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For the first time in history, a hip-hop artist has reached $1 billion in worth.  Yes, Jay-Z is now the first hip-hop billionaire due to his partnership with liquor brands ($410 million), Tidal ($100 million) and Roc Nation ($75 million.  Then there’s his $220 million in cash and investments.

I know a lot of you, like me, thought Dr. Dre already hit the billion dollar mark when he sold Beats By Dre to Apple for $3 billion but Forbes claims that his net worth is at $850 million.

Music service MOG was purchased last week by ‘Beats Electronics’, the company founded by Dr. Dre and Interscope/Geffen/A&M chairman Jimmy Iovine.  No changes to the service or issues for current MOG users/subscribers.

Ok so I’m sure you heard about Dr. Dre and his “Beats By Dre” that he started with Jimmy Lovine from Interscope records. Well HP created a laptop and netbook line called “Envy” and the ad campaign with ‘Under Pressure’ which collaborates Dre with Jay-Z as the soundtrack. Check out the ad:

On June 25th, ASCAP is going to present Dr. Dre with the Founders Award. ASCAP President/Chairman Paul Willaims said “Dre is one of the most important voices in modern music. He created a unique, recognizable sound that dominated rap music in the early 90’s..and continues to inspire artists and producers across all genres with his musical techniques.”

Dre’s ‘The Chronic’ has sold over 3 million copies and ‘Dr. Dre 2001’ has sold about 6 million. He’s also won five Grammy Awards and of course has hits with Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, 2Pac, Gwen Stefani and Eminem.

Damn does he deserve that. Now if he can only get ‘Detox’ out sometime this decade.

Obie Trice has launched his own label called ‘Black Market Entertainment, LLC’. After he left Shady Records people didn’t think he could continue on his own. His launch party was held in a Detroit restaurant and had some big names show up such as Akon, Dr. Dre, D12 and others. Obie also has an album coming out on Universal called ‘Bottom’s Up’. No release date yet.

Damn, I’m tired of hearing about this album already. It’s got so much hype that people might not like it when it comes out even though you know its going to be good. Now Dre says that it’s coming out in 2011. He told Slam magazine “Well, I’m working on it, but also I’ve been working on other people’s projects; you’ll probably hear something in a year or so.”

That word ‘probably’ just pisses me off at this point!

Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine (producer, co-founder of Interscope, gave Eminem demo tape to Dre, co-produced 8 Mile) have worked together with HP to release a special edition laptop. It’s going to be built specifically for producers so I’m sure it will be fast and have a bunch of memory. It even comes with a set of Beats by Dre headphones. If you have $2,299 floating around, you can get one!! Should be hitting stores in about a week.

Damn, Dre’s new album ‘Detox’ still isn’t coming out.  This was due out way back in 2004 but with Dre doing all this production work, he’s delaying it again until sometime in 2010.  He told ABC News “Hopefully, I’ll get it done at the end of this year, and we can hear it next year.”  Ya we hope so.

Well, now that Death Row is sold, the new owners are making a big move.  Death Row/WIDEAwake Entertainment are re-releasing the Dr. Dre classic “The Chronic.”  It’s been known that there is a whole crap load of unreleased material at Death Row and when it was sold all that went to the new owners.  Senior VP says “We’re re-releasing ‘The Chronic’ and it’s going to be called ‘The Chronic Relit’.  It will be remastered with a couple more songs that were done at that same time as well as a lot of footage and artwork.  We’re remastering it so that it works with today’s technology, but we’re not changing the mixes or doing anything like that.”  He also went on to say “There are a couple Dre tracks that had no third verse and we’re going to be seeking people to complete them.  We won’t go to the entertainment realm.  We just want average, everyday people.”

I don’t know about this.  WTF is  “todays technology” and who are “average everyday people?”

What does Dre have to say about this?  Why didn’t he buy Death Row?  Wouldn’t he want the masters to his own shit?  Maybe he’s scared.