Last week, the Financial Times broke the news that Beats Entertainment, the headphones and music streaming service owned by Dr. Dre and business partner and record executive Jimmy Iovine, was in the process of being acquired by Apple for the sum of 3.2 billion dollars.
The west coast producer, along with singer Tyrese, posted a video on Instagram celebrating that “Hip Hop’s first billionaire was a Cali native,” however business magazine Forbes believes the proclamation may have come too fast.
Due to Dr.Dre reportedly owning 20-25% of Beats, he’d make $800 million, but after taxes, the final total would be around $480 million.
Regardless of the final number, once the deal is complete, Dr. Dre is predicted to be the top earner in hip hop, jumping over Diddy (1) and JAY Z (2).
The most important takeaway regarding Dre’s groundbreaking deal is the changing landscape for hip hop as a thriving business.
Watch theGrio.com’s Music & Tech editor Kyle Harvey discuss the evolution of the Beats brand with MSNBC’s Craig Melvin.