he’s looking to fill up the 94,000-seat FNB stadium.
“At the Dome I lost R3 million ($220,000) but the concept was not to make money but to shift culture. The value was not in money but an investment… I want to get to a point where an artist can walk away with R8 million ($600,000) a show.”
“South African hip-hop is the biggest music. We are African hip-hop,” says Cassper.
Love him or hate him, what is clear is that Cassper has shaken up the music industry.
“Maybe I should start acting broke now coz my success turned the game into a cold heart”. These are the lyrics from his popular hit Malome.
“Me and my dad never have one-on-ones anymore” are lyrics directed at his father who separated with his mother, at the same time when his 19-year-old brother died in an accident.
“When my brother passed away, it was a sad time for my family and it was also the first time someone from my immediate family died. Then my parents separated so, at the age of 15, I had to grow up and be a man of the house,” says Cassper.
According to Cassper, South African artists are far from famous.
“The only guy who’s actually gaining traction is Black Coffee; he has a following that’s growing all over the world. But when I travel the world I perform for mostly South Africans. I just had my first show in Germany, for Germans, who liked my music. Before that we’d create our own shows.”
“As much as we’re making it look like we’re flourishing out there, in the US, we are very far. But we’re fighting and I think our time will come.”
He is too humble to offer any estimation of how much he has banked this year.
“When I started to make money I mentioned it too much to my fans and then I became the guy with a lot of money. I’ve learned that it creates a wall between me and my crowd because they don’t see me as one of their own anymore. It’s a big mistake that I made at a very early stage in my career,” he says.
“I’ve also lost too much but it happens to a lot of us who don’t know what to do with money. I posted everything I did and everything I bought.”
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5535" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Casper-385-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />
According to reports, the rapper makes R120,000 ($9,000) a show, excluding accommodation, flight and his entourage.
One of his challenges is getting his music played on radio; he asked his 685,000 followers on Twitter to help him get his new song Abashwe played.
“Please help me push it. I still don’t understand why I don’t get radio airplay so I need my fans to request Abashwe. Hope that will help.”
He’s got this far without radio; imagine where he’ll get to if his songs are on the airwaves.

The  Rebel’s Rapper Riposte

He is two hours late for the interview. As we contemplate calling it quits, he speeds in with his Volkswagen Scirocco. Dressed in black pants and camouflage coat, he dashes into the changing room to prepare for the photoshoot. King. Genius. Irritating. Self-obsessed. Arrogant. Jerk. All words that have been used to describe the self-proclaimed South African “prince” of hip hop, Kiernan Jordan Forbes, alternatively known as AKA.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-4271" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/CTP5196-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />
“A publication wrote an article about me with a headline ‘SA’s crowned prince’ and I thought it has a nice ring to it. What I learned in this industry is that you are what you say you are. If you say something enough times, eventually people pick up on it. So I started calling myself the prince of hip hop and now a lot of people do too,” he says.
In July, he had just become a father; his eyes are slightly puffy from sleepless nights yet he shrugs it off for the shoot and interview. He doesn’t come across as the self-obsessed, arrogant jerk some fans make him out to be. Showing his humble side he adds that he doesn’t call himself the king of hip hop, out of respect for more experienced artists.
“Wait until I get another two albums and more wins under my belt, then I might start calling myself the King.”
“Competition dead and buried in the dust I’m like the legendary Brenda Fassie…” The lyrics to his hit All Eyes On Me is a salvo full of intent.
AKA has the confidence of a superstar and success to match. His personal life, just like every other celebrity, is daily bread for South African tabloid newspapers. The buzz is more than justified. He did not break the internet, but, five years into his career, he has awards from Channel O, Metro FM, MTV African Music Awards (MAMA) and South African Music Awards (SAMA); including a coveted Black Entertainment Television (BET) nomination for the Best International Act: Africa category, and many more.
“I don’t belong exclusively to South Africa anymore. I am making a transition to belonging to the continent. I was so excited about the BET nomination because we have been working hard. Yes, we have won the SAMAs, yes we have won Metro FM awards, yes, we have won the Channel O awards, but the one thing we hadn’t done was get a nomination for a BET. We have done a lot of good work on the continent and it was great to get recognition for it.”
The rapper has more than 777,000 followers on Twitter.
“We are excited about AKA’s growth prospects in Africa and beyond. His unique approach to producing hits sets him apart from the average rap artist; this is an artist with not only innovative creative sense but with the ambition for international stardom,” Zakes Bantwini, Executive Head of A&amp;R for Sound African recordings, reportedly said when AKA signed the deal with Sony.
Born in Cape Town, he moved to Johannesburg when he was six. As a child, he developed a love for music while listening to records with his father, whom he says gave him a broad appreciation.
He started out in a teenage hip hop crew called Entity in 2002 which was nominated in 2005 for Best African Hip Hop in the KORA Awards. As Entity disbanded in 2006; AKA went off to study sound engineering only to drop out so he could brand himself as a legend. He ventured into a solo career with early hits like Mistakes, In My Walk and Do It; the latter making it to number one on the South African 5FM Top 40.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-4272" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/CTP5259-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />
“I love AKA. He is the king of rap. His style is international, making it easy for him to collaborate with any international artist if he ever wishes to. His flaws are also massive but he has mega talent,” says South African fan, Mthokozisi Dumani.
Public relations company owner, Allegro Dinkwanyane, says, “AKA is a very talented artist that&#8217;s contributing to the growth of South African hip hop internationally. Personally, I think Kiernan is a much nicer person than AKA. I guess it&#8217;s a persona that works well for him as a rapper. Arrogance aside, I&#8217;d definitely rank him in my top three South African hip hop artists, but still an album or two away from being ‘the prince of South African hip hop’.”
“I like his music but I don’t understand the guy. His character is weird. Sometimes you would think he has some sort of disorder because he never lets things go. When something happens, he always wants to have a say. He needs to learn to be humble and let things go,” says Zimbabwean fan, Mercy Sibanda.
“I think AKA is the prince of African rap but his arrogance takes away from his talent. Yes, he’s good at what he does but he doesn’t need to constantly toot his own horn,” adds hip hop fan, Lebogang Mathebula.
Little has changed in his character. The 27-year-old says he has always been a show-off who speaks his mind. Fans scolded him for his Twitter rants and controversial views. At the coveted annual Durban July horse racing event, AKA kicked a fan off stage; on a separate occasion he said he will not take a photo with anyone who calls themselves a fan, yet don’t own his album; he does not open for international acts in South Africa and the list goes on.
“I don’t like it when people call it a rant. It’s not a rant, I am just expressing myself. If I wasn’t me and my personality wasn’t what it is, my music wouldn’t be what it is. You can’t separate my music from my personality. Without the personality my music wouldn’t exist,” he says.
He claims he has never tried to be controversial, as the truth is controversial enough.
“I have always been like this, before the fame and money; I have always been someone who speaks the truth. I told myself that when I make it, I will do things on my own terms. I try to be myself as much as possible. Most of the time it works for me and sometimes it doesn’t.”
“If you don’t own my album, how can you be a fan? You can afford a smartphone to take a photo with but you can’t afford R100 ($7.50) for my album? Real fans support the artists. If you come to me, you want a piece of me or my time, so why can’t you buy my album?” he says.
“The country has never seen anything like me; someone as expressive, as blunt, as honest and dedicated as I am. Everything with me is intense,” he says.
According to AKA, thinking success is easy can be dangerous.
“When you start out, you work hard and say you can’t wait for the day when you are successful. When you finally get there, you realize getting there is not hard, staying there is.”
African hip hop and Afrobeats are everywhere on the radio these days. Much of that is attributed to African artists touring the world and making their presence known. AKA has toured some parts of Europe and has worked with Nigerian stars Ice Prince and Burna Boy, from whom he has learned a thing or two.
“Nigerians work much harder than the average South African artist. They are much more unapologetic, that’s why sometimes I feel like I belong there. [In] Nigeria, artists are encouraged to be superstars, yet in South Africa being a superstar is frowned upon.”
“We love to be humble people, and there is nothing wrong with being humble. Humility is the greatest source of our strength, but also, the great source of our weakness. In Nigeria and the US they are told to be great and in South Africa we are told to be humble which makes us meek, subservient and easily taken advantage of,” he says.
Although he has opened for Kanye West, Snoop Lion, Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, Big Sean and Kendrick Lamar on tour, AKA swears he will never open for an international artist in South Africa.
“Promoters treat us differently from Kanye West and all these other artists. They get better sound, better money and better treatment, yet we would be performing in our own cities. Promoters say we should do it for exposure but exposure to whom? These are our people who know us, so why should we tolerate being ill-treated?”
According to AKA, South Africa needs to redress legacies of apartheid. He believes African artists should be respected like international artists.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-4274" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/CTP5168-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />
“We still have that mentality of saying ‘how can AKA and Drake be on the same stage?’ We need to address our own self-worth. Apartheid left in us the idea that we are not worth more and we need to change that,” he says.
AKA is not a hugely sentimental man, but a glimpse of his softer side shines on social media when he talks of his daughter Kairo.
“It took a while for me to figure out how to change a nappy as Kiernan insisted on doing it himself all the time. He would wake up at night during our stay at the hospital and get up to change the baby’s nappy. I remember thinking that I really needed to learn, but it felt good knowing that he was so hands on,” says Kairo’s mother, DJ Zinhle, on her blog.
When Zinhle had her baby shower she says AKA “popped in to say hi to the ladies, he walked in carrying the most adorable Melissa and Doug Giraffe, with a big pink satin bow tied around her neck”.
Since the baby, AKA says he only sleeps for three to four hours a day; instead of six.
“There is no balance in my life. I still need to find it. I am mentally tired, physically tired, I need a holiday, I need a break but there is just no time. My life is exploding, I am having a baby; I’m on tour and have interviews.”
Although reluctant to share his net worth, the 27-year-old divulges that he makes more than R100,000 ($7,500) from performing each month. He also has income from TV shows, and various business ventures. He designed a range of headphones, Bluetooth speakers and clothing items which are sold nationwide.
“I want to make sure my future is secure. By the time I hang the mic I should be able to provide a great life for my children and their children and children’s children.”
As the saying goes, “the man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones”. You could argue AKA is doing this. You can also argue he has had more than his fair share of stones thrown at him. No matter, AKA wants to be the king of African hip hop.

Tag: Hip-hop

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA