Her melodic rapping on Doo Wop (That Thing) led to the song becoming the first by a female rapper to top the Hot 100. For artists like Taylor Swift and The Rolling Stones who own only a portion of their recorded masters catalog, a blended royalty rate was used. Streaming: $6M According to Billboard 's report, published on Monday (July 19), rappers Post Malone, Drake, YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Lil Baby are among the publication's Top Paid Musicians of 2020. Eminem $9.7 million15. Publishing: $840K 8 in that category with 612 million streams, which contributed to a total of almost 2.7 billion combined streams, the equivalent of $3.74 million in streaming royalties. Abel Tesfayes alter ego may have been snubbed by the Grammys, but he fared exceptionally well when it came to royalties. Queen $13.2 million8. Most of the lists were estimated within a June-to-June scoring period, except for 1999, 2000, and 2021 when a calendar year period was used instead. Publishing: $1.1M He took home over $3.9 million from 12 shows that grossed $11.5 million in ticket sales, ranking at No. (Whats My Name? As the No. Theres Safe from his 2002 album The Fix. Can you pick the top 11-20 highest paid rappers Of 2019 (Top 11-20)? Kendrick Lamar. Streaming: $6.4M The first rapper inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Jay-Z believes everyone has genius-level talent. Despite teasing a July release for a new album named after his mother, Donda, West dropped just one song in 2020, Nah Nah Nah, which was tied to his unsuccessful presidential run, and a remix that featured DaBaby and 2 Chainz. Unfortunately, the same demons that bore his provocative art led to his unfortunate demise: he died of a cocaine-induced heart attack in 2021. Shawn Carter leads the rap pack with a career-best total of $470 million. He received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the highest sporting honor in India, in 2018. In 2020, hip-hop came on strong because its artists often have a strong streaming game. Streaming: $3.48M Sales: $10M Ghost continued the winning streak well into the 21st century, firstwith his 2000 sophomore opus Supreme Clientele and on through 2006s brilliant Fishscale and 2013s comic book on wax, Twelve Reasons to Die. Touring: $0. In addition, that mix also encompasses 50 years of cultural milestones for a genre initially dismissed as a passing fad and now recognized as the industrys market-share leader. Streaming: $4.3M Queen, which owns its masters, ranked second in sales royalties with $5.3 million thanks, in part, to the 2020 rerelease of its $500-plus limited-edition colored vinyl Studio Collection box set of the bands 15 studio albums. 1 on the Billboard 200. Touring: $0. Yet on the 1998 collaborative milestoneMos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star, Bey proved to be so much more a revelation further amplified on the unmoored race mans gold-certified 1999 solo debutBlack on Both Sides. Weve revealed 10 more rappers each week since, with the final top 10 now unveiled below. Streaming: $5.5M As of March 2023, Cheryl James net worth is approximately 14 million. 3 (although its deluxe status means that it wont be counted as a separate entry on Billboards charts.) Post Malone is one of the handful of artists on this list who was touring prior to the pandemic shutdown. 2 with $23.2 million, most of which came from streaming ($8.1 million) and touring ($12.4 million) before he had to shut it down due to the pandemic. Big Daddy Kane was an early rap star archetype thanks to his show-stealing performances in the late 1980s. Publishing: $986K A 10% managers fee was deducted from artist and publishing recorded-music royalty pools. Redmans popularity skyrocketed when he joined forces with Method Man in the late 90s and released the first of their two albums together Blackout!, which debuted at No. His executive producer status grew as he created his Junior Mafia clique writing and producing their 1995 Conspiracy album, then releasing JM breakout star Lil Kims Hard Core debut in 1996. JAY-Z, Kanye West & Diddy Named Highest-Paid Rappers Of 2021 - With $800M Combined Earnings. The video rate is higher than generally used because MRC Data counts official video streams and subscriber-paid streams but not user-generated streams for the United States. Last years rank: Recorded-music totals are the sum of an artists sales, streaming and publishing earnings for 2020. 5 Even after his death, Pacs legacy pushed forward with seven posthumous albums (including three Billboard 200-toppers), induction into the Rock Hall of Fame, and even a spot in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry (for Dear Mama) and despite his short life and career, Pacs legacy continues to resonate today as much as any rapper CL. The evolution continued with the R&B, psychedelic soul, and pop-infused DAMN. The highest-paid hip-hop artists of 2021 have been revealed and JAY-Z and Kanye West once again top the list. Ice-Ts harrowing 6 N the Mornin (1986) forever stamped the West Coast on the hip-hop map. Like AC/DC and Queen, Metallica owns its masters, which means the bands royalties are calculated at a rate of 78% (from which 4% goes to the producers of its albums). His impact is undeniable: Nas, Jay-Z, De La Soul, KRS-One and Redman are just a few of the rappers who have sampled Blows music. Wave had zero physical sales last year. 24, $7.4M), Rod Wave (No. Those releases helped Slim Shady reach No. Touring: $2.7M. And rap artists have similarly dominated the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 2020 as well. Streaming: $3.9M He set a new benchmark for erasing musical boundaries and ignoring popular trends, influencing a host of generation-next talents like Pharrell Williams, Kanye West and Tyler, the Creator. Sales: $485K Touring: $0. The list includes Drake, Nicki Minaj, Eminem, JAY-Z, and more. The Copyright Royalty Board streaming formula produced an average publishing rate of 13.1% for on-demand audio streaming revenue; the blended per-play terrestrial radio rates, according to Massarsky Consulting, were applied, ranging from 82 cents to $4, depending on the genre and whether hit songs triggered bonus payment plans from the songwriters performing rights organization. Want to know what everyone in the music business is talking about. & Rakim, producing classic albums like 1987s Paid in Full and 1988s Follow the Leader with eternal singles like Eric B. 9 in the category for acts on this list and 465,000 physical album sales and 948,000 track sales, placing her at Nos. Chuck held everyones feet to the fire: crack dealers in the Black community (Night of the Living Baseheads); purveyors of systemic racism (Fight the Power); a ravenous press (Welcome to the Terror) and greedy corporations (Shut Em Down). The Brooklyn teens opening salvo was I Cram to Understand U (Sam), a song that spoke about the perils of falling in love with a crack addict. Touring: $4.2M. Touring: $4.2M. 1, and the second reached No. So now, lets run throughBillboard/Vibes Top 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time and let the debate rage on. expunged any doubt about his MC credibility via his grit and lyrical precision. Fans couldnt get enough of the weed-smoking, carefree duos debauchery, which culminated in the 2001 cult classic feature film, How High, starring the pair and named after one of their enduring 90s hits. 1. 1 on the Billboard 200 and finished 2020 as the No. Lil Waynes cultural, sonic and lyrical influence will forever be embedded into the fabric of hip-hop, by way of his talent as both an artist and as an A&R. The Disturbing Tha Peace label co-founders industry acclaim finally caught up to his mainstream appeal when he took home the Grammys for best rap album and best rap song Grammys in 2007, thanks to the introspective Release Therapy and its Pharrell-featuring smash lead single Money Maker., Gucci Mane went from teenage drug dealer to Atlanta rap deity in the 200s, with sedated raps and a Hollywood story Spike Lee couldnt script. Streaming: $5.1M The Weeknd $10.4 million12. As a result, the 1.24 billion combined streams the act generated in 2020 and the 254,000 albums it sold slightly more than half of which were higher price-point vinyl copies accounted for the lions share of its income. Touring: $0. Sales: $874.7K The Compton native has become one of musics most influential artists thanks to his vivid, thought-provoking and sometimes controversial lyrics, fearless genre experimentation, and agile-yet-masterful flow. Ross has notched 58 Billboard Hot 100 entries spanning three decades, but his legacy doesnt end there: His Maybach Music Group laid the tarmac for Meek Mill and Wale to take off and become titans in the 2010s. Last years rank: No. A year with little touring resulted in many of rock and country musics regular road warriors giving up their spots to artists with strong 2020 streaming and physical sales performances many of them hip-hop acts. Last years Money Makers ranking credited the K-pop boy band phenom with keeping physical formats alive with its total sales of 827,000 albums. The trap pioneersworkaholic mindset led to his flooding the streets with north of 70 mixtapes, and his hunger for greatness has yet to wane as he enters his 40s. Swift takes the top spot almost solely on revenue earned from the recorded masters of her two 2020 albums, folklore and evermore, which she owns and licenses to Republic for distribution. Billboard has released its highest-paid musicians of 2020. Yet like Colors, Ices masterful 1988 first-person account of the Crips and Bloods gang violence that gripped Los Angeles, street manifestos like Rhyme Pays(1987), Power(1988) andThe Iceberg/Freedom of Speech Just Watch What You Say! Some of the names on the list are expected . Artists with most songs in the Billboard Top 100 in the U.S. 2012-2021 . 38 Last years rank: Pandemic-induced isolation led to Bad Bunnys most successful year yet, yielding three albums, including the best-selling Latin album in the United States and Spotifys most globally streamed album of 2020, YHLQMDLG. Still, on the guest side, Andres stamina and lyrical fervor remains top tier, crushing features for Jeezy (I Do), DJ Unk (Walk It Out), and UGK Intl Players Anthem. Overall, 3000s eclecticism, eccentricity and mind-blowing rhymes prove you can be out of this world and still cut through. Pitbull's early life Amando Christian Prez was born in Miami, Florida on 15th January 1981 to Cuban immigrant parents. The combined royalties from those streams add up to just shy of $10 million, which makes him the fourth top-earner in that category. Ed Sheeran - $200 Million. Streaming: $6M A year with minimal touring resulted in top-streaming acts, many of them hip-hop artists, replacing the rock and country acts that fill arena and stadiums on Billboard's annual ranking. So for example, as estimable as his career is, British rapper Slick Rick isnt on this list. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic curtailing chances for any artists to tour in 2020, several big-name rappers still made money through streaming and other means last year.. Streaming royalties consist of on-demand audio and video streams plus estimated royalties from programmed satellite, cable and webcasting services like SiriusXM and Music Choice. NBA YoungBoy is the third highest paid rapper in 2020 behind Drake and Post Malone who was the highest earner. Posty finished at No. 9 on the Hot 100. A subscription per-stream rate of $0.0021 blended to reflect the different statutory rates for ad-supported and subscription streams was applied to programmed streams; per-play estimated rates of 74 cents and $46 were applied to Music Choice and SiriusXM plays, respectively. 5 most-played act of 2020 the band also generated nearly $4.9 million in income from its recorded masters, which is almost 30% of the bands overall earnings. 2 Billboard 200 concept album, III. ! And with those iconic words from the powerful 1993 anti-domestic violence statement U.N.I.T.Y., Queen Latifah cut through all the misogynistic noise. AC/DC $10.1 million14. Its also no surprise that the dearth of live revenue led to a precipitous decline in the paychecks of musics top earners, who collectively took home $387 million in 2020, down from $969 million in 2019.