Dr. Dre Becomes Hip-Hop’s First Billionaire With Apple Purchase Of Beats Electronics

Dr. Dre is soon to become hip-hop’s first billionaire with Apple likely to buy Beats Electronics, the company founded by the rapper.

The deal itself isn’t final, but reports have indicated that Apple is close to acquiring the high-end headphone and streaming music service company.

But while the details are still being worked out, Dr. Dre is already bragging about the deal.

“The first billionaire in hip hop right here from the motherf—-n West Coast,” Dre announces in a video shot by R&B artist Tyrese Gibson.

Gibson originally posted the video on his Facebook page, but later deleted it.

“Billionaire boys club for real homie,” Gibson said. “The Forbes list just changed. It came out like two weeks ago. They need to update the Forbes list!”

If the deal is finalized, it would mark a long journey since Dr. Dre first came “straight outta Compton” with the rap group N.W.A. In the years since debuting with the gangsta rap supergroup he became one of the most influential producers in the industry, discovering Eminem and founding the label Aftermath Entertainment.

In Beats Electronics he has built a company that experts see as a potential titan.

“Beats has a unique brand—it speaks to a nice young demographic, which is really interesting to marketers,” said Peter Csathy, former president of Musicmatch, an early digital music purveyor acquired by Yahoo in 2004 for $160 million. “When I think about Beats, I think about it as a lifestyle, I think of it as a media company, not just a hardware and music-focused company.”

But there is some question whether Dr. Dre would truly be a billionaire with the Beats Electonics sale to Apple. Forbes estimated that the sale would double his holdings, bringing Dr. Dre’s net worth to $800 million. While that may keep him just short of being a millionaire, Dr. Dre would easily be the richest man in hip-hop, about $100 million richer than the current champion Diddy.