Dr Dre is selling some of his music assets and income streams to Universal Music Group (UGM) and Shamrock in separate deals reportedly worth over $200 million. The deals are being negotiated by Dre’s longtime attorney Peter Paterno of King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano, according to multiple reports.
The assets reportedly generate some $10 million in annual income, according to Billboard and Variety. Assets acquired by Shamrock include royalties generated from his two solo albums, producer royalties and N.W.A royalties.
Shamrock could acquire 75% to 90% of the package revenue, which also owns some of Taylor Swift’s recordings. UMG will acquire the remaining 10% to 25% of income in the package, Billboard said about the deals nearing completion.
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Also, UGM’s acquisition includes the master recording of “The Chronic,” which is scheduled to revert to Dre from Death Row Entertainment, his share of an “Aftermath/Interscope joint venture with the Top Dawg label for Kendrick Lamar releases through that deal and other deals,” according to Variety.
Dr Dre currently has a net worth of $500 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. It is expected that the deals will get him closer to joining the exclusive list of black billionaires. Dre makes his money from music and various entrepreneurial endeavors.
He reportedly sold hundreds of millions of albums and singles at the peak of his music career. He also co-founded Beats, a consumer electronics company which was later sold to Apple for $3 billion. He reportedly earned $750 million from the deal.
In 2020, Forbes reported that he topped the 10 highest-earning musicians list with $800 million ahead of Taylor Swift and Beyonce, despite not releasing an album since 2015. Forbes reported at the time that his wealth was largely due to his 20% stake in Beats Electronics, a subsidiary of Apple Inc.
He was expected to become the first billionaire rapper ahead of Jay-Z. But his excitement over Apple’s 2014 acquisition of his Beats brand reportedly cost him some $200 million dollars and made him fall short of that status.
The revelation was made by Tripp Mickle in a new book he wrote about Apple under the leadership of Tim Cook following the death of Steve Jobs, iMore reported. Titled After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul, Mickle claimed Dr. Dre prematurely taking to social media to announce himself as “the first billionaire in hip-hop” while the deal was yet to be closed, gave Apple some leverage over the final acquisition price.
With his current net worth of $500 million, Dr. Dre is expected to reach $700 million in fortune should he conclude his deals with Universal Music Group and Shamrock. This means he is only $300 million away from becoming a billionaire.
