Most of those making the Top List (see below) earns some of their money through albums sales, ringtones and royalties but this is only a portion of their paychecks.

Jay-Z also owns the 40/40 Club sports bar franchise, with locations in New York and Atlanta, and a small stake in the NBA’s New Jersey Nets. The Brooklyn rapper also collects additionnal income from blue-chip endorsement deals with Budweiser, Hewlett-Packard, and General Motors.

50 Cent who presides over G-Unit owns a diverse portfolio of businesses that includes apparel, ringtones, video games and even a line of fiction books.

In 2007, Jay sold his Rocawear apparel label to Iconix for $204 million and will get an estimated $50 million out of the deal after taxes while 50 Cent will get an estimated $100 million out of the sale of Vitamin Water to Coca-Cola. Indeed, in 2004 as a very wise business man he agreed to plug VitaminWater in exchange for a small stake in the company.

Eminem earned $18 million and Dr Dre $20 million through their Interscope-backed imprints. They both helped produce and release 50 Cent’s last two albums, which have sold over 20 million copies worldwide.

Top Producers Timbaland ($21 million), Scott Storch, Pharrell Williams or Kanye West ($17 million each) make a very lucrative business by producing and selling top tracks to various artists.

Forbes also report that Snoop Dogg ($17 million) collected massive fees for cameos on other artists’ tracks. Last year, in addition to releasing Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, his eighth studio album, Snoop made guest appearances on hit singles by Akon, Mariah Carey and the Pussycat Dolls in 2006.

Complete Forbes List of the 20 Hip Hop Kings :

1. Jay-Z
2. 50 Cent
3. Diddy
4. Timbaland
5. Dr. Dre
6. Eminem
7. Snoop Dogg
8. Kanye West
9. Pharrell Williams
10. Scott Storch
11. Ludacris
12. T.I.
13. Outkast
14. Lil Jon
15. Ice Cube
16. Jermaine Dupri
17. Swizz Beatz
18. Chamillionaire
19. The Game
20. Yung Joc

Source : Forbes