Zack O'Malley Greenburg's Blog, page 82

Tech N9ne: Hip-Hop’s Secret Mogul

Within the walls of a nondescript building in an ordinary suburb of Kansas City, hip-hop’s most mysterious mogul stands atop a staircase, surveying his latest products as a proud farmer might gaze out at a bumper crop of corn.

Below, the shelves of the supermarket-sized room bloom with t-shirts, backpacks, water bottles, sunglasses, sticky-notes, g-strings and just about anything else that can accommodate Tech N9ne’s name or his logo, an interlocking bat and snake that form the first letters o...

Spinning Profits: How Hip-Hop Is Cashing In On The DJ Boom

Questlove: One of the hip-hop acts cashing in on the DJ boom (photo: Cody Swanson for ABSOLUT Lunch Break)

It’s lunchtime at the Dream hotel’s penthouse lounge, but aside from the late summer sunlight filtering through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the scene seems positively nocturnal.

Questlove, the venerable drummer and frontman of the Roots, is stationed in the DJ booth, his trademark ‘fro erupting from the headband of an oversized pair of orange headphones. He’s readying himself to launch a...

Cash Kings 2013: The World’s Highest-Paid Hip-Hop Artists

see photosEvan Agostini/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Click for full photo gallery: Cash Kings 2013: The World's 20 Highest-Paid Hip-Hop Artists

Sean “Diddy” Combs hasn’t always agreed with FORBES’ evaluations of his wealth. “[Screw] the Forbes list,” he rapped on a Rick Ross song three years ago. “Let’s tell the truth: I ate more.”

These days, however, the hip-hop mogul is changing his tune.

“You started learning how to count right, I see,” Diddy told FORBES earlier this year, referring to more recent estima...

Toby Keith’s Net Worth: $320 Million In 2013

see photosJamie Kripke

Click for full photo gallery: The Ten Top-Earning Country Music Acts of 2013

Toby Keith‘s net worth estimate appears in the currentForbes 400issue in theOnes To Watchsection, putting the singer alongside other entrepreneur-entertainers such as pop starMadonna, magicianDavid Copperfieldand golferPhil Mickelsonas likely candidates to join our list of the richest Americans in the future. The blurb published in the magazine is reproduced below.

Name: Toby Keith

Age: 52

Estimated...

Madonna’s Net Worth: $500 Million In 2013

see photos

Click for full photo gallery: The Highest-Paid Celebrities 2013

Madonna‘s net worth estimate appears in the current Forbes 400 issue in the Ones To Watch section, putting the singer alongside other entrepreneur-entertainers such as country singer Toby Keith, magician David Copperfieldand golfer Phil Mickelson as likely candidates to join our list of the richest Americans in the future. The blurb published in the magazine is reproduced below.

Madonna: Halfway to being a billionaire.

Nam...

Inside Sheryl Crow’s Rebirth As A Country Singer

Country enough? Sheryl Crow in her Nashville barn.

Brad Paisley was among the first people in Nashville to discover one of country music’s rising stars, a blonde singer-songwriter truly unlike any other up-and-comer.

It wasn’t just her knack for storytelling and her strong voice that set her apart–it was the fact that she’d already sold 35 million records. Her name: Sheryl Crow.

“One of the things [Paisley] said was, ‘You’ve been making this kind of music for years,’” Crow recalls. “‘Now it’s ti...

Hip-Hop Cash Kings 2013: Preview & Contest

Jay-Z: This year's cash king?

Jay-Zbecame a sports agent, signed new deals with Warner/Chappell and Universal, and released an album that went platinum before it was launchedto the general public–all in the past year.

So is he rap’s No. 1 moneymaker? You’ll find out on September 24th, when FORBES releases its annual Hip-Hop Cash Kings package for the seventh consecutive year, complete with estimates for each of the genre’s top 20 earners.

Aside from answering the question of who will win hip-hop...

Miley Cyrus And The VMA Aftermath: The Latest Numbers

Miley Cyrus: Twerking is werking.

Miley Cyrus hasn’t scandalized anyone on national television since her Sunday night escapades at the VMAs, but–from a commercial standpoint–her twerking is still working.

Despite the scorn earned by her performance of “Blurred Lines,” Cyrus has sincesold 90,000 digital downloads of her new track “Wrecking Ball,” which debuted the day of the VMAs. The song now sits at No. 13 on Billboard‘s digital songs chart.

The impact has been even broader in social media. Acc...

Miley Cyrus: Biggest Winner At VMAs, Despite Lack of Awards

Miley Cyrus: The numbers don't lie -- twerking is working, at least from a commercial standpoint.

Miley Cyrus didn’t take home a single award at Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards ceremony-concert-burlesque-show in Brooklyn.

She did, however, earn scads of condemnation for her scantily-clad performance of “Blurred Lines” with Robin Thicke, against whom she salaciously rubbed her rear end repeatedly on national television.The Guardian proclaimed that her “twerking” was “just not working,” a sentime...

Why The $702 Million IRS Tax Claim On Michael Jackson’s Estate Won’t Stand Up

reports surfaced saying that the IRS is hitting Jackson’s estate with a $702 million bill, including $505.1 million in taxes and $196.9 million in penalties.

The estate will not be forced to pay any penalties unless the court rules in favor of the IRS, but those in char...