After deal with Apple, will Beats' Dr Dre be hip-hop's first billionaire?

Apple’s deal with Beats Electronics is finally through and the company has acquired the headphone maker and music-streaming service for $3 billion. Beats was founded by rapper and hip-hop producer Andre Young, who better known by his stage name of Dr Dre, and Jimmy Iovine, who is also the chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M Records.

Thanks to the deal the co-founders will join Apple. The acquisition also means that Dr Dre is much closer to being hip-hop’s first billionaire. Currently his net worth is $550 million, but post the deal it could up to $800 or even more, according to this piece on BBC.

Previously a piece in The Independent had pointed out that according to “Forbes Dr Dre’s net worth was $550 million - just behind Sean Combs (aka Puff Daddy) who took the top spot with a cool $700m (Jay Z came third with an estimated $520m).” The piece pointed out that “Dre would need only an additional $450 to make it into the billionaire boys club (sic) a sum that’s roughly equal to a 15 per cent stake in Beats Electronics if the $3.2 billion valuation holds true.”

Since Apple has bought the company for $3 billion, he’s not yet made to the $1 billion mark. Although it is not clear how much of a stake Dr Dre holds in the company, though the report on Independent says it could be as high as 25 percent.

According to Forbes, “the deal would boost Dr. Dre’s net worth from a recent $550 million to somewhere between $700 million and $800 million, making him hip-hop’s richest man.” Post the deal Dr Dre is certainly the richest man in hip-hop, ahead of Jay Z.

Dr Dre was born Andre Romelle Young in Los Angeles. He first found success with the World Class Wreckin’ Cru in the 1980s and then with the group N.W.A. who were known for gangsta rap. In 1999 his album called “2001” won him the Grammy Award for Producer of the Year (Non-Classical). Post the success Dr Dre moved more into production. In 2006, he founded Beats with Jimmy Iovine and the first headphone was debuted called Beats by Dr. Dre Studio was launched in 2008.

In an interview to Esquire in December 2013, Dre said that he doesn’t listen to his music after it is released. “I don’t even listen to the records after they come out. It’s outlawed in my house. My wife and my kids can’t play any of my music around me. Once it comes out, for me, it’s just business. Numbers,” he had said.

For now, everyone is wonder about the numbers attached to Dr Dre and whether it has hit the $1 billion mark.