The Richest Rappers In The World

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

The now-infamous Kanye West broke onto the scene in 2000 with a production role on Jay-Z's second studio album, "The Blueprint." Since then, he has released nine studio albums and three collaborative albums and produced for a variety of artists, including Mariah Carey and Jermaine Dupri (via Rolling Stone). In recent years, his marriage to Kim Kardashian, struggles with mental illness, and political views have brought him much controversy. But despite his struggles, he maintains his spot as the richest rapper in the entire world.

West's net worth has been highly disputed as of late. In early 2021, Bloomberg released an article about his upcoming brand deal with Gap, saying it could potentially be worth nearly $5 billion. This figure would put his net worth at $6.6 billion. However, Forbes wasn't happy with the estimate, placing his net worth instead at $1.8 billion. Their reason? Forbes says their figure is based on West's net worth at the time of writing, while Bloomberg's is speculative and based on the projected value of the upcoming deal.

Even at the conservative end of the estimates, West is still the richest rapper by several hundred million dollars. His wealth mostly comes from his music sales in addition to stocks and royalties of his clothing brand, Yeezy. If his net worth of $6.6 billion is to be believed, he would be the richest Black person in America by about $2 billion and the richest Black person in the world. (At $1.8 billion, he's still in fourth place worldwide.)

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