Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. is best known by his stage name,Snoop Dogg. At a child he would sing and play piano at his church in Long Island, and later began writing rap lyrics as a teenager. After Snoop decided to focus on his music career, he caught the attention of the iconic record producer, Dr. Dre, in 1992, and even featured on Dre’s solo debut single, “Deep Cover”, and later his solo debut album, The Chronic, which would become a hip hop classic. A year later, in 1993 Snoop released his own debut album, Doggystyle, produced by Dr. De. A project that had high expectations after the public heard his features on Dre’s work. Snoop did not disappoint, and the album topped both the Billboard 200 and Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. After selling almost a million copies in the first week, Doggystyle became quadruple platinum. And that was only the beginning.
Since 1992, Snoop Dogg has sold over 37 million albums worldwide and has collaborated with some of the best artists in the industry. In November 2018, Snoop Dogg was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Besides songwriting, Snoop Dogg has starred in films, hosted television shows, and also coaches a youth football league and high school football team.
$115 million
The main songwriter for the Who, Pete Townshend, has written over 100 songs for The Who's 11 albums, including the rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia. He also penned popular rock radio staples like Who's Next, and so many more, that appeared as stand alone singles, compilations and bonus tracks.
Also, Pete has written more than 100 songs for his own solo albums, as well as commercial jingles and T.V. theme songs. Although he was known mainly as a guitarist, he also plays many other instruments, such as keyboards, banjo, accordion, ukulele, mandolin, violin, and drums. He plays these on his own albums, Who albums, and also as a guest contributor to other artists' recordings. He has no formal training and is said to be self-taught on all of the instruments he plays!
$40 million
The multi-talented Travis Scott is a rapper, singer, songwriter and producer. His successful career has made him around $40 million dollars, making him one of the highest-paid rappers in the industry. Needless to say, he's been getting tons of praise, most notably from a certain Kardashian member, Kyle Jenner. The two have been in an on-and-off relationship since 2017. Love life aside, Scott caught the attention of listeners in May 2013, when he released a mix-tape titled "Owl Pharaoh" on iTunes.
Things started getting a little serious when he performed at the South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival in Austin, Texas in 2014, and soon, his second mix-tape, "Days Before Rodeo", blew up. In 2015, Grand Hustle and Epic Records produced his first studio album "Rodeo." Artists such as Quavo, Juicy J, Kanye West, The Weeknd, Swae Lee, and Justin Bieber all jumped on to collaborate, sending him to number 3 on the US Billboard 200 chart. By 2016, his second studio album "Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight", was number one on the US Billboard 200.
$300 Million
While his name doesn't may not ring a bell to most, nearly everyone knows his band. James Alan Hetfield is the co-founder, lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and main songwriter for the American heavy metal band Metallica, one the most popular metal bands of all time. In 2009, Hetfield was ranked at 8th place in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists, he ranked 24th place by Hit Parader's list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time, and the Rolling Stone placed Hetfield as the 87th greatest guitarist of all time. Not too shabby we might add.
Metallica’s most successful album so far is their 1991 self-titled project “Metallica” which is also known as the Black Album. That album alone has sold 31 million copies worldwide. Metallica has released 24 singles, 10 studio albums, 3 live albums, 4 extended plays which have sold more than 125 million copies globally. Metallica has won 9 Grammys, and in April, 2009, Hetfield and his band members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
$130 Million
Bob Marley was a Jamaican reggae singer and songwriter. He started his music career in 1963 with his band group the Wailers and with them forged his distinctive songwriting and vocals that would later resonate with his fans worldwide. After the Wailers broke up in 1974, Marley went on to pursue a solo career with much success.
Still today, with over 75 million albums and singles, Marley is one of the world's best-selling artists in the history of music. He helped to transform reggae to a social force that's every bit as powerful as rock & roll at its prime.