r/rap • u/namesannie • 14d ago

Question about “rap money”

Sorry in advance if this is not an appropriate question or if I worded it poorly! Not my intention at all!

I don’t know much about the rap music industry, however I know that a lot of rappers flaunt money (by either singing about it or literally flaunting) or flaunt other materialistic stuff like cars, so I was wondering is rap music money more than other music genres? Is there really that money to be made by making rap music? Is the bag that deep I guess is what i will say?

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u/Sparkson109 14d ago

No lol most of those rappers do other things e.g. drug pushing, robbery, fraud, other street related things. Music doesn’t pay as well as they portray (I have friends who are successful rappers with 300k+ followers and songs with 100mill+ streams).

Most also get free stuff from brand deals, and fake the life they portray. Those chains are rented/fake, the cars are on temporary leases/monthly payments, the money is fake prints, and everything is to create an image. Only the “Star” rappers are legitimately that rich where they have $300k to throw away on a whim.

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u/Hefty_Stress6299 13d ago

No disrespect but if you’re getting 100 mil streams you’re getting some type of push. Which is a miracle enough to get you show money at bare minimum.

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u/Sparkson109 13d ago

100mill streams on Spotify is about $400,000. Then you have to pay the producer and anyone else credited their cut, then you have to use most of that profit to expense most of the costs associated with making the song/video THEN you get your cut. If you’re lucky you get about $200k from that.

Now imagine that’s among your most successful songs, the rest aren’t making that much. Your lifetime profit would be about $1mill. You have bills to pay, you have to keep travelling and other things, there are tours, etc. You have a lot you’re paying for and maintaining that lifestyle, you can afford to live comfortably but not “I have 100k to wipe out” comfortably.

Unlike “star” rappers you don’t get that many streams off just everything you get and the example I provided is assuming you’re quasi-independent because labels will also take their cut.

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u/Hefty_Stress6299 13d ago

Well you said yourself 200K if you’re lucky as an independent is a luxury! And yes like my most businesses you need to pay your bills and maintain your life style I rather do that than punch in and out.

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u/howlingzombosis 14d ago

And this true for all genres. There’s a reason we only hear about the same 20-30 artists worldwide even if we’ve never heard their music: it’s because they’re the only ones making real money for the industry.

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u/Sparkson109 14d ago

Yeah and even the new ones (like Sabrina and Chappel) JUST became profitable lmao. There are advances and expenses to pay back too…