Ya Heard: Forbes ranks hip-hop’s ‘Cash Kings’

Dennis Winn/Columnist
Published: August 21, 2008

"Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false, and the false with the true."

—Martin Luther King, Jr.

Forbes Magazine recently released what could be the best news 50 Cent has received in the past 12 months. The "strawberry shake man" recently topped Forbes's 2008 list of "Hip-Hop Cash Kings."

Raking in an incredible $150 million last year, 50 may finally have something to brag about. With all the lackluster album sales as of late for the G-Unit boss, banking more than Jay-Z and Diddy means 50 is indeed "laughing straight to the bank."

I would have easily placed my money on Jay-Z being the biggest hip-hop earner last year. With his $150 million Live Nation deal, his sold out "Heart on the City" national tour with Mary J. Blige and his platinum-selling and highly-acclaimed, "American Gangster" album, Jay seemed the obvious recipient of this year's crown.

Following what may be the worst year of his career musically, 50 still managed to be hip-hop's biggest breadwinner. While his VitaminWater payout is now looking to be more in the range of $100 million than the previously reported $400 million, 50 Cent's G-Unit clothing helped out and turned a pretty profit for the Queens emcee. Jay-Z, who was last year's cash king, stacked up $82 million within the last 12 months.

Others on the list include Diddy who made $35 million last year by just being Diddy; Kanye West at No. 4 with $30 million banked on the heels of his multi-platinum album and highly-successful national tour; No. 5 went to Virginia-born Timbaland, who produced records for everyone from 50 Cent to Bjork, and made $22 million.

The rest of the "Top Hip-Hop Cash Kings" rounds out like this: No. 6 Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes made $20 million; No. 7 Swizz Beatz made $17 million; No. 8 Snoop Dogg made $16 million look real easy; No. 9 Dr. Dre made $15 million, probably from royalties; No. 10 Luda pulled in $14 million; No. 11s T.I. and Lil' Wayne tied at this spot by both bringing in $13 million each; No. 12 Akon, Eminem and Common tied by pulling in $12 million each.

This spot is very interesting to me because Eminem made $12 million by sitting on the couch, and who knew Common was making $12 million a year? Well, in that case, Common should give half of that dough to Kanye for resurrecting his career. That would bring Ye's total to $36 million and pushes him to No. 3 on the list.

OK, but back to the list. No.  13 has Jermaine Dupri and Lil' Jon both making $11 million last year. Lil' Jon? How is that possible!?!; No. 14 is shared between The Game, Outkast and Chamillionaire, all reported to have made $10 million and completed this year's list.

Talk about eye opening? Lil' Jon made $11 million in one year? If Lil' Jon made that much in one year, then where is Nice and Smooth, Mia X, and Snow on this list?

Anyway, I'm in the wrong business, so check for my new album "Writin' Don't Pay the Bills" coming to a 'hood near you. Ha!!!

And just for kicks, Tupac Shakur, who has been dead for almost 12 years now, made $15 million last year from his grave … incredible.

JUELZ SPEAKS ON CAREER AND CAM'RON

MTV recently caught up with Dip Set soldier Juelz Santana to talk about the latest happenings in his career. Juelz is now signed directly to Def Jam Records after his one-time mentor and boss, Cam'ron Giles, sold Juelz's contract to the house that Russ built for a reported $2 million. Juelz had this to say:

"I have no hard feelings towards Cam. I tell people I couldn't do business with him. But I will say he gave me the biggest chance I needed. I'm a dude from the 'hood, so the chance he gave me is a chance I needed to never turn back. I'm good. My artistry, my talent, my career was never built on controversy. So I would never come out and say a whole bunch of things that could be said. All I can say is, I'm sorry he can't be here to be a part of what's about to happen, because we're about to tear 'em up."

When asked about the status of Dip Set and Cam'ron, Juelz replied:

"It's no hard feelings, and now that I'm out of my situation, I don't mind putting a Diplomat album together. All I gotta do is tell my lawyer to handle the business the right way, and the music gets taken care of. I love making music. We all love making music. Me, Jim, Zeke—we all down to do the Diplomat album. You gotta ask Cam what's up about the Diplomat album when you get him front of this same camera.

"At first people kinda looked at us like, 'Damn, what's going on?' They looking at us like we're disloyal. But as the time went by, it's kinda like, what we gonna do, just die out because the dude that was supposed to be the boss and the head of the table decided to disappear? That means we would have vanished along with that. We from Harlem, baby. We hustlers. We're gonna stay afloat. We're not even floating right now. We're surfing. We not even surfing. I'm the ocean."

Juelz' new album, "The Regan Era" is scheduled to hit stores next year, but let's face it. Juelz, Jim Jones and rest of their flock are good "Robins," but in order for them to be truly successful, they gonna need that man with the pink cape in their corner. Until then, all we hear is "wa, wa, wa."

DAME'S DOLLARS DISSOLVING?

With all this talk about Jay-Z making more dollars and Juelz Santana/Cam'ron, there's seems to be someone missing in this discussion … oh yeah, Dame Dash. Times seem to be getting pretty rough for the fomer co-owner of Roc-a-fella Records.

Dame, who co-founded Roc-a-fella in 1996 with Jay-Z, is now being sued by his mortgage com-pany for unpaid payments since January. According to allhiphop.com, Dame owes the mortage company $78,504 for two luxury apartments in NYC. In addition, the Web site states the lawsuit also points out some financial judgments against Dash which include, a $2 million tax bill owed to the state of New York, $100,000 in federal taxes and $95,000 in unpaid rent to house the offices of Damon Dash Enterprises.

It is rumored that Jay-Z paid Dame's tax problems off last year, but Dame is seemingly back in hot water. Jay-Z helping out his one-time partner would be no small thing, as the two have not been on the best of terms since they decided to part ways back in 2004.

In the spring of last year, Dame filed a $3.5 million lawsuit of his own against his former account-ant and bookkeeper Barry Klarberg for allegedly landing him in his current finacial situation.

This situation is more of a sad one than anything else. Dame was on top of the world and is somewhat responsible for helping Jay-Z realize his destiny, but now it seems we're watch-ing a fall from grace we haven't seen before in hip-hop. Hopefully, the two can patch things up so Dame can get up under Jay's umbrella, ella, ella, ay…cause it's raining hard in Dame's world!

HIP HOP TRIVIA

What fallen emcee does KRS One continuously praise and honor in his music?

Be the fifth person to send me an e-mail with the correct answer and receive two free AMC movie tickets courtesy of the Potomac News and Manassas Journal Messenger. … Until next week, peace!

Dennis Winn can be reached at 703-200-4928 or .