Dr. Dre is poised to become the rap world’s first bling-ionaire.
The music mogul all but confirmed Friday that Apple was buying Beats Electronics, the company he co-owns that makes the good doctor’s wildly popular Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, for $3.2 billion.
And he did so Compton-style.
“First billionaire in hip hop, right here on the motherf-----g west coast,” Dre is heard saying in a NSFW video that appeared on R&B singer Tyrese Gibson’s Facebook page.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the iPhone maker was close to inking a deal with Dre that would make the 49-year-old former chief of Death Row records hip hop’s highest roller.
Forbes calculated that after capital gains taxes, the deal would actually leave Dre about $200 million shy of being a billionaire. And his new net worth of around $800 million would not be enough to land him a spot on the Forbes 400.
But it would make Dre hip hop’s highest roller, putting him ahead of Puff Daddy, who currently tops the magazine’s rap-to-riches list with a net worth of $700 million.
Dre, whose real name is Andre Romelle Young, is second at $550 million.
In the video, Gibson served notice that “the Forbes list just changed.”
The Apple deal — the biggest acquisition in the generally conservative company’s history — would also include the new Beats Music streaming service, which Dre and his business partner Jimmy Iovine, legendary music producer, introduced in January to compete with Pandora and Spotify.
It would appear to signal an attempt by Apple, the world’s biggest seller of tunes, to revamp its music business more than a decade after it opened the iTunes download store.
“Beats has a unique brand—it speaks to a nice young demographic, which is really interesting to marketers,” said Peter Csathy, former president of Musicmatch, told Forbes.
Dre — who put the Los Angeles suburb of Compton on the musical map and helped guide the career of rappers like Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent and The Game, grew up in the projects with his divorced mom — a former singer.
An indifferent student, Dre found his calling when he was given a music mixer for Christmas in 1984 and turned his family home in a studio.
Armed with a moniker inspired by hoops star Julius "Dr. J." Erving, Dre first found fame with the pioneering gangsta rap group N.W.A., which included Eazy-E, Ice Cube and other soon-to-be famous hip hop stars.
It was one of the first rap acts to use explicit and raw language to tap the angst of Compton’s rough street life.
Dre co-founded Death Row records in 1991 and his debut solo album, “The Chronic,” sold hugely. He won the first of his six Grammy Awards for the single “Let Me Ride.”
Dre started Aftermath Entertainment in 1996 and signed Eminem and 50 Cent to his label. That led to acting roles in movies like “Training Day” for Dre, now a 49-year-old married father of five.
Along with the boatloads of cash came a newfound respectability and Dre soon became fast friends with the Brooklyn-born Iovine.
At 61, Iovine has worked with everybody from Bruce Springsteen to American Idol winner Phillip Phillips and is considered one of the wise men in the music business.
Their shared distaste for the iPod earbuds got them into the headphone game, and they launched the trendy line to compete with outfits like Bose and Skullcandy.
Selling for up to $450 a pair, the Beats headphones have been derided by critics as way too expensive and by music snobs as too big on bass sounds. But the kids are crazy for them.
The fledgling Dre and Iovine deal with Apple was first reported by The Financial Times.
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Forbes magazine’s rap to riches list and the current net worth of the Top 5:
— Puff Daddy $700 million
— Dr. Dre $550 million
— Jay Z $520 million
— Birdman $160 million
— 50 Cent $140 million
csiemaszko@nydailynews.com
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