Crown Him King of Hip-Hop Billionaire's

If you already haven’t heard, you will soon find out, West Coast rapper Dr Dre is set to become hip-hop’s first billionaire. Apple is set to acquire Beats Electronics for a reported $3.2 billion. Under the Beats Electronics umbrella you have Dr Dre’s Beats by Dre. So what does this mean for Dr Dre? This means that not only will he take in $1 billion, but he will become a billionaire. So you’re probably saying that somewhere I did my math wrong, and my answer to you is, “actually I didn’t”. For those that may not have known let me break it down for you.

Beats Electronics was founded by Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine. For those that do not know who Jimmy Iovine is, I suggest you do a quick google search, if not, read on. Jimmy Iovine is a music producer, co-founder of Interscope Records, and is the current chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M. Iovine is definitely a well-seasoned man in this music industry.  Iovine and Dr Dre founded Beats Electronics in 2008. Through that they acquired other investors in order to make Beats Electronics what it is today. They signed a deal with Monster in order to manufacture and develop the Beats products, in which the deal was short lived because they now manufacture and develop their own products. During this time HTC acquired a large share of the Beats Audio to exclusively market the Beats Audio in their smart phones, as well as give consumers a least expensive version of the beats headphones. From this you saw the popular Beats by Dre, and later on the Beats Pill, Beats Audio in HP computers and Chrysler cars, as well as the new Beats Music app that allows subscribers to stream and listen to music through Beats audio.

By selling this Apple becomes the” head honcho” in the headphones and audio market. Do you think Apple will properly utilize all the things that they are set to acquire? In my opinion Apple needs another Steve Jobs, in order to fully market and make the best of this acquisition. Those will be hard shoes to fill, but this will be Apple's opportunity to fully capitalize on the fact that they've acquired one of the worlds largest headphone and audio brands. Being that Apple is paying well over what Beats Entertainment is worth which is $2.2 billion, I wonder what exactly they have up their sleeves. Nonetheless this is a smart move for Dr Dre, Jimmy Iovine, and all those that are involved. I still see Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine playing vast roles in Beats Entertainment even after the acquisition. But the ultimate question is how is this going to change the state of Hip-Hop, everyone wants to be #1 on that Forbes list. We will see how this plays out. What are your thoughts on Apple possibly acquiring Beats Entertainment?

*sidebar* What about that Detox album?! I guess we will keep hope alive!

Britt Daise
Urban Echelon Magazine & Blogspot

Twitter: thisisbee