They are the three most influential musicians in America… and they’re also the three richest.
In his new book, “3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, and Hip-Hop’s Multibillion-Dollar Revolution,” Zack O’Malley Greenburg details the strategic decisions and business deals that transformed these dynamic artists into business tycoons — amassing levels of fame and wealth stratospheres above their contemporaries.
With a combined net worth of well over $2 billion, the genius entrepreneurs are bona fide multifaceted businessmen. In his examination of the business savvy of the reigning kings of hip hop, Greenberg, a senior editor at Forbes, points to intuition and diversification.
Beyond Grammy awards, Sean “Diddy” Combs has multiple business ventures, assets
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 49: Jamilah Lemieux
Part 1: Jamarlin talks to digital media executive, activist and author Jamilah Lemieux. They discuss her article, “The Power And Fragility Of Working In Black Media” in the Columbia Journalism Review and Lamont Hill being fired by CNN for his comments on Palestine. They also discuss whether Michelle Obama’s words on Rev. Jeremiah Wright in her book “Becoming” were a false equivalence.
In 2018, Combs paid $21.1 million for Kerry James Marshall’s “Past Times” (1997). The grand scale painting depicts an African American family at leisure in a park. The history-making purchase set a new benchmark, becoming the highest price ever paid for an artwork by a living African-American artist.
Yet it was fellow hip-hop producer and art collector, Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean, who introduced Diddy to Marshall’s work. Also a Grammy-winning music producer and
Collecting works by living African-American artists is key. They comprise a great deal of his Dean Collection, built over a decade, with his wife, Alicia Keys, and recently shared in a New York Times Style Magazine feature.
While the leading king of net worth – Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter — and his wife, Beyonce have not officially shared their art collection, home video stills and blog posts show they own
In “Picasso Baby”, Jay Z rapped about wanting “a Picasso in my casa.” He actually plunked down $4.5 million in 2013 for “Mecca,” a 1985 work by Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988), the Black graffiti artist who became the
No. 1 selling American artist. A Basquiat artwork sold in 2017 for a record-shattering $110.5 million!
Jay-Z’s mother-in-law, however, was very forthcoming about her art. Tina Knowles Lawson recently opened the doors of her Hollywood home to share her Black art collection with Vanity Fair.
The biggest moguls in America — and their mommas — are investing in artwork by artists of color. And they’re not the only ones. Museums across the U.S., now realize they’ve been behind the curve in supporting, collecting
and exhibiting work by artists of color. So they are making great expenditures to try to make up for what has been gross neglect of the Black figure in museum collections.
The Broad art museum in Los Angeles paid nearly $12 million dollars in 2018 for Mark Bradford’s “Helter Skelter I” (2007). The monumental 34-foot, mixed-media collage was put up for sale by collector and retired tennis champion John McEnroe.
The Perez Art Museum Miami recently established a $1.1 million fund to acquire Black art. And the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, has, over the past few years, transferred through gifts and purchase, more than 300 works by 30 black self-taught artists, to 12 leading U.S. museums. The most recent round of acquisitions
This awakening of interest in Black art from museums trying to be inclusive and diverse, combined with celebrity buyers — from hip-hop entrepreneurs to Leonardo DiCaprio and Anderson Cooper – has created a virtual “gold rush.”
Contemporary Black art is the newest commodity. A
