Albums like AmeriKKKas Most Wanted and Death Certificate still stand as some of raps most provocative works and when he wasnt sharpening his pro-Black commentary against the systemic racism crippling the community, he was equally adept at balancing tongue-in-cheek insights with feel-good storytelling, as on his timeless 1993 hit It Was a Good Day.. ), among the catchiest singles in hip-hop history. Jonathan Lyndale Kirk released his third studio album, Blame It on Baby, in April 2020, which debuted atop the Billboard 200 and produced his highest-charting song, Rockstar featuring Roddy Ricch. Publishing: $398K The late Juice WRLD displaced Drake as the top on-demand audio streaming artist in 2020, but Drizzy remains the No. Cole is one of the highest-paid rappers in the world. 1 on the Hot 100, helping DaBaby rank ninth in combined streams audio, video and programmed with almost 4.8 billion and eighth in streaming royalties with $7.1 million. BILLIE EILISH. Big Daddy Kane was an early rap star archetype thanks to his show-stealing performances in the late 1980s. Pink Floyd $8.8 million. Around that time, Wayne joined The Hot Boys with fellow rappers Juvenile, B.G., and Turk and they topped Billboards Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in 1999 with Guerilla Warfare. Luke Combs $9.2 million17. With a collection of brilliant solo albums and one of the most unmistakable styles in hip-hop history, Ghostface Killah is arguably the most accomplished rapper within the Wu-Tang Clan, which already has its own stake on any GOAT rap group list. The top ten earners of 2021 banked more than $1 billion, nearly double their pre-pandemic 2019 haul. Tm top bi ht v album ca Self-Paid Fabo, bao gm Trapstar, Trust Nobody, v.v. 1 on the Billboard 200. Touring: $0. 2022s Its Almost Dry earned the rapper his firstNo. Grande was 2019s No. In a year with little touring, hip-hop/R&B acts dominated . Meths total package of street-savvy raps and heartthrob sex appeal made him a dominant force in the 90s and 2000s: he could carry his weight with his Wu brothers, spit muscular rhymes alongside Notorious B.I.G. Sales: $126K Lil Uzi Vert $9.5 million16. Lindsey Buckingham. From battle rhyming (Shut the Eff Up-Hoe) to heartfelt storytelling (Poor Georgie), Lyte roared into the 90s racking up three gold singles most notably the Puffy Combs-produced Cold Rock a Party (1996), featuring an then-up-and-coming Missy Elliott. The Wu-Tang Clan member possesses it all: unmistakable voice, impenetrable flow, witty rhymes, dark sense of humor, charm and good looks that also translated into Hollywood success. 17, $9.1M), Future (No. Hip-hop artists remain music's top money makers. Publishing: $1.8M The single spent seven nonconsecutive weeks at No. Chuck held everyones feet to the fire: crack dealers in the Black community (Night of the Living Baseheads); purveyors of systemic racism (Fight the Power); a ravenous press (Welcome to the Terror) and greedy corporations (Shut Em Down). He earned an additional $2.2 million from publishing and $253,000 from two concerts. Lyrics Quiz. 9 on the Hot 100. 22 ($8.2 million), Roddy Ricch at No. Pitbull's early life Amando Christian Prez was born in Miami, Florida on 15th January 1981 to Cuban immigrant parents. While the pandemic had a disastrous effect on touring revenue, it lifted other royalty streams as music fans listened to more recorded music from the relative safety of their homes, through radio, streaming platforms or the turntable setups they bought with the money they ordinarily would have shelled out for concerts and festivals. But few rappers, if any, have repped the Bay longer or stronger than E-40. A defining byproduct of raps blog era, J. Cole made a name for himself with celebrated mixtapes like 2007s The Come Up, 2009s The Warm Up and 2010s Friday Night Lights. 10 in physical sales with 334,000 copies scanned in 2020 47% of those purchases were in the higher-priced vinyl format. Touring: $0. Cole Type Beat on procrastination (broke). He also went platinum with all five of his 2010s albums the last three (2014 Forest Hills Drive, 4 Your Eyez Only and KOD) with no features, of course. Five No. The Best Rappers with Lil in Their Names, Ranked. Before Ice Cube, born OShea Jackson, became a Hollywood heavyweight and basketball league owner, he wrote brilliant and incisive verses for his N.W.A groupmates (Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Arabian Prince, DJ Yella and MC Ren) and himself on Straight Outta Compton, the groups classic 1988 debut. Publishing: $435K 49. Radio likes Combs as well: He racked up the third-most programmed web radio plays (804.4 million) and finished seventh in terrestrial radio airplay with almost 1.5 million spins. After Bun proved his chops as a solo artist with Pimp C behind bars, UGK reunited to craft its magnum opus with 2007s Billboard 200-topping Underground Kingz, released just months before Pimp Cs death at 33 in 2007. 22 Ed Sheeren. He also rolled deep with the Juice Crew, Marley Marls Queens-based squad whose members included MC Shan, Biz Markie, Kool G Rap and Roxanne Shante. Ice-Ts harrowing 6 N the Mornin (1986) forever stamped the West Coast on the hip-hop map. 2 Money Maker thanks to a world tour, but without any live dates in 2020, her rank was achieved by strong streaming numbers largely due to her fourth-quarter release, positions. Check the list below: 1. Thee Album became an instant hip-hop classic with its early use of funk samples and hilarious punchlines. The list includes Drake, Nicki Minaj, Eminem, JAY-Z, and more. Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. 3-peaking Hot 100 hit I Feel for You a pivotal early crossover moment between the hip-hop and R&B worlds. He has definitely earned his place as one of the world's highest-paid rappers, with annual earnings of $21 million in 2020. Maybe there are other rappers who could claim to match Jay at his peak. Hip Hop's highest earners of 2021 have been announced, and it appears the global COVID-19 pandemic . Last years rank: In 2020, hip-hop came on strong because its artists often have a strong streaming game. That dollar total was also boosted by fans preference for vinyl copies of the bands albums, which accounted for 72% of physical sales. Looking at revenue streams, touring income, based on Billboard Boxscore data, fell tenfold, from $779 million in 2019 to $79 million and accounted for just 20% of artists collective 2020 take-home pay. Over a slew of genre-bending albums (Pink Friday, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, The Pinkprint) and killer guest verses (most famously on Kanye Wests Monster), Nicki has defended her title for over a decade, with incredibly animated flows and alter egos from the soft-spoken, pink-haired Harajuku Barbie to the volatile Roman Zolanski with the British cockney accent. Streaming: $431K His catalog reigns supreme, especially in the late 2000s and 2010s, as he doled out gems such as Trilla, Deeper Than Rap and God Forgives, I Dont. 7 in that revenue category. 2 with $23.2 million, most of which came from streaming ($8.1 million) and touring ($12.4 million) before he had to shut it down due to the pandemic. While her 2.37 billion in combined streams is the main reason she made the cut, she also ranked at No. Last years rank: No. He also remains a streaming giant with $8.1 million in overall royalties, plus an additional $2 million from publishing. Shes also the No. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. Publishing: $1.53M They also moved more than 2.6 million digital downloads. When he partnered with fellow Long Island native Eric B., they became the mighty DJ and MC combo Eric B. 5 ranking in overall streaming royalties ($8.1million). Last year brought Lamars final TDE album and latest addition to his conscious rap repertoire, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. 1, topping the chart for three weeks Wayne successfully exploded onto the mainstream, setting the stage for rap hopefuls and fellow Billboard all-time chart stars Drake and Nicki Minaj, both of whom Wayne helped develop into the global icons they are today by way of his Young Money/Cash Money record label. Three of them Drake, YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Lil Baby placed in the top 10. Touring: $1M. Touring: $0. 1. Last years rank: 7 in overall sales royalties with $3.7 million. Last years rank: No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and finished 2020 as the No. Streaming: $5.7M Tour revenue, after the managers cut, equals 34% of an acts Boxscore. "Things got bigger and betterGod is great," says DJ Khaled, who ranks No. Touring: $0. As the No. Other key performance drivers for the beerbongs & bentleys artist include his No. 5 in digital track sales (close to 1 million). 24, $7.4M), Rod Wave (No. Streaming royalty rates applied were 22% for new hit artists; 33% for superstar artists, 46% for heritage artists and 74% for artists that own their master recordings. Last years rank: Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox, A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry. All the above sales and streaming royalty rates then had a 4% producers fee deducted. Sales: $3.7M 5. More seminal, million-plus-selling albums followed, such as Tha Doggfather, Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told; R&G (Rhythm and Gangsta): The Masterpiece and Tha Last Meal as Snoop moved on from the G-Funk era to make albums with No Limit, score crossover hits with The Neptunes and even become an early adopter of Auto-Tune. In 2020, Forbes reported that the English singer-songwriter received $64 million from his singing activities. Sales: $5.2M 14 ($9.7 million), DaBaby at No. Doja Cat's debut album, The High Note, was released in 2020 and debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart. The Brooklyn teens opening salvo was I Cram to Understand U (Sam), a song that spoke about the perils of falling in love with a crack addict. A 10% managers fee was deducted from artist and publishing recorded-music royalty pools. 11 ($10.4M), while Eminem holds down the No. 1 album, My Turn, the Atlanta native raked in $9.1 million in streams and $2.2 million in publishing. Publishing: $2.4K Streaming royalties consist of on-demand audio and video streams plus estimated royalties from programmed satellite, cable and webcasting services like SiriusXM and Music Choice. 1 twice on the Billboard 200, while all six of the groups albums were certified either gold or platinum. He was also the beneficiary of almost 1.7 million terrestrial radio spins, which made him the fifth-most-played artist in that format. The late rapper continues to be an inspiration to waves of rappers, particularly Bronx-bred MCs like Fat Joe, Remy Ma and Cardi B. Touring: $11.4M. 8 in track sales (872,000). Despite the COVID-19 pandemic curtailing chances for any artists to tour in 2020, several big-name rappers still made money through streaming and other means last year. The list breaks down to 22 contemporary artists and 18 heritage artists. Eight out of the top 10 artists according to the Nielsen Music mid-year report, are rappers. 2 on the Billboard 200 in April and land eight tracks on the Hot 100. Doubling as one of gangsta raps foundational platforms, the album featured the controversial anthems Fuck Tha Police and Gangsta Gangsta, and was certified triple-platinum despite minimal radio or MTV promotion. Kid Rock, Detroit rapper Esham and Record Time's Mike Himes at the fighting for a name on the scrappy Detroit hip-hop scene of the '90s, . They accounted for close to 20% of his 4.1 billion combined streaming plays. And he hasnt gone more than four years without releasing an album since 1993. Another hip-hop artist who shines in the streaming format, Lil Uzi Vert ranked fifth in both audio streams and combined streams with 4.4 billion and close to 5 billion, respectively, fueled by the March 2020 release of Eternal Atake, which led to him becoming only the third artist to simultaneously chart 20 songs on the Hot 100, 18 of them from the new album. Method Man is hip-hops version of create-a-player perfection. In 2022, he relaunched the Rock the Bells Festival in Queens, which included performances from Rick Ross, The Diplomats, Ice Cube and more. #4 of 97. Publishing: $1.6M The pandemic interrupted Joels quasi-monthly residency at Madison Square Garden, cutting the $23.2 million he took home from those shows in 2019 to $2.5 million in 2020. LL Cool J signed with Def Jam Records as its first artist in 1984 and released I Need a Beat from his studio debut, Radio, produced entirely by Rick Rubin. He struck special chemistry with Wu compatriot Raekwon when the two adopted prominent roles on each others classic 90s debuts, Ironman and Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, respectively. the year's most popular r&b/hip-hop songs, ranked by streaming activity from digital music sources tracked by luminate, radio airplay audience impressions as provided by luminate and sales data as . Eve - $10 Million. One of hip-hops pioneering polymaths, T.I. Streaming: $5.5M When touring is in full bloom, heritage rockers, country artists and jam bands dominate Money Makers because of their concert grosses. This year, the group almost doubled that number. KRS-One is also battle-tested: 1987s The Bridge Is Over, recorded in response to MC Shans The Bridge, is one of the most respected (and referenced) diss tracks of all time. Streaming: $3.7M 14. Sales: $185K A serial entrepreneur and activist, Snoop Dogg brought his career full-circle by purchasing his alma mater Death Row in 2022. After a disappointing debut effort with 2001s Im Serious, T.I. The star-studded set was executive produced by Dreamville. For measurement, the magazine used pretax earningsbefore deducting fees for agents, managers or lawyers. Known for his versatility, Ed Sheeren's cross-genre success has brought him to the top. (The genre dates back to 1973, when DJ Kool Herc first set up his two turntables to rock a Bronx party.) While Kims movie idol looks and provocative fashion sense commanded eyes, her gruff delivery and punchy rhymes brought fear and respect from rival MCs, as evidenced by her searing features on Bad Boy classics like The LOXs Money, Power & Respect and Diddys Its All About the Benjamins.. Streaming: $939.5K Its also no surprise that the dearth of live revenue led to a precipitous decline in the paychecks of musics top earners, who collectively took home $387 million in 2020, down from $969 million in 2019. Other Hip Hop figures include Future at 22 with $8.2 million Roddy Ricch at 24 with $7.4 million, Rod Wave at 25 with $7.4 million, and Kanye West at 30 at $6.6 million. Sales: $119K He came close to ranking in the top 10 for sales royalties with 435,000 physical albums scanned that year 266,000 of them vinyl albums. Name a subject covered by your favorite rapper, and Scarface probably addressed it first. Some of the names on the list are expected . Last years rank: Streaming: $2.97M 4 in physical album sales after moving 517,000 copies of their recordings. Her 2009 mixtape Beam Me Up Scotty established her as a lyrical powerhouse, shortly before she emerged as the First Lady of Young Money, solidifying the labels ineffable trinity of chart-conquering rap beasts with Lil Wayne and Drake. The classic psych-rockers ranked even higher in the sales royalties category No. 25, $7.37M), and Kanye West (No. Like Roddy Ricchs, Waves video streams were particularly robust 793.5 million, the fifth-highest in the category. 31, and then charted with his own single, South of the Border, featuring Camila Cabello and Cardi B, which hit No. Touring: $4.2M. 1 albums well into the 2010s. Last years rank: Dr. Dre would be the first to tell you that he is not a traditional MC. Last years rank: However, the Port Arthur native born Bernard James Freeman twangy flow ended up being far more influential than his initial underground career aspirations. Lil Uzi Vert. Last years rank: No. . Earnings of the world's highest earning rappers and hip-hop artists 2019 . Further showcasing his versatility, the rapper detoured into reggae as Snoop Lion on 2013s Reincarnated, before reclaiming his Snoop Dogg persona for 2018s Bible of Love, which debuted at No. 9 spot in that category. That gave the band a $2.7 million touring payday. Earning 10 Grammy nods for Miseducation, Hill won five, including best new artist and album of the year. They also placed No .7 in publishing royalties ($2.4 million) because the original members wrote all of their songs. Last years rank: He is one of the highest-paid rappers and his net worth is around $100 million. Latifahs subsequent jump into Hollywood proved to be just as impressive, earning accolades for her television work (Living Single) and an Oscar nod (the 2002 musicalChicago), and making her oneof the first MCs with the star power to prove how deeply a rapper could become embedded in American pop culture, even outside of the world of hip-hop. Queen, which owns its masters, ranked second in sales royalties with $5.3 million thanks, in part, to the 2020 rerelease of its $500-plus limited-edition colored vinyl Studio Collection box set of the bands 15 studio albums. has earned three Grammys andseven top five Billboard 200 albums and forged a successful film and TV career. Last years rank: Additionally, he earned $126,000 in sales and $129,000 in touring before the pandemic. Coles story is well-known: Hov signed him to Roc Nation as its first artist in 2009 after he garnered attention with Lights Please and dropped some blistering guest verses (Wales Beautiful Bliss, Kanye Wests Looking for Trouble). Pandemic-induced isolation led to Bad Bunnys most successful year yet, yielding three albums, including the best-selling Latin album in the United States and Spotifys most globally streamed album of 2020, YHLQMDLG. 6 on last years list. 1. Streaming: $3.48M Revenue from merchandising, synchronization and sponsorship and livestream concerts is not included. The following royalty rates were used: The album and track sales rate is 22% of retail revenue. Publishing: $1.8M The embattled rapper finished at No. Prior to that in 2016, Mane scored his first Hot 100 No. Sales: $970K Down to earth and humble, Cole possesses a passion that pulsates throughout his raps and beats. & Rakim, producing classic albums like 1987s Paid in Full and 1988s Follow the Leader with eternal singles like Eric B. Sales: $5.3M Where he really shone, though, was on terrestrial radio: Bieber was the top artist in the category with almost 2.4 million plays. E-40s contributions, including his 2006 top 10 rap hit and hyphy movement anthem Tell Me When to Go, helped bring the Bay Area into the hip-hops mainstream.