Back in 2007 it seemed that rappers had peaked as entrepreneurs. In that year, Jay-Z sold his clothing company, Rocawear, for more than $200m and 50 Cent had a reported $40m personal stake in the $4bn sale of Glacéau, makers of Vitaminwater, to Coca-Cola. But in the past year we have seen bigger and important milestones. In May 2014 Dr Dre sold Beats Electronics to Apple for $3bn. And a few days ago Jay-Z offered $56m for Aspiro, a Swedish music streaming company.
2007年時,饒舌歌手似乎達到了創業巔峯。那年,美國嘻哈歌手Jay-Z以逾2億美元出售了自己的服裝公司Rocawear,說唱歌手50美分(50 Cent)據報道在可口可樂(Coca-Cola)以41億美元收購維他命水(Vitaminwater)生產商酷樂仕(Glacéau)的交易中斬獲4000萬美元。但在過去一年裏,我們見證了更大更重要的里程碑。2014年5月,Dr.Dre以30億美元將耳機生產公司Beats Electronics出售給蘋果(Apple)。就在幾天前,Jay-Z出價5600萬美元收購瑞典串流媒體音樂服務商Aspiro。