In hip hop it's the little things that matter – like the twinkle of innocent joy in a child's eye and the timeless sound of the lark playfully trilling its mellifluous call – but apparently sometimes rappers also like money.
And, if Forbes is to be believed, the rapper with the most money is Jay-Z. Jay-Z has come out on top of Forbes's 'Hip Hop Cash Kings' list, a list that seems to have been primarily created so that rappers can angrily discuss 90-year-old bi-weekly industry and finance magazines during 8 Mile-style rap battles. But while Jay-Z has been outed for earning more money than any other rapper last year, spare a thought for those rappers further down the list. For example, while Jay-Z gets to travel the world in unbridled luxury, it's been reported that MC Skat Kat from Paula Abdul's Opposites Attract video is close to destitution, reduced to wanking off businessmen in grubby public toilets for scraps of food.
Being a rapper is a glamorous life, which is why so many kids want to be rappers. Admit it, you've heard stories about Busta Rhymes punching random strangers or Suge Knight shooting himself in the leg for sport and thought "You lucky bastards, I want a piece of that so badly it makes my balls hurt." And reports like the Forbes Hip Hop Cash Kings list are just going to make your feelings of envy stronger, especially when they reveal that Jay-Z is top of the hip hop money tree, earning $34 million last year alone. Forbes reports:
While most of us look forward to retirement, Shawn Carter, better known to the planet as master rapper Jay-Z, couldn't stand the view from the sidelines following his 2003 farewell The Black Album. Despite a frenetic schedule as president of Def Jam Recordings and co-founder of its ultra-successful Roc-A-Fella Records imprint, Jay-Z managed to squeeze in a comeback last year with Kingdom Come, his 11th studio album, which debuted at the top of the pop and rap music charts, selling some 2 million copies. But those weren't the only paychecks coming in… All told, Jay-Z banked an estimated $34 million in 2006, earning him the top spot on Forbes' first-ever list of hip-hop Cash Kings.
You see, Jay-Z doesn't just record disappointing comeback albums with Coldplay and then duet with their wives – he also has his own record label, a stake in an NBA basketball team, his own sports bar franchises and an unquenching thirst for whoring himself out for any product that falls in his lap. Though by no means perfect at making money – the overwhelmingly lucrative market of China recently banned Jay-Z because of his dirty mouth – Jay-Z has largely managed to stay on top of the hip hop cash pile by making savings wherever possible, like refusing to shell out for an expensive Beyonce wedding and only letting Beyonce eat cheap syrup all the time.
But Jay-Z needs to be careful, because his tenure at the top of Forbes's Hip Hop Cash Kings list might be short-lived. Although this year's $204 million sale of his Rocawear clothing line will boost Jay-Z's 2007 earnings sky-high – way above the likes of obsessive ringtone hoarder Eminem or perennial arrestee Snoop Dogg – competition is sure to come from none other than 50 Cent.
Although he's threatened to quit rapping forever, 50 Cent has still been coining it in from album sales, book sales, record label, videogame sales and share of the $4.2 billion sale of his mineral water company to Coca-Cola, which could be enough to topple Jay-Z from the top of the Forbes Hip Hop Cash Kings pile next year, especially if Jay-Z has to pay for any reconstructive surgery that Beyonce needs after that nasty fall of hers.
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