The chance of a Dr Dre new album looks to be slipping away ever further, at least if the man was still into his music career for monetary reasons. Why? Because the rap veteran looks to be earning his cash elsewhere these days, to such an extent that those list happy boys and girls over at Forbes have named him Cash King for 2012, a title given to the top earner in hip-hop.
That's right, whilst Dr Dre's Detox album sits gathering dust waiting for release, the 47 year-old has been earning his money through sales of his Beats By Dre headphones, which retail for upwards of $100. Teaming up with Interscope Records boss Jimmy Iovine in 2008, Dr Dre hit the jackpot when Htc paid $300 million for a 51% stake in the company, meaning that Dre walked away with a cool $100 million pre-tax from the deal. That became the bulk of the $110 million that has put Dre over $65 million ahead of Diddy in the Cash King list, with Jay Z languishing in third with a mere "$38 million".
Dre's strategy has been nothing if not aggressive; he was one of the few commercial companies who managed to make it past the Olympics strict advertising regulations during the recent games held in London. Dre supplied athletes with headphone so that they could wear them whilst warming up for their events. The story that he'd managed to do this became as big a help to the product as did the plain site of seeing the athletes donning them. Props to you Dre, but please give us some music soon.