Death and Taxes: Dr. Dre Still Awaits His Billion

Almost a year ago Dr. Dre (Andre Young) and Jimmy Iovine made a blockbuster move when Apple acquired Beats by Dre for a 3 billion dollars. This move certainly jolted Dre to the top of Forbes’ Hip Hop Cash Kings List. While looking at the deal at face value, Dr. Dre has been dubbed the first billionaire in Hip Hop…well almost. While the deal made Jimmy Iovine a billionaire thanks to him have a larger share than Dre, the good doctor took home around 750 million of that 3 billion. Of course the government has to get some of that money as well and Dre had to pay up 247.5 million in taxes.

That leaves just over 500 million to add to Dr. Dre’s worth which was already around 280 million. Thus as of today Dre is hovering around that milestone of a billion. Part of the deal was Apple’s 400 million in shares which is essentially how Dr. Dre will get to start seeing B’s versus a hell of a lot of M’s. Celebritynetworth.com predicts that as long as the Apple shares continue to rise and Dre continues to increase profits from other assets such as royalties and music sales, we officially will have the first hip hop act to have a billion dollars around this time in 2017. While he is very, very close and has a considerable leg up, the Compton rapper and producer still has to finish that race that is only between him, Diddy and Jay-Z to a billion.

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