Kanye West, JAY-Z and Rihanna have all parlayed their musical and entrepreneurial talents into billion-dollar success stories, and their respective net worths are only getting bigger.
On Tuesday (April 5), Forbes published their 36th Annual World’s Billionaires List, with the “Run This Town” trio being named among the 2,668 super-rich figures from around the globe whose net worth exceeds 10 figures.
The richest rapper alive, Kanye West comes in at No. 1,513 on the list with an estimated net worth of $2 billion thanks to his Yeezy empire, which has lucrative partnerships with adidas, Gap and most recently Balenciaga.
Kanye has jumped over 200 places and $200 million in value since last year’s list, although his estimated net worth remains a source of contention. When Forbes reported he was worth $1.3 billion in April 2020, the Chicago rap icon texted staff writer Zack O’Malley Greenburg to say, “It’s $3.3 billion since no one at Forbes knows how to count.”
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A Bloomberg article published last March reported Kanye West’s net worth had soared to $6.6 billion, making him the richest Black man in the United States. But after fact-checking that figure, Forbespegged it at closer to $1.8 billion.
During an interview with Hollywood Unlocked‘s Jason Lee in January, Kanye valued his net worth at $10 billion, but Forbes‘ billionaire list once again casts doubt on that claim.
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Less than a year after joining the billionaire’s club, Rihanna makes her debut at No. 1,729 on the list as the richest female musician on the planet.
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The 34-year-old superstar and mother-to-be boasts a net worth of $1.7 billion, owing largely to the success of her Fenty Beauty cosmetics brand and the Savage X Fenty lingerie line.
According to Forbes, Rihanna is also Barbados’ first billionaire; last November, she was officially declared a National Hero of Barbados during a ceremony marking the country’s new status as a republic.
Following at No. 2,076 on Forbes‘ ranking is JAY-Z, whose $1.4 billion net worth was bolstered by the sales of the streaming platform TIDAL and champagne brand Armand de Brignac last year.
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Hov pulled in over $470 million in 2021 thanks to TIDAL’s $302 million sale to Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s Square and his 50-percent stake in Armand de Brignac being offloaded to luxury goods giant LVMH for a reported $600 million.
The Marcy Projects mogul — who officially became Hip Hop’s first billionaire in 2019 — also counts his Roc Nation company as part of his empire, as well as an array of investments across the sports, video games and legal cannabis industries.
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Despite their staggering net worths, neither Ye, RiRi nor Hov come close to touching the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, whose net worth currently stands at $219 billion thanks to Tesla and SpaceX.
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Also in the top 10 are Amazon boss Jeff Bezos ($171 billion), Microsoft mogul Bill Gates ($129 billion), business magnate Warren Buffett ($118 billion), Google co-founder Larry Page ($118 billion) and Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer ($91.4 billion).
Collectively, the 2,668 names included on Forbes‘ 2022 World’s Billionaires List are worth $12.7 trillion, down from a record $13.1 trillion last year.
