HEAVYWEIGHTS

It’s been some year for Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter. In the past 12 months, the Brooklyn, N.Y.-born hip-hop demigod released a platinum album, signed a 10-year, $150 million deal with concert promoter Live Nation and tied the knot with longtime girlfriend Beyoncé Knowles. Quite a record. But only good enough for a silver medal. While Jay-Z topped Forbes.com’s inaugural Hip-Hop Cash Kings list of the top-earning people in the business last year, in 2008 he cedes the throne to Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, who raked in $150 million over the past 12 months–almost twice what Jay-Z made.

For the second year in a row, Sean “Diddy” Combs finished third on our list. The ageless Dapper Don of rap banked a cool $35 million from his revenue streams, including his clothing line Sean John, record label Bad Boy, premium vodka Ciroc and two reality-TV shows. Kanye West clocks in at No. 4 with $30 million. The pink-polo-sporting rapper and producer released his third solo album, Graduation, last September. After handily outselling 50 Cent’s Curtis in a head-to-head opening-week matchup, West’s album went multiplatinum and won four Grammys.Andre “Dr. Dre” Young banked $15 million even though he hasn’t had a hit in years–he still gets rich on royalties from two decades of hits. Tupac himself pulled in a handsome sum this year–about $15 million–even though he’s been dead for over 10 years. Tupac is probably having himself a last laugh from beyond the grave, knowing that his onetime friend Suge Knight isn’t cashing in on the bonanza.

Kudos to these brothas for making that paper, but geeze, Tupac made 15 Million this year?