On this day, May 28, in hip-hop history...

Kevin Winter, Getty Images
Kevin Winter, Getty Images
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2014: Hip-hop legend Dr. Dre sells Beats Electronics to Apple for a reported $3 billion on May 28, 2014. The deal made the California rap icon the richest man in hip-hop at the time, according to Forbes.

There had been rumors of the sale for weeks leading up to the actual acquisition. On May 8, 2014, news first surfaced that Apple would be acquiring the estimated $2 billion company in a $3.2 billion deal. Tyrese then took to social media and stated, "The first billionaire in hip-hop, right here from the muthafuckin' West Coast, believe it!" However, Apple didn't confirm the sale until the end of the month -- May 28. The move made waves in the hip-hop industry because of the names -- Dre, Apple, Jimmy Iovine -- and amount of money involved.

In February 2016, nearly three years after the acquisition, Zack O'Malley Greenburg of Forbes wrote an article detailing the ramifications of the deal, and why it was about much more than just headphones.

"Apple's multi-billion-dollar Beats acquisition wasn't just a one-off deal to get its hands on a hot product or piece of intellectual property," Greenburg wrote. "It was, in some ways, an acqui-hire–buying not only a company, but the time of its forward-thinking founders."

Big business.

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