Diddy Crowned No. 1 on The Forbes Five List of Hip-Hop’s Wealthiest Artists

Diddy is No. 1.

For the second consecutive year, the hip-hop mogul has topped The Forbes Five list of rap’s wealthiest artists. Diddy did it with a net worth of $550 million, his business fortunes including his Sean John clothing line, Ciroc vodka (which was aided by the new Peach flavor), the marketing firm Blue Flame and his newly-signed deal with Comcast for his very own cable channel, Revolt, which is set to launch next year. The acquisition and possible flourishing of Revolt should help Diddy on his march toward $1 billion.

Jay-Z ($460 million), Dr. Dre ($270 million), Baby ($125 million) and 50 Cent ($100 million) round out the The Forbes Five list of hip-hop’s wealthiest artists of 2012.

Hov got the nod for the second spot, largely in part to his earnings from the Watch The Throne tour with Kanye West, while Dre’s stake in Beats Electronics (the maker of his Beats By Dre headphones) stands at $100 million after HTC paid $300 million to buy 51% of Beats.

Meanwhile the Birdman enjoyed the success of acts like Lil Wayne, Drake and Nicki Minaj. He’ll likely see more dollar signs, when Cash Money’s deal with Universal is up this summer; something that’s likely to spark a bidding war to distribute YMCMB’s projects.

50 Cent was able to round out the Forbes Five by pushing his SMS headphone line and Street King energy drink, which he promises helps to feed hungry children in Africa.

In 2007, Jay-Z, Diddy and 50 Cent released “I Get Money (The Forbes 1-2-3 Billionaire Remix) to commemorate landing in the first three spots of Forbes’ first hip-hop list.—Jakinder Singh