The world of hip hop still found a way to get to the bag in a pandemic-plagued 2020.
According to Billboard’s 2020 Money Makers list they published today (July 19), Post Malone, Drake and YoungBoy Never Broke Again were the three highest-earning hip-hop artists in 2020, a year that saw the COVID-19 pandemic effectively stop large-scale touring across the entire world.
Holding down the No. 1 and No. 2 spots for rappers on Billboard’s list are Post Malone and Drake. Posty earned $23.2 million, $12.4 million of which came from the 20 dates he was able to perform for his “Runaway Tour” before the pandemic shut the world down. Posty landed at No. 2 on the list overall, grabbing a spot just behind Taylor Swift.
For his part, Drizzy grabbed the No. 6 overall spot after taking home $14.2 million last year. A whopping $11.7 million of that total reportedly came from streaming. Looks like his Dark Lane Demos project paid some dividends.
YoungBoy’s fan base kept his pockets deep in a major way. Billboard says that last year, he earned $10 million from streaming alone. The amount made him the third highest-paid rapper of 2020. YoungBoy landed at No. 9 overall on the list. The Top artist’s ability to get big streams gave him massive edge over artists who might usually depend on touring for their revenue.
Other artists included on Billboard’s Money Makers list include Lil Baby, Travis Scott, Lil Uzi Vert, Roddy Ricch, Kanye West and more. Clearly, hip-hop is making it’s presence felt in the industry at large, even when they weren’t able to tour or any number of other things they’d usually be able to depend on in a regular year. Check out the whole list of highest-paid musicians at Billboard.