The 48-year-old Missouri rapper just sold 50% of his catalog for $50 million. That means he just received a $50 million payday AND still owns 50% of a catalog that is now worth $100 million overall, on paper. So Nelly gets $50 million in cash (direct deposit) PLUS another $50 million in paper equity added to his net worth.

(Photo by Candice Ward/Getty Images)

Nelly offloaded the 50% stake to a private equity firm called HarbourView Equity Partners. Prior to this deal, HarbourView was best known for buying Latin superstar Luis Fonsi's entire publishing catalog back in January 2022 for an undisclosed amount.

HarbourView was founded by Sherrese Clarke Soares, an African American woman born to Jamaican immigrants. Soares has raised $1 billion from Apollo Global Management for HarbourView to invest in music catalogs, especially those from Black and Latin artists. Soares was connected to Apollo through Reggie Love, a former advisor to Barack Obama who is now a senior advisor at Apollo. Soares and Love connected on a shared desire to diversify the world of private equity.

As for the catalog HarbourView just acquired for $50 million, it includes eight albums and dozens of hit singles, including several that reached #1 on various charts. For example:

• "Hot in Herre": This infectious dance track from his second album, "Nellyville," topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart and won the Grammy Award for Best Male Rap Solo Performance in 2003.
• "Dilemma": A duet with Destiny's Child member Kelly Rowland, this song also reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and won a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.
• "Country Grammar (Hot Shit)": This was Nelly's debut single and it peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100.
• "Ride Wit Me": Featuring City Spud, this single peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped establish Nelly's reputation for catchy, feel-good anthems.
• "Just a Dream": This song from his 2010 album "5.0" reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, demonstrating Nelly's longevity in the music industry.
• "Over and Over": A collaboration with country singer Tim McGraw, this genre-blending track peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and showcased Nelly's versatility as an artist.

Speaking purely from personal experience, Nelly's 2000 debut "Country Grammar" was a generation-defining album. It was one of the very last CDs everyone had to own. Even 20+ years later, if you want to get a bunch of 35-45 year olds really excited on the dance floor, open up "Country Grammar" on Spotify, press play on track one and step back.

Country Grammar didn't go platinum. It went DIAMOND. That means more than 10 million copies sold. It is only the eighth rap album ever to go Diamond.

10 Best-Selling Rap Albums Ever

#10: 50 Cent "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" (2003) – 8.1 million copies sold

#9: Beastie Boys "Licensed to Ill" (1986) – 9 million

#8: 2Pac "All Eyez on Me" (1996) – 9 million

#7: Nelly "Country Grammar" (2000) – 10 million

#6: 2Pac "Greatest Hits" (1998) – 10 million

#5: MC Hammer "Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em" (1990) – 10 million

#4: Eminem "The Eminem Show" (2002) – 10.1 million

#3: The Notorious B.I.G. "Life After Death" (1997) – 10.2 million

#2: Eminem "The Marshall Mathers LP" (2000) – 10.6 million

#1: OutKast "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" (2003) – 11.4 million

Read more: Nelly Just Sold Half His Music Catalog For $50 Million

As 50 put it:

"I came back, I had $38 million in my account…And all I had was a two-bedroom apartment that was $800 a month."

Rent was obviously quite a bit lower in 2003 than it is today, but according to 50 Cent, low rent can be a curse when you've got a lot of money coming in:

"If you don't spend it, you know the IRS is going to take it. So I needed the expenses."

JC Olivera/Getty Images

50 Cent said he upgraded his digs in a massive way, purchasing a house in Connecticut that belonged to Mike Tyson. He reportedly spent $4.1 million on the property, then invested another $10 million on expansions and renovations before selling it off. It's interesting to note that as 50 puts it now, he bought the house not because he really wanted a bigger house but to simply avoid additional taxation.

He also shared some more insights into his financial ups and downs, saying that what comes across in public is often only part of the story:

"You make investments in different things. Sometimes they win. Sometimes they don't. More losses than wins but when you do win you win so big it makes up for everything… People look now and say they're feeling momentum of me in television now. But I started this ten years ago."

20 years later, it's amusing to think about 50 Cent living in an $800-a-month apartment during the early stages of his superstardom. And it's also striking to think that back then you could get a two-bedroom apartment for $800!

Read more: Early In His Career 50 Cent Live In An $800-A-Month Apartment And Had $38 Million In The Bank

For those of you who were born after 1990, Mötley Crüe is a heavy metal glam band that was founded in 1981 by bassist Nikki Sixx, drummer Tommy Lee and original guitarist/lead vocalist Greg Leon. Leon quit pretty soon after the band was formed. One day, while searching for a replacement, Tommy and Nikki saw an ad in a local music paper that said: "Loud, rude and aggressive guitar player available." That ad was placed by a guitarist named Robert Deal. Bob auditioned and got the gig. Bob Deal is better-know today by his stage name, Mick Mars. For lead singer the group tapped a guy Tommy knew from high school named Vince Neil.

Over the next four decades, that primary foursome would sell over 75 million records worldwide. They sold out stadiums at their peak and are still a popular touring act today.

In the 1990s they wisely decided to forego a $10 million payment they were owed from their record company in exchange for ownership of their master recordings. In December 2021, they sold their masters to BMG for…

$150 million

That amount was split equally by all four members. In other words, all four got $37.5 million.

But it hasn't all been parties and cash windfalls over the last four decades. In fact, the Crüe has seen near-constant ups and downs over the course of their career. Everything from overdoses, countless rehab stints, stolen sex tapes, waning popularity, a dozen ex-wives…

Unfortunately, in recent months Mötley Crüe has been in a decidedly low period thanks to a war that has pit Mick Mars squarely against his longtime band-mates.

Mötley Crüe In 1984 (Photo by Ross Marino/Getty Images)

Retiring From Touring

In October 2022, a month after playing what turned out to be his final live show, Mick Mars announced he was retiring from touring with Mötley Crüe.

The announcement wasn't a shock to fans or his band mates. Not only is Mick in his early 70s (he's a decade older than the other Crüe members), he has suffered from a debilitating disease since his late teens that causes vertebrae in his spine to slowly fuse together over time. This disease caused scoliosis that has resulted in Mars being three inches shorter today than he was in high school.  In the band's 2001 biography "The Dirt," Mars described his pain as such:

"…it felt like someone was igniting fireworks in my bones."

According to Mick's very specifically-worded statement in October 2022, he was "retiring from touring with Mötley Crüe." That sentence is key to this story.

From Mick's point of view, he was simply choosing to no longer tour with the group. He still fully intended to maintain his 25% ownership stake in the band, and therefore enjoy 25% of all profits.

From the band's point of view, outside of touring there was nothing else. They had already sold their masters and publishing rights and they weren't putting out new records that would generate new royalties, masters or publishing rights.

According to Nikki, Tommy and Vince, the only money that the band earns today is from touring, so "retiring from touring" meant retiring from everything and relinquishing ownership. The band felt especially strong about their stance because with Mick gone they had bring on a new full-time replacement guitarist, John 5. And John 5 would like to earn his fair share of the spoils going forward.

As a compromise, Nikki, Tommy and Vince offered Mick 5% of all profits earned from their 2023 stadium tour. A tour he will not have participated in. After the 2023 tour, Mick would no longer own any share of Mötley Crüe.

They eventually upped their offer to 7.5%, but that has not satisfied Mick. He's actually gone somewhat scorched earth, accusing his former band mates of faking their live shows with recorded drums, vocals and bass. A claim the band mostly denies, though they do admit some recorded tracks are used to maintain a certain quality of live performance.

The band has countered with their own scorched earth tactics, recently producing statements from a half dozen touring techs to Variety.com that paint a very negative picture of Mick's abilities in recent years. The techs claim Mick has been known to forget which song he's playing mid-concert, or that he'll randomly start play the wrong song, mid-song.

Could You Live On That?

Speaking with Variety, Allen Kovac, the band's manager of three decades, sounded pretty exasperated about the whole situation. And this is where we learn some fascinating financial details about the group:

"They've got (a 2023 tour) they're about halfway through, so let's (estimate) $150 million (in gross), and then you take off for production and commissions, and let's call it 100 or 110 million. What's seven and a half percent of that? He says it's an insult… I think Mick is part of the 1%. Please put that on the record. … Let's say it was seven and a half percent of $110 million. Could you live on that, even if you have tens of millions already?"

In case it wasn't clear, what Kovac is saying is Mötley Crüe should gross around $150 million from their 2023 tour. After removing costs, there would be $100 million in profits left over. Under normal circumstances, all four members would get $25 million. In the band's offer to Mick, he would earn 7.5% of $100 million for doing nothing. That's $7.5 million earned from the comfort of his home sweet home.

Could you live off that? Knowing that you're already worth tens of millions? FYI, by our count, Mick Mars' net worth is $50 million.

On the other hand, Mick spent four decades building a brand with his band mates. A brand that will likely generate lots of income even outside of touring in the future. For example, merchandise. Or what if the band does put out another album, with John 5, that becomes a huge hit? Shouldn't Mick have some benefit?

Let's hope these guys eventually reach some settlement and don't embark on a never-ending Crüe-sade.

Read more: Mötley Crüe's War With Guitarist Mick Mars Has Exposed Some Fascinating Band Financials

But it's true. 50 Cent's smash-hit debut single was released in January 2003. It debuted at #67 on Billboard's Hot 100 Chart. A few weeks later it was in the top 10. It then spent nine consecutive weeks at #1. So if you time traveled to this exact date 20 years ago, "In da Club" would have been the #1 song in the country. The #2 song was R. Kelly's "Ignition (Remix)." The #3 song was Sean Paul's "Get Busy."

Anyways. As you know, 50 Cent was a master at capitalizing off the success of his 12x Platinum debut album "Get Rich or Die Tryin." In the 20 years since he exploded on the scene, 50 Cent carved out a career that has been marked by some very unique highs and lows.

Career Highs

In the last 20 years 50 Cent sold over 30 million albums and 100 million singles worldwide. He became a respectable actor. He's produced several successful television shows. He's had several successful alcohol brand collaborations, including Effen Vodka and a deal with Sire Spirits cognac which has led to several NBA team official partnerships. Most importantly, 50 Cent revolutionized the concept of the celebrity endorsement deal after he demanded equity over cash from Vitamin Water and ended up making $100 million.

Career Lows

50 had a to pay $10 million to an ex-girlfriend of rival rapper Rick Ross after posting a sex tape that featured the woman on his social media. Around the same time, a headphone company sued him successfully for trademark infringement. This resulted in a $17.5 million legal judgement. The combined $22.5 million worth of urgent legal fees forced 50 Cent to declare personal bankruptcy in July 2015. 50 has recently claimed to have spent more than $20 million on legal fees alone during his career. His albums sales cooled and he's had a number of public feuds, most notably with former BFF Floyd Mayweather.

Through it all, we have tracked the highs and lows of 50 Cent's net worth. By our count, at his absolute zenith circa 2009 (post Vitamin Water cash-out, pre-lawsuits), 50 Cent was worth $100 million. At his lowest point after the bankruptcy filing, 50's fortune was briefly zero because his assets were almost exactly out-weighed by his debts.

Today, thanks to a lucrative Starz production deal, the sale of Effen Vodka, his Sire Spirits deal and a career resurgence that has seen him back on a world tour, we estimate that 50 Cent's net worth is currently…

$40 million

That's a perfectly respectable fortune. However, if recent claims made by Mr. Cent are to be believed, he's actually been a billionaire since 2007…

(Photo by Gregory Bojorquez/Getty Images)

"Billionaire Since 2007"

So where are we going with all of this build up? I wanted you to have all of that background before telling you the following:

On a recent episode of "The Enthusiast Podcast." 50 Cent made the outlandish claim that he has "been a billionaire since 2007."

In his own words:

"So when they financially say, "Oh you're a billionaire, this person is a billionaire', it's like, 'I've been a billionaire since 2007. I'm that far from where I came from that I've been a billionaire financially [since 2007] because everybody around me is being paid…"

50 claims he has been a billionaire for years but "public perception" has made it so he has never been officially deemed a member of the three comma club like other celebrity billionaires like Jay-Z, George Lucas, Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry/

FYI, by our count, not only is Jay-Z the richest rapper in the world with a $2 billion net worth, he's also the ONLY billionaire rapper in the world today.

Diddy comes in a close second with a net worth of $900 million.

A year ago Kanye West was a billionaire. As you probably heard, that's no longer the case.

Dr. Dre came extremely close to hitting billionaire status a few years after selling Beats by Dre to Apple. According to his own divorce filings Dr. Dre was worth around $450 million in late 2021. Today he is worth $500 million. That's after paying his ex-wife a $100 million divorce settlement and selling his music catalog for $200 million.

As much as I want to believe that 50 Cent is a billionaire, and has been since 2007, unfortunately that claim does not match reality. First of all, let me remind you that 50's own bankruptcy court filings showed he was essentially worth ZERO dollars in 2015. In the filings he claimed to have $10-50m worth of assets and an equal amount of debt. So right there, we know he was nowhere close to being a billionaire in 2015.

Furthermore, there just have not been any significant windfall events or investments in recent years that could possibly justify 50 Cent's fortune being $1 billion today, let alone "since 2007." We stand by our $40 million current net worth estimate until proven otherwise.

In the meantime, if 50 Cent wants to be an official billionaire at some point, he's gonna have to get much, much, much richer… or die tryin.

Read more: 50 Cent Claims He's "Been A Billionaire Since 2007"

Here is a recap of the former story to bring you up to speed:

As you probably know, Sting first gained fame and fortune as the lead singer of the Police. Back in 1982 Sting and his band mates co-wrote a little song called "Every Breath You Take." Actually the previous statement isn't accurate and that's where this story starts to get interesting.

Despite the fact that all three members of the Police contributed to its composition, the song credit (and therefore ownership) for "Every Breath You Take" is 100% credited to Sting. Sting wrote the lyrics, Stewart Copeland played the drums, and – this will become important – Andy Summers wrote the famous guitar riff that you're probably thinking of right now as you read this sentence.

According to Andy Summers years later, he came up with the famous riff after getting into a heated argument with Sting which ended with Sting telling him "go and make it your own." Perhaps because he was exhausted from fighting or just didn't care, but Andy never requested a share of songwriting credit on "Every Breath You Take."

As the song's sole composer, for the next 40 years Sting earned the vast majority of royalties generated whenever the song was played on the radio, sampled or included in something like a commercial or a movie.

(Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for NARAS)

Enter: Puff Daddy

You are probably aware that Diddy – who then was going by Puff Daddy – sampled "Every Breath You Take" for his 1997 song "I'll Be Missing You." The song, which was a tribute to his late friend the Notorious B.I.G, was a MASSIVE hit. It would go on to win a Grammy and, more importantly for our purposes, was one of most-played songs on the radio for several years to come and is one of the best-selling singles of all time, at a time when people actually bought singles.

Great news for everyone, right?! Diddy, Sting, Andy and Stewart all must have been showered with royalties, right?!

Nope.

You already know why Andy and Stewart didn't receive any royalties thanks to "I'll Be Missing You." This fact is especially annoying to Andy Summers because if you listen to Diddy's song, Sting's voice isn't present and Stewart Copeland's drums are missing. The only musical element that was actually sampled from "Every Breath You Take" to create "I'll Be Missing You," was Andy Summers' guitar riff. So even though his creation fueled what became a massive hit, Andy gets nothing from the Diddy version.

Unfortunately, Diddy also basically gets nothing. All because he forgot to do something very important before creating the track.

As it turned out, no one from Bad Boy Records (Diddy's company) remembered to secure permission from Sting to sample "Every Breath You Take" for what became "I'll Be Missing You."

Had Diddy asked permission first, he likely would have been required to hand over 25% of I'll Be Missing You's publishing royalties to Sting. By forgetting to ask permission before the song was released, Sting was able to demand and receive 100% of the remix's publishing royalties.

I'll Be Missing (Royalties)

So how do we know Sting was at one time earning $2,000 A DAY in royalties thanks to "Every Breath You Take"?

In a 2010 interview, Sting's own business manager revealed that the musician earned an average of $2,000 in royalty income every day from that one song alone. That works out to $730,000 per year, for a song at the time of the interview had been composed 30 years prior.

Sting's manager further claimed that this one song had been responsible for a quarter of all the lifetime publishing income earned by Sting up to that point, roughly $40 million.

$5,000 A Day

Recently, a 2018 interview with Sting on "The Breakfast Club" radio show made the rounds online.

In the clip, which we'll embed below, Charlamagne Tha God asked Sting directly about the legend of his $2,000 daily royalty earnings coming mostly thanks to Diddy not asking permission. When asked if the story is true, Sting replied with a simple:

"Ya"

When Diddy himself saw this clip circulating on Twitter Wednesday morning, he replied with:

"Nope. 5k a day."

Now, in fairness, it's not clear if Diddy is just being cheeky. Though, I also wouldn't be surprised if the royalties generated in 2023 were significantly higher than in 2013. A decade ago people were still largely not paying for music. Today artists earn royalties every time their song is streamed on Spotify, used in a TikTok, played on YouTube…

If Diddy's revelation is true, $5,000 a day would work out to $1.825 million per year. Not a bad little income for something Sting did 40 years ago.

But there's yet another twist in this story!

Sting Cashes Out

In February 2022, Sting sold his entire song writing and publishing catalog rights to Universal Music Publishing Group for $300 million. The sale included his entire song catalog from his time with The Police and as a solo artist. So in other words, if "Every Breath You Take" generates $5,000 per day in royalties today, those checks now go to Universal Music Group 🙂

Before we leave you – Consider the previous statement from Sting's manager about how 1/4 of all of his royalties are related to "Every Breath You Take." If that remained true, one can presume that around $75 million of his $300 million catalog sale was attributable to that one song alone. And that's one top of the tens of millions Sting had already earned prior to February 2022. So let's call it… conservatively… $120 million in royalties generated for Sting by that one song. All thanks to something he did 40 years ago.

Nope. 5K a day. Love to my brother @OfficialSting! 😎 ✊🏿🫶🏿 https://t.co/sHdjd0UZEy

— LOVE (@Diddy) April 5, 2023

Read more: Diddy's "I'll Be Missing You" Royalty Payments To Sting Are Even Higher Than We Thought

And West might be looking to sell it.

Billboard reported West and his team are possibly testing the market for his musical catalog, which Sony Music Publishing currently administers. And, in typical Kanye fashion, he's looking for a big return: a 35x multiple on his publishing earnings. So just how much money could that be?

Rich Fury/VF20/Getty Images for Vanity Fair

Per Billboard, West's catalog generates about $13.25 million in publishing royalties annually. Multiply that by 35 and you get $463.75 million. But it's not quite that simple. Remember how we talked about West collaborating with other musicians? Those people have to get paid, too. Additional songwriters, performers, and creators of sampled songs featured on West's tracks all receive a piece of the pie.

Factoring that complexity in, Billboard estimates a more modest breakdown for West. He earns about 35% of songwriting royalties from his first four albums — The College Dropout, Late Registration, Graduation, and 808s & Heartbreak — and 20% on everything that's come since, from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy onwards.

That leaves West with about $5 million per year in publishing royalties. A 35x multiple would mean $175 million if the catalog sells successfully. But again, it's not that simple. Even the biggest pop superstars haven't managed to snag a return of 35 times their earnings. Bob Dylan sold his catalog to UMG for 28 to 29 times his royalties. Hipgnosis Songs Capital bought Justin Timberlake's catalog for 28-times gross profit, at most.

West's catalog is also still in its prime, and a buyer could be worried about the potential earnings decay in his songs. It happens with just about every artist — when their song first hits radio airwaves, it gets played ad nauseum. But as time goes on, the radio rotations become less frequent. Some of Kanye's songs that have been massive hits over the past decade will never return to radio in the coming years, which would lower the annual returns.

Any buyers would also have to reconcile with West being one of the most unpredictable musicians out there. He's already run for President of the United States, crashed an awards ceremony, and changed his name. It's not farfetched to think something else could happen that hinders future earnings, even if only temporarily.

Representatives for West have denied shopping his catalog around. But with the recent trend of musicians forgoing regular payments in the future for a big payday now, a sale of Kanye's music wouldn't be surprising. Certainly no more surprising than some of the other things he's done.

Read more: Want To Own Kanye West's Publishing Catalog? It's For Sale, But Considering The Annual Royalty Income, It's Not Going To Be Cheap…

As you might imagine for a family with nine children, money was tight. Money was especially tight after Irving Sr. was unexpectedly laid off by the cab company. As Irving Jr. would later tell it, his father got laid off because he was approaching the point where he would have earned a pension. So, after working for the company for just under 20 years, he suddenly found himself out of work.

To make extra money for himself and the family, Irving Jr. began getting mixed up in the street life, selling drugs around the neighborhood. The bad news is he got caught eventually. The good news is the arrest set him on a straight path. Irving Jr. gave up dealing to focus on music. Hip-hop specifically.

In the early 1990s, Irving Jr. used his neighborhood connections to scout for up-and-coming hip-hop talent. He developed a solid reputation in the industry and by the mid-1990s was producing tracks and bringing his best up-and-comers to Russell Simmons' record label Def Jam. One of those up-and-comers was Jay-Z.

In 1996 Irv helped produce Jay'z debut album "Reasonable Doubt." During one of these recording sessions, Jay-Z suggested Irving Lorenzo choose a new last name. Something grittier. Something that connoted power and wealth. The last name Jay-Z suggested was:

Gotti

An homage to the gangster John Gotti. And thus, Irving Domingo Lorenzo Jr. became…

Irv Gotti

(Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET)

Murder Inc.

The next artist Irv Gotti brought to Def Jam was named Earl Simmons. Earl was signed and was soon working side-by-side with Irv to produce a debut album. That debut album, "It's Dark and Hell Is Hot," was released in May 1998. That artist is better known by his stage name, DMX.

Off the success of DMX, Irv finally got what he long-wanted. A label of his own. In 1999 Irv and his brother Chris co-founded Murder Inc. Records. In exchange for $3 million in startup capital, they Def Jam also received 50% ownership in the company.

One of Murder Inc.'s first signings was a rapper named Jeffrey Atkins, better known as Ja Rule. Rule's debut album "Venni Vetti Vecci" was released on June 1, 1999. That album featured the breakout hit "Holla Holla." The success put Murder Inc. On the map. Thanks to additional smash hits from Ashanti and Christina Milian, Murder Inc. went on to sell 30 million units and generated more than $500 million in revenue.

Cashing Out

In a move that definitely would have made his father extremely proud, Irv Gotti recently struck a deal to sell the Murder Inc. masters to music management firm Iconoclast.

According to a social media post from Irv himself:

"I'm signing a deal worth $300 million. $100 million of the deal is me selling my masters…My masters — and I only own half, I own 50-50 with Universal Music Group — half my masters is worth $100 million. That's fucking insane."

Extrapolating that a bit, from what I can gather Irv sold the Murder Inc. masters for a total of $100 million. But, as you recall from a moment ago, Def Jam… which is now owned by Universal Music Group… owns half of Murder Inc. So my understanding is that Irv personally just received $50 million from the deal.

There's one caveat though – I'm not sure if Irv's brother Chris would get a portion of that amount as his co-founder??

Either Irv's deal with a really nice sweetener. In his own words:

"Not only is the company buying my masters, but they're giving me like a $200 million line of credit for me to not just produce and create, but now own my television [projects]."

So in total it is indeed a $300 million deal all-in. Not bad for the son of a graveyard-shift working cab driver!

Read more: Irv Gotti Just Sold The Murder Inc. Masters For $300 Million

The proposal is still in its early stages, and specific terms aren't yet known. But multiple sources close to Pink Floyd says that band reps have had private discussions with companies that might be interested in purchasing a catalog that includes some of the best selling albums of all time.

(Photo by MJ Kim/Getty Images)

The band itself hasn't confirmed the report, but if it's accurate it could be the first sign of another mammoth music deal, similar to those signed by giants like Bob Dylan, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, and many others. It's not hard to see why the band's current membership (which notably does not include key member Roger Waters, who quit the band in 1995 and has engaged in various legal squabbles over use of the Pink Floyd name since) would be interested in a quick cashout. The Pink Floyd recorded catalog has sold more than 75 million units just in the US, including classics like "Dark Side of the Moon" and "The Wall," singles from which are still classic rock radio staples to this day. To put that sales figure in perspective, that's roughly twice as many domestic sales as Dylan has tallied up, and his recorded catalog sale to Sony was reportedly somewhere in the neighborhood between $150 million to $200 million.

Most recently, David Gilmour and Nick Mason reunited under the Pink Floyd moniker to release a song in support of Ukraine earlier this year.

Read more: Pink Floyd Members Are Seeking Offers For Their Catalog – Could Be The Biggest Deal Ever

Investing through his venture capital firm, QueensBridge Ventures, Nas first invested in Coinbase back in 2013, as part of the company's "Series B" funding round. That round raised $25 million at a valuation of $143 million.

QueensBridge typically invests $100 – $500 thousand when it participates in a private funding round. Using that range, one could extrapolate that QB was able to secure 100,000 – 500,000 shares of Coinbase thanks to that investment nearly a decade ago.

When Coinbase went public on April 14, 2021 it ended its first day of trading at $342 a share. At that level, Nas' presumed 100-500k shares were worth between…

$34 and $171 million

An absolutely incredible return on a presumed $100-500k investment. And who knew? Maybe Coinbase was about to be the next Google or Apple and soon Nas would be sitting on a billion dollar crypto stock fortune.

Unfortunately that turned out to not be the case, so far.

Coinbase stock is down 83% from its all-time high, including a 25% drop in just the last 24 hours alone.

So, I really, really, really hop Nas decided to sell at some point in the last year.

(Photo by Romain Maurice/Getty Images for Carbone Beach)

After struggling between May 2021 and October 2021, Coinbase's share price climbed from around $230 back up to its $342 IPO level by mid-November. Unfortunately, as of this writing, that is looking like the absolutely peak before an extremely precipitous fall.

On Monday Coinbase closed at $103 a share. On Tuesday it closed at $73 a share. On Tuesday afternoon, Coinbase released its quarterly earnings report. It was ugly to say the least. Transaction volume is down. Costs are up. Revenue was a miss. The company is implementing a hiring freeze. As I type this article, Coinbase is down 27% compared to yesterday, at $53 per share.

At $53 per share, if Nas still owns a presumed 100-500k Coinbase shares, those shares are worth between…

$5 and $26 million

Still an impressive return, BUT if the $5 million range is correct, that's "only" around $3 million after taxes if he sold today. That's a pretty far cry from the amazing $100 million windfall we wanted so badly to be true a year ago.

Read more: I Really, Really, Really Hope Nas Sold His Coinbase Shares Months Ago

Today it was finally confirmed, as first reported by Variety, that Drake inked a one of the biggest deals in music history. How big of a deal?

$400 million

That finally also explains the information we had been tipped to that Drake's net worth had officially crossed the quarter-billion mark.

(Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

This deal may have been obvious to anyone paying attention to Drake's lyrics on several recent tracks. For example, here's a line from Drake's song "Lemon Pepper Freestyle" which was released on March 5, right around the time he was closing on the $70 million mansion purchase:

"360 up front, it all comes full circle."

Did that mean he was signing a new "360 deal" As in a 360-degree deal covering multiple aspects of his career, from touring to merchandise to distribution? Did that mean he signed a $360 million deal? Perhaps BOTH and that's what he meant by "full circle"?

A few months earlier on the Migos song "Havin Our Way," Drake's verse contained this lyric:

"Shit done changed, billionaires talk to me different when they see my paystub from Lucian Grainge."

Who is Lucian Grainge?

Drake has been signed to Lil Wayne's Young Money label since 2010. Young Money is an imprint under the umbrella of Cash Money Records. Cash Money sits under the umbrella of Republic Records. Republic Records is owned by Universal Music Group.

Lucian Grainge is the Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group.

And here's what Lucian Grainge had to say on Universal's Q1 earnings call yesterday:

"The biggest artists today are also leaning in and expanding their relationship with UMG in every region, and for this, we are particularly proud. Drake is a prime example… Our new long-term worldwide partnership with Drake… expanded from recorded music to music publishing, film, television and brands. And we couldn't be more excited about what lies ahead for our relationship."

Drake has sold 37 million albums for Universal since 2014. In that same period he has generated tens of billions of Spotify streams. He was the very first artist to top 50 billion streams on Spotify. Variety estimates that Drake's music generates $50 million per year in revenue.

So it wouldn't be surprising that Drake would be in line for a massive payday. At $400 million, it would essentially be an 8X multiple of his annual catalog revenue.

In a potentially-prophetic twist, Drake bought his $70 million Beverly Hills mansion from British singer Robbie Williams. Robbie himself bought his first Beverly Hills mansion in 2002 upon signing a $150 million contract with music label EMI. It was the largest contract ever paid to a British musician up to that point and it was one of the very first "360 deals" in the music business.

So Drake's new $400 million deal truly is "full circle."

Read more: Drake Just Signed A $400 Million Deal With Universal – One Of The Biggest Deals In Music History