Dr. Dre

Andre Young, known to the world as Dr. Dre, was born in Compton, California. He began his career in 1984 with the World Class Wreckin' Cru, then became a founding member of N.W.A, the group that helped define the sound of West Coast hip-hop in the late 1980s.

After leaving Death Row Records in 1996, Dre founded Aftermath Entertainment as a label under Jimmy Iovine's Interscope Records. Aftermath went on to launch or elevate some of the biggest names in music, including Eminem, 50 Cent, The Game and Kendrick Lamar, turning Dre into one of the most influential producers of his era.

In the mid-2000s Dre sat down with Iovine and complained about the quality of consumer headphones. The result was Beats Electronics, launched in 2008, a brand that combined bass-heavy sound with strong branding and quickly became a fixture of popular culture, followed by the Beats Music streaming service in 2014.

On 28 May 2014 Apple confirmed it was buying Beats for $3 billion, paying $2.6 billion in cash and $400 million in stock. It was the largest acquisition in Apple's history, and Dre, who owned a significant stake and took an executive role at Apple, saw the deal widely reported as making him hip-hop's first billionaire, although Forbes did not count him as one at the time.

Dre later expanded into spirits with the Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop line, and in 2026 Forbes officially added him to its World's Billionaires list, one of only a handful of musicians to appear on it. He has described his approach to wealth simply: he doesn't chase money, he tries to make the money chase him.