The first time Sean “Diddy” Combs took a sip of Aquahydrate alkaline water—given to him by pal Mark Wahlberg at a Las Vegas boxing match in the early 2010s—he found it to be an ideal antidote for evenings spent consuming adult beverages.



“I went out that night and had a Vegas night, and I woke up and had a Vegas morning,” Diddy told me in 2015. “I drank two of the [Aquahydrate] bottles and it was, like, the best tasting water that I&#8217;ve tasted. And it really, honestly helped me recover.”



Diddy became the face of the company alongside Wahlberg shortly thereafter, and the pair invested $20 million in Aquahydrate over the years while billionaire Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa added another $27 million. 



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Hip-Hop’s Next Billionaires: Richest Rappers 2019 (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/arts/2019/06/21/hip-hops-next-billionaires-richest-rappers-2019/" target="_blank">Hip-Hop’s Next Billionaires: Richest Rappers 2019</a>



They aren’t the only ones with lofty ambitions for the brand: last week the Alkaline Water Co., the publicly-traded purveyor of competitor Alkaline88, bought Aquahydrate in an all-stock deal that valued the latter at about $50 million.



For Diddy, who ranks No. 4 on our recently-released list of hip-hop’s top earners and boasts a net worth of $740 million, alkaline water holdings are just a drop in his financial bucket. His Diageo-backed Ciroc vodka—and its myriad flavors, from Red Berry to Summer Watermelon—is responsible for the lion’s share of his wealth. But it’s clear he thinks alkaline water, flavored variants included, could swell his portfolio. So do his new partners.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5d84f41522254b0008e0f81a/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Diddy"/><figcaption>CRAIG BARRITT AND ALEXANDER TAMARGO/GETTY IMAGES. DESIGN: NICK DESANTIS/FORBES</figcaption></figure>



“You put both these brands under one public company, it makes a ton of sense,” says Aaron Keay, Alkaline’s chairman, of the Aquahydrate deal. “We see synergies on distribution, we see cost-savings on cost of goods. On production, on logistics, on staffing. … And we don&#8217;t see both brands actually then competing for the same target market.”



In the past, flavored water has enriched investors including some of Diddy’s hip-hop world comrades. A little over a decade ago, 50 Cent famously took Vitaminwater equity in lieu of stock as payment for his endorsement—and walked away with some $100 million when Coca-Cola bought its parent company for $4.1 billion in 2007.



A ten-figure valuation for an alkaline water company seems an outlandish target even for the notoriously bombastic Diddy. But Keay notes Alkaline clocked $33 million in revenues over the past fiscal year and had been expecting $48 million in 2020; now, with Aquahydrate on board, he projects closer to $60-$65 million. That compares favorably to Core Water, which was doing some $80 million as of last year before getting acquired.



“For two or three years, Core Water was just another clear water,” says Keay. “Then they added about a half dozen flavors. Sales doubled. They got bought for $500 million. I mean, for us, $500 million would be a big number off of where our market cap is right now.”



Diddy appears to be an ideal ally in achieving that goal. With Ciroc, once a middling vodka in Diageo’s roster, he was able to articulate importance of the brand’s defining trait: it was made from grapes, not grains (never mind that this might technically disqualify it from being considered a vodka). His contention, according to Stephen Rust, Diageo’s president of new business and reserve brands, is that grapes are simply sexier than potatoes.



“One of his favorite things [to say] is, ‘If you can have a vodka that comes from a history of winemaking, why would you do that versus the history of coming from potatoes?’” Rust explained in an interview for my book, 3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, And Hip-Hop’s Multibillion-Dollar Rise. “That’s Sean.”



With alkaline water, Diddy has demonstrated a similar knack for sizing up a product and extracting an elemental notion that passes muster with consumers (if not necessarily scientists). If “you’re full of acid,” Diddy once explained to me, you need to “get your body leveled out.”



Vodka and water, of course, are two very different products, and the same tactics won’t necessarily translate from one business to another. Flavored water itself seems to have been over-carbonated of late, as the recent struggles of brands like La Croix show; Alkaline’s shares have slumped this year as well.



Perhaps that’s why Alkaline is looking beyond its flagship bottled water business. Future plans call for a move towards cans in a nod to environmentally-conscious customers, as well as expansion into the nascent CBD-infused beverage space. Keay figures Diddy and Wahlberg, along with fellow celebrity investor Jillian Michaels, should provide a boost across the board.



“Once the FDA makes a ruling about how CBD is going to be distributed through those chains and channels, those guys are going to want trusted brands, brands that they know already have a consumer following,” says Keay. “And that was another big reason why it made sense to bring [Diddy, Wahlberg and Michaels] in, because it&#8217;s only going to help.”



&#8211;Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg; Forbes

960×0 (5)

Can Diddy’s Ciroc Recipe Work On Alkaline Water?

Back in 2007,&nbsp;Jay-Z made a bold statement&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2010/12/14/jay-z-50-cent-and-diddy-i-get-money-forbes-1-2-3-billion-dollar-remix/#283e75c86ec2" target="_blank">in song</a>&nbsp;about both his lyrical prowess and his future financial fortunes: “I’m already the G.O.A.T.–next stop is the billie.”



Sure enough,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2019/06/03/jay-z-billionaire-worth/#70f0b90d3a5f" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">declared</a>&nbsp;him hip-hop’s first billionaire earlier this month. The news caught the attention of observers around the world—not only due to the breadth of Jay-Z’s financial achievement, but because of what it means for others looking to follow in his footsteps.



“Jay-Z’s entire life is the real blueprint,” says hip-hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy, longtime host of the show&nbsp;Yo! MTV Raps. “He’s one of the best examples in our lifetime of one who’s truly achieved the American dream and billionaire status.”



Naturally, Jay-Z tops this year’s ranking of hip-hop’s richest stars. Who will be the next billionaire from the rap world? The answer is almost certainly one of the names below.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5d010d70142c50000a32b592/960x0.jpg?cropX1=1&amp;cropX2=4689&amp;cropY1=693&amp;cropY2=3126" alt="richest rappers Drake"/><figcaption>GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">5. Drake</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$150 million</h3>



The 32-year-old Canadian is the youngest on this list by a decade, but he’s quickly gaining ground on hip-hop’s elder statesmen. Drake’s fortune grew 50% over the past year, boosted by holdings ranging from real estate to his Virginia Black whiskey, as well as a lucrative tour and new residency at the XS Nightclub in Las Vegas.



“Every year, we just want to get more prepared and better at touring and better at things that make money,” he&nbsp;told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;in 2013 (his average gross has since surged from $500,000 to more than $2 million per stop). “That’s pretty much my objective every year, other than making good music.”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5d010dbe4c687b0008596731/960x0.jpg?cropX1=4&amp;cropX2=4698&amp;cropY1=679&amp;cropY2=3122" alt="richest rappers Kanye"/><figcaption>GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">4. Kanye West</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$240 million</h3>



A onetime protégé of Jay-Z, the superproducer has been making headlines recently for his Sunday Service, an invitation-only get-together mostly in Southern California that is&nbsp;reportedly&nbsp;frequented by the likes of Courtney Love and Tyler, the Creator. He took the show on the road in April for a Coachella service on Easter Sunday featuring appearances by Chance the Rapper, DMX and a gospel choir—while&nbsp;hawking&nbsp;socks and “holy spirit” sweatshirts. But selling church clothes alone won’t be enough to push West into ten-figure territory.



Despite&nbsp;declaring&nbsp;himself $53 million in debt and beseeching Mark Zuckerberg for $1 billion to fund future creations in 2016, West makes his debut on this list thanks to a another patron: Adidas, which lured West and his Yeezy shoe line from Nike several years ago. Our accounting of West’s wealth is almost entirely predicated on a conservative estimate of that brand’s value. As it continues to scale up, he could one day join his sister-in-law, Kylie Jenner, as a billionaire.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5d010ee84c687b0008596780/960x0.jpg?cropX1=1&amp;cropX2=4697&amp;cropY1=804&amp;cropY2=3128" alt="richest rappers Diddy"/><figcaption>GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">3. Diddy</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$740 million</h3>



“I started my business career at age 12, delivering newspapers,” Diddy explained two years ago in our centennial issue, where we named him one of the world’s greatest living business minds. “Since then, I’ve always understood that if I give the customers my best and service them differently, whether music, clothing or vodka, I’ll get a return on my hard work.”



The artist formerly known as Puff Daddy dips to No. 3 on this list as industry trends weigh on some of his holdings, including cable network Revolt and clothing line Sean John (though Diddy has sold much of his stake in the latter, he retains a sizeable piece). But Ciroc, the main driver of his fortune, is growing again after case volumes fell from all-time highs in recent years—making the impresario perhaps the most likely candidate to join Jay-Z in the billion-dollar club.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5d010e3234a5c40008482a48/960x0.jpg?cropX1=0&amp;cropX2=4695&amp;cropY1=603&amp;cropY2=3131" alt="richest rappers dr dre"/><figcaption>GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">2. Dr. Dre</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$800 million</h3>



It’s been five years since Dr. Dre proclaimed himself a billionaire, but&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;still doesn’t agree with the assessment made in the wake of Apple’s $3 billion 2014 purchase of his Beats By Dr. Dre headphone line. The superproducer owned an estimated 20%-25% of the company at the time; of the $2.6 billion Apple paid upfront in cash, another $295 million was&nbsp;earmarked&nbsp;to cover debt payments, leaving Dre with a little over $500 million.



Even with the vesting of his final slug of Apple stock last summer, Dre hasn’t quite made it into billionaire territory. He has spent heavily over the years on property (he&nbsp;paid&nbsp;$40 million for Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen’s Los Angeles estate) and charitable donations (along with Beats cofounder Jimmy Iovine, he&nbsp;gave&nbsp;$70 million to start a school at USC). And with his formal involvement at Apple seemingly wrapping up, Dre will likely need to get back on the festival circuit—or start a new company—if he’s to make good on his 2014 declaration.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5d010e694c687b0008596774/960x0.jpg?cropX1=10&amp;cropX2=4698&amp;cropY1=739&amp;cropY2=3130" alt="richest rappers jay-z"/><figcaption>GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">1. Jay-Z</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$1 billion</h3>



Though he’s hip-hop’s first billionaire, Jay-Z’s lead on the rest of the pack is even larger if his entire family fortune is taken into consideration: He and wife Beyoncé are now worth a combined $1.4 billion. So much for the notion that music is a dying business.



“To convince artists that you can’t be an artist and make money … was the greatest trick in music that people ever pulled off,” Jay-Z&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/1011/rich-list-10-omaha-warren-buffett-jay-z-steve-forbes-summit-interview.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;in 2010. “I think the people that were making the millions said that.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Methodology</h3>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">In order to compile our ranking of the richest rappers, we use the same procedures employed in the calculation of our annual&nbsp;billionaires list: poring over financial documents, valuing major assets, and consulting with analysts, managers, attorneys and other industry insiders.</h5>



Cover photographs: Getty Images (Dr. Dre: AP Images)



-Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg; Forbes Staff

hiphop

Hip-Hop’s Next Billionaires: Richest Rappers 2019

Last June, when Jay-Z and Beyoncé welcomed twins to their family, they did what many couples do in the wake of a new arrival&#8211;move to a bigger home&#8211;on quite an epic scale. Over the next few months, they shelled out $26 million for an East Hampton mansion and scooped up an $88 million Bel Air estate, adding 21,000 square feet per newborn. That&#8217;s the sort of thing you can do when one partner is a pop demigod and the other is the richest rapper on the planet.
Jay-Z upped his net worth from $810 million to $900 million over the past year, seizing hip-hop&#8217;s cash crown for the first time since Forbes started counting back in 2011. The Brooklyn-born mogul&#8217;s jump is due mostly to the rising value of his interests in Armand de Brignac champagne and D&#8217;Ussé cognac, on top of nine-figure ownership stakes in his Roc Nation empire and Tidal streaming service.
&#8220;We always complain about, &#8216;We don&#8217;t own this, we don&#8217;t own that.&#8217; … Here he is, this man who owns that,&#8221; superproducer Swizz Beatz told me in an interview for my book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Diddy-Jay-Z-Hip-Hops-Multibillion-Dollar/dp/0316316539/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Diddy-Jay-Z-Hip-Hops-Multibillion-Dollar/dp/0316316539/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8">3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z and Hip-Hop&#8217;s Multibillion-Dollar Rise</a>. &#8220;The sky is not the limit: it&#8217;s just a view.&#8221;
Jay-Z, Diddy and Dre are not only the wealthiest hip-hop acts on the planet, but the richest American musicians of any genre. Longtime Forbes Five champ Diddy ranks No. 2 this year despite increasing his fortune slightly in the past 12 months; tepid trends in the vodka and cable TV sectors have affected his interests in Ciroc and Revolt, but heady growth at DeLeón tequila, his joint venture with beverage giant Diageo&#8211;and massive annual earnings totals in recent years&#8211;have kept his net worth trending in the right direction.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2017/12/05/kendrick-lamar-conscious-capitalist/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Kendrick Lamar: The Conscious Capitalist</a>
Dre ranks third with $770 million, creeping upward thanks to the market trends boosting his nine-figure windfall from Apple&#8217;s $3 billion buyout of Beats in 2014. The superproducer is also in line to receive a slug of Apple stock this summer worth well over $100 million; depending on the tech giant&#8217;s share price at the time, he could leapfrog Diddy and Jay-Z when that happens.
After the top three, there&#8217;s a long drop before the fourth and fifth names on the list: Drake and Eminem, tied at an even $100 million apiece. The youngest impresario of the bunch, 31-year-old Drake has earned more than $250 million since 2010, before taxes and spending; an equity stake in Virginia Black whiskey and pricey estates in Toronto, Canada, and Hidden Hills, California, pad his holdings. His inclusion on the Forbes Five represents yet another career goal achieved.
&#8220;If I&#8217;m not on your list this year, I&#8217;d be gravely disappointed,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2013/02/14/drake-making-the-forbes-list-is-my-objective-every-year/#a5e3a5b26c57" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Forbes back in 2013. &#8220;That&#8217;s pretty much my objective every year … other than making good music.&#8221;
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2017/10/13/dj-khaled-rolls-hip-hops-boldest-star-shows-off-major-keys/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: How DJ Khaled Rolls: Hip-Hop&#8217;s Boldest Star Shows Off His Major Keys</a>
Eminem isn&#8217;t known as a businessman like some of the other names on this list, but he&#8217;s still the best-selling rapper of all time and moved more albums in the U.S. during the 2000s than any act in any genre. Fresh off new album Revival, he makes his Forbes Five debut as former listmember Birdman&#8211;Drake&#8217;s Cash Money Records boss&#8211;slips below the $100 million mark in the wake of some <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/jose-lambiet/article190619084.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/jose-lambiet/article190619084.html">apparent</a> liquidity issues.
To compile the Forbes Five rankings, we follow the same procedures used to calculate our <a href="https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">list of the world&#8217;s billionaires</a> (our annual update arrives Tuesday): valuing major assets, poring over financial documents, and speaking with analysts, attorneys, managers, other industry players and, in some cases, the moguls themselves.
So who will be the first hip-hop star to reach the billion-dollar mark? Trends in the spirits world could continue to play a key role for Jay-Z and Diddy. After the furious rise of vodka in the first part of this decade, fueled largely by flavored variants like those of Ciroc, the market has shifted towards cognac, whiskey and tequila.
&#8220;D&#8217;Ussé fits right in there,&#8221; says Eric Schmidt, Director of Alcohol Research at Beverage Marketing Corporation. &#8220;I think DeLeón is poised for growth … it could one day be the next Patrón, but it&#8217;s a long road.&#8221;
Jay-Z, meanwhile, shouldn&#8217;t be slacking off anytime soon: though he and Beyoncé bought their East Hampton abode outright, according to public records, their $88 million Bel Air mansion comes with a $52.8 million mortgage. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg</a>, FORBES STAFF

The Forbes Five: Hip-Hop’s Wealthiest Artists 2018

The Last Jedi grossed a staggering $450 million at the worldwide box office its opening weekend, but George Lucas won’t be cashing in—he sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 for $4.1 billion in cash and stock after decades of lofty annual hauls from the Star Wars franchise he created. Yet the force is still strong with his bank account: Lucas’ fortune now stands at $5.5 billion, making him America’s wealthiest celebrity.
Billion-dollar exits and money-spewing assets are part of the territory in the upper reaches of our list. Steven Spielberg (No. 2, $3.6 billion) has been a director for half a century, but saved one of his biggest highlights for last year with the $3.8 billion sale of DreamWorks Animation, the studio he cofounded. Oprah Winfrey (No. 3, $2.8 billion) continues to build her fortune through the OWN network but banked the bulk of her bucks from her years as a talk show host.
&#8220;What I learned in all of those thousands of interviews is that there is a common denominator in our human experience,&#8221; she once <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/moiraforbes/2012/09/18/oprah-winfrey-talks-philanthropy-failure-and-what-every-guest-including-beyonce-asks-her/#1b314e486bc0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> FORBES. &#8220;Everybody wants to know: &#8216;Did you hear me, and did what I say matter?'&#8221;
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/10/16/oprah-keeping-promise-made-mandela/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Oprah Keeping The Promise Made To Mandela</a>
All in all, America’s 10 wealthiest celebrities boast a combined fortune of $18 billion, up 7.8% from last year’s $16.7 billion. To compile our list, we looked at each candidate’s entire empire. We valued private company stakes by speaking with an array of experts and by considering public competitors; for publicly-traded companies, we used stock prices as of December 15, 2017.
For entertainers without private companies, we based our estimates on net lifetime earnings after taxes. Real estate, art and other assets were also factored in where applicable. Eligibility was limited to American citizens who’ve gotten rich off their fame, rather than become famous for their wealth (sorry, <a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2017/12/07/donald-trumps-real-estate-business-losing-one-important-tenants/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>).
This list includes a much more diverse range of names than other wealth rankings like our flagship Forbes 400: though just one of America’s 10 wealthiest celebrities is a woman, six of the figures are people of color. The list members’ areas of expertise range from Hollywood to sports to magic, and all have found ways of monetizing their respective corners of the entertainment business.
Michael Jordan (No. 4, $1.4 billion) earned $94 million on the court during his career, but has made $1.4 billion elsewhere, most notably Nike, which generates some $3 billion annually from his Jordan brand; the superstar’s 90% stake in the Charlotte Hornets has grown fourfold in value since 2010. David Copperfield rounds out the top five with a fortune of $875 million, accumulated by playing upwards of 600 shows in Las Vegas annually; his collection of more than 650,000 magical artifacts is the world’s largest.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sport/2017/12/14/25-highest-paid-athletes-time/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The 25 Highest-Paid Athletes Of All Time</a>
Hip-hop is especially well-represented thanks to Diddy (No. 6, $820 million), Jay-Z (No. 7, $810 million) and Dr. Dre ($740 million), all of whom are among the youngest names on the list. Though all three got their start as artists, their empires now revolve around non-musical ventures like Diddy’s Revolt cable channel, Jay-Z’s Armand de Brignac champagne and Dr. Dre’s Beats headphones, sold to Apple for $3 billion in 2014 (for more, check out my upcoming book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Diddy-Jay-Z-Hip-Hops-Multibillion-Dollar/dp/0316316539/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">3 Kings</a>).
&#8220;They said we couldn&#8217;t start businesses outside of hip-hop,&#8221; Kendrick Lamar <a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2017/12/05/kendrick-lamar-conscious-capitalist/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> FORBES earlier this year. &#8220;These are the three individuals that showed us [how].&#8221;
<h3>The 10 Richest Celebrities In America</h3>
<ol>
<li>George Lucas ($5.5 billion)</li>
<li>Steven Spielberg ($3.6 billion)</li>
<li>Oprah Winfrey ($2.8 billion)</li>
<li>Michael Jordan ($1.4 billion)</li>
<li>David Copperfield ($875 million)</li>
<li>Diddy ($820 million)</li>
<li>Jay-Z ($810 million)</li>
<li>Tiger Woods ($750 million)</li>
<li>Dr. Dre ($740 million)</li>
<li>James Patterson ($730 million)</li>
</ol>
&#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg</a>, FORBES STAFF

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