Get dis money

You can tell it's been coming up on a year of XXL Blogs when you start seeing the same stories that were in the news this time last year. For example, I recently came across this Forbes list of the top moneymakers in music for the past year, which was one the first things I ever wrote about here.

Last year, my post focused on the fact that, contrary to what they'd have you think, rappers aren't the top moneymakers in the music business. In fact, not only do they make much less than the TIs who run the music business, but they also make a lot less than the top rock, pop and country artists.

The list on the Forbes site is in one of those dumbass slide shows, but I've gone ahead and copied down the top ten as well as their earnings for 2006. Checkit:

1. The Rolling Stones ($150.6 million)
2. Tim McGraw / Faith Hill ($132 million)
3. Rascal Flatts ($110.5 million)
4. Madonna ($96.8 million)
5. Barbra Streisand (95.8 million)
6. Kenny Chesney ($90.1 million)
7. Celine Dion ($85.2 million)
8. Bon Jovi ($77.5 million)
9. Nickelback ($74.1 million)
10. Dave Matthews Band ($60.4 million)

If I'm not mistaken, this is the Rolling Stones' second year in a row on top of this list. Otherwise, it's pretty heavy on country acts (two of the top three, in fact) as well as the kind of rock and pop artists who are only appreciated by people who live in rural areas, or - in Madonna's case - foreign countries.

You'll notice there isn't a single rapper on the list, with the closest thing to a hip-hop artist being either the Dave Matthews Band, who once did a song with Jurassic 5, or Madonna, who once slept with Big Daddy Kane and Vanilla Ice.

(That said, what rapper wouldn't be well-served by taking in the Stones' catalog?)

It would be interesting to see a list of the top moneymakers in rap (other than the TIs, natch) for 2006. Last year was an odd year in the sense that Eminem and Fiddy didn't put out albums. No rap albums released last year sold as well as, say, albums by Nickelback and Rascall Flatts.

If I had to guess, I'd say that Jay-Z was the top moneymaker in rap for '06. In addition to whatever he made from selling a million copies of Kingdom Come, there was also the $3 million he gets paid to pretend to be president of Def Jam, plus whatever he made from doing all those damn commercials.

Still, obviously the key to making it up there with the likes of the Stones and, um, Rascall Flatts is touring. Of course it's going to be more difficult for rappers to tour than rock, pop and country acts, but still. Even a fraction of what the Stones make would be a lot of money.

I thought making money through any means (that doesn't involve reading or writing) was central to the hip-hop ethos. Clearly, I was mistaken.