New York, NY – Kanye West reigns supreme in the rap world according to Forbes as he was named the highest-paid Hip Hop act in 2019. Mr. West beat out frenemies JAY-Z and Drake, who entered in at the second and third spots, respectively.
Most of the Chi-town native’s income comes from his shoe company, Yeezy, which is expected to exceed over $1.5 billion by the end of 2019. The company helped raise pretax profit to $150 million over the past year, which gave him the number one spot on the list for the first time.
“There was a beam of light on the idea of me making athletic footwear,” West stated in an interview with Forbes.
The 21-time Grammy Award winner continued, “A paradigm shift. Like the Yeezy is desired as much as a Jordan.” Yeezy pulled in about half the revenue of the Nike Air Jordan line that originated in 1985.
Elsewhere on the list Diddy comes in at No. 4 with $70 million, Nicki Minaj appears at No. 12 with $29 million and Nas shows up at the 18th spot with $19 million.
Check out the full list of Hip Hop’s 2019 Cash Kings & Queens below.
20. Pitbull ($18 million)
19. Wiz Khalifa ($18.5 million)
18. Nas ($19 million)
17. Future ($19.5 million)
16. Birdman ($20 million)
15. Meek Mill ($21 million)
14. Swizz Beatz ($23 million)
13. Cardi B ($28 million)
12. Nicki Minaj ($29 million)
11. J. Cole ($31 million)
10. Childish Gambino ($35 million)
9. Migos ($36 million)
8. Kendrick Lamar ($38.5 million)
7. DJ Khaled ($40 million)
6. Eminem ($50 million)
5. Travis Scott ($58 million)
4. Diddy ($70 million)
3. Drake ($75 million)
2. Jay-Z ($81 million)
1. Kanye West ($150 million)
