Dr Dre beats P.Diddy, Jayz and becomes Only hip hop act...

Dr Dre beats P.Diddy, Jayz and becomes Only hip hop act on the Forbes list for Highest Paid Celebrities

Dr. Dre can thank HTC and his headphone company, Beats by Dre, for helping him become the only hip-hop artist on Forbes’ Highest Paid Celebrities list of 2012. The tech company HTC reportly paid 300 million dollars for a 51 percent stake Dr. Dre’s headphone company which helped him net a cool 110 million dollars this past year.   


Dre receives royalties and money for production work, features and appearances but that paled in comparison to his very lucrative headphone company.

Rounding out the list are movie super producers Jerry Bruckheimer, Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay at four, three, and two respectively. And of course Forbes’ veteran Oprah Winfrey comes in at number one.

The hip hop mogul also strategically sent sent British Olympic team members special versions of his Beats headphones.

Dr Dre succeeded in gatecrashing the London 2012 Olympics with an ambush marketing campaign that has seen British athletes including Laura Robson and Tom Daley endorse the rapper and music entrepreneur's Beats headphones range.

The brand, which was not an official sponsor of the International Olympic Committee or London 2012, has skirted strict rules on ambush marketing by sending British team members special versions of the Beats range branded with union flag colours.


I love to see not only another black man, but hip-hop artist do so well. So next time you see your favorite rapper talk about how much money they have, remember which ones you saw on this list.