How Will Dr Dre Becoming a Billionaire Impact Hip Hop?

Dr Dre black-whiteThere’s a lot of chatter about Dr Dre becoming the first Hip Hop billionaire if his deal with Beats by Dre goes through with Apple… I’m not sure what all that means at the end of the day.. Am i happy Dr Dre might have a billion dollars? Sure.. There’s nothing to hate on..In fact, one might say his business acumen is inspiring. He made some head phones sold them and is doing well..But in terms of what it means for Hip Hop and Black people in general? I’m not sure..

First let’s be clear we already know a few billionaires. If you live in northern Cali there’s all sorts of billionaires from Mark Zuckerberg to the founders of Google, to Larry Ellison of Oracle to Steve Jobs when he was alive.. And even though they don’t live here we can toss in Oprah and Bill Gates for good measure. How have those billionaires impacted our day-to-day lives?

Record foreclosures occurred in Northern Cali as these folks made their billions..Tuitions at state schools like Cal increased 300% in the past 5-6 years.. Tuitions at CSUs also increased dramatically. Rents have tripled and for many the ability to live day-to-day has become much more difficult. So Yes, right here in our backyard we have lots of billionaires, several of them young. They are inspiring, but thats about it. With Dr Dre becoming the newest billionaire, I’m not sure how much things will change.

The other thing for us to think about is that Hip Hop has already generated billions.. Lots of record, radio and music industry executives have and continue to live quite well off of Hip Hop.. The eco systems connected to Hip Hop generate billions with many living well.. That’s been the case for quite some time.. Yet with all these billions Hip Hop has generated we see poverty has increased not decreased for the majority of the people who live in communities that gave birth to this culture.  And this increase in poverty is happening as we have quite a few Black folks in control of their careers and products and doing well.. From Jay Z to Diddy to 50 Cent to Russell Simmons to Steve Stoute to Ice Cube to Baby of Cash Money We got lots of Black folks making loot and doing well off of Hip Hop, but how has that trickled down to the masses other than us being consumers who fill their pockets?

Dr Dre hustlinDo I want to see Dr Dre become a billionaire? Sure if you can make your money do so.. But ideally I’d like to see a deal where Dre came back and said he sold Beats by Dre to Apple and in return he became a significant owner of Apple with the ability to set aside a few thousand well-paying jobs annually complete with a healthy budget for those wishing to start-up business to become the next Apple..Maybe thats wishful thinking..but why not put that out there and dream?

Do I want Dre to be a billionaire? Sure, but ideally I would’ve like to see him make a deal that Apple would have to build a tuition free top-notch college where Dre gets to set aside a few thousand seats for deserving folks from his community..Again why not dream big?After all Dre and his partner Jimmy Iovine did that for USC…

Whats so sad about all this is when Common and Kanye announced that they would be working to create 20 thousand jobs with their new foundation, folks worked over time to prove it couldn’t be done and then dissed them for asserting their goal..Some of those same people are giddy over Dre possibly being a Hip Hop billionaire..

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Comments

  1. BigJeryl says

    I believe that if Dre was going to do anything to help any of his people (HipHop/Black) he wouldn’t be getting a billion dollars. In fact, the system of capitalism and the gross disparity between the “Have’s” and the “Broke’s” is exactly why we are in need of help. The police that Dre used to dis, are now his employees. Maybe he should record a song called “Feed The Police” instead of F*ck The Police! Not to say that he shouldn’t take the money, but let’s be real… he has to be careful if he wants to keep it. He can no longer speak for the poor and the streets. Maybe that’s why he created the headphones… because he don’t want the un conscious to hear the screams of protest from the conscious.

  2. So damn true! I felt the same way. A friend of mine tried to explain why we should celebrate Dre’s success. I’m like why should I celebrate??? He made his brand by glorifying the hood and all the negative aspects of the hood and has done NOTHING for the hood in which he fostered his brand to the point he could not have the Beats by Dre deal otherwise. Most of these dudes are self serving and could care less about helping others, after all, a lot of gangsta rap glorified an oppressive lifestyle that they themselves failed to embrace in real life. Selling negative imagery that hurts the weak minded to get yourself ahead is no different then a drug dealer in my opinion.

  3. bob steele says

    dr. dre being a billionaire in net is just a surface seducer, and unfortunately for the last 25 years too many black folk in america get seduced by surface and symbols and would have a heart attack if they ever went below the surface and see the true reality, so what dr. dre being a net billionaire means nothing for hiphop, it means something for “dr. dre”. he is a businessman aka capitalist this ain’t 1988.

  4. jason jay says

    Sorry to rain in on the parade and troll, but Dre is the first hiphop billionaire, but is not the first billionaire

    1.Mansa Musa (King of Mali also known as the splendid king net worth of 100 million equivalent to 400 billion in todays cash)

    2. Bob Johnson Original owner of BET(Black Entertainment Television) net worth 3 billion
    3, Oprah net worth 2.7 billion
    4. Mohammed Al Amoundi net worth 9.0 billion
    5. Aliko Dangote net worth 3.3 billion
    6. Mike Adenuga
    7. Patrice Motsepe net worth 2.4 billion
    8. Folorunsho Alakija net worth 3.3 billion
    9. Mo Ebraham net worth 1.1 billion
    10 Micheal Lee Chins net worth 1.0 billion
    11. Micheal Jackson net worth 1.0 billion
    12. Dr Dre net worth 3.2 billion

    Black Billonaires
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnskv5d0Fjw

    Black Billionaires
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjkSVM3LUkY&list=PL1E5E199AB601D507

    Dr. Claude Anderson – Powernomics
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCQ9gh8EcY8

  5. Have you guys heard Apple is thinking about pulling out of the deal. I kind of new this would happen. First of all It was to over hyped, and some cats didn’t really know how to keep their emotions in check and went bragging about it all over the internet about it.

    Apple may decide to pull out of the deal. I kind of seen this coming.

    http://news.yahoo.com/dr-dre-drunken-boast-cost-company-3-2-125948069.html