Kendrick Lamar topped hip-hop earners in 2025 with $109M, outpacing Drake by $31M after their feud, authorized fallout, and the runaway success of “Not Like Us.”

Kendrick Lamar secured his spot as Hip-Hop’s highest earner in 2025, pulling in $109 million to assert fourth place on Forbes’ annual record of top-paid musicians. The Compton rapper’s huge payday places him miles forward of longtime rival Drake, who ranked seventh with $78 million, based on Forbes.

The earnings hole between the 2 superstars tells an even bigger story than simply numbers. Kendrick’s monetary dominance comes after a 12 months through which he utterly destroyed Drake of their public feud, culminating within the chart-topping diss monitor “Not Like Us.”

The music didn’t simply win the tradition battle; it received the cash recreation, too.

Drake’s $78 million nonetheless places him amongst music’s elite earners, however the $31 million distinction between him and Kendrick stings further arduous, particularly after Drake’s embarrassing authorized defeat in October 2025, when a federal choose tossed his defamation lawsuit in opposition to Common Music Group over “Not Like Us.”

The Canadian rapper had sued UMG in January 2025, claiming the label unfairly promoted Kendrick’s diss monitor that referred to as him a pedophile. Drake argued the music broken his popularity and put him in peril.

The choose disagreed, dismissing the case and leaving Drake with nothing however authorized payments and a last-ditch attraction.

Kendrick’s $109 million haul got here regardless of not releasing any solo music in 2025. His earnings come from streaming royalties and the large worldwide success of his “Grand Nationwide Tour,” which raked in over $350 million.

The Forbes record reveals The Weeknd at primary with $298 million, adopted by Taylor Swift at $202 million and Beyoncé at $148 million. Kendrick’s fourth-place end makes him the highest-earning rapper on the whole record, a title that most likely tastes even sweeter understanding he beat Drake to get it.

Drake closed 2025 as Spotify’s most-streamed artist globally, however streaming numbers don’t at all times translate to the most important paychecks. Kendrick proved that profitable the tradition battle will be simply as worthwhile as profitable the streaming battle.

The earnings reveal caps off a brutal 12 months for Drake, who went from rap’s golden boy to public enemy primary after Kendrick’s lyrical assault. Between the diss tracks, the failed lawsuit, and a RICO case tied to Stake over streaming fraud, 2025 will go down because the 12 months Kendrick Lamar utterly owned Drake.

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