Check out the top 20 earners in Hip-Hop after the jump.
1) Jay-Z ($37 million)
2) Diddy ($35 million)
3) Kanye West ($16 million)
4) Lil Wayne ($15 million)
4) Birdman ($15 million)
6) Eminem ($14 million)
6) Snoop Dogg ($14 million)
6) Dr. Dre ($14 million)
9) Akon ($13 million)
10) Ludacris ($12 million)
11) Wiz Khalifa ($11 million)
11) Drake ($11 million)
13) Pharrell Williams ($10 million)
14) Timbaland ($7 million)
15) Swizz Beatz ($6.5 million)
15) Nicki Minaj ($6.5 million)
17) Rick Ross ($6 million)
17) 50 Cent ($6 million)
17) Pitbull ($6 million)
20) T-Pain ($5 million)
20) B.o.B ($5 million)
No Lil B? Damn, I thought I'm Gay was gonna change the game.
Besides Lil B's absence, another interesting thing about this list is how much records sales don't matter at all anymore. Eminem sold waaaaaaay more albums in the past year than anyone else on the list, but is only the 6th biggest earner, tied with Snoop Dogg (whose album flopped) and Dr. Dre (whose album is an ancient myth). Also, Nicki Minaj has sold nearly a million more albums than Wiz Khalifa in the past 12 months, but he made $11 million and she only made $6.5 million, just $500,000 more than Pitbull whose album was just recently released.
The lesson this list has taught us: Fuck album sales, tour, tour, and tour some more... or makes some crazy popular headphones (Dr. Dre)... or have Lady Gaga under contract (Akon).
