Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: The 50 Greatest Hip-Hop Executives of All Time

variety.com:

two rapper-entrepreneurs are billionaires. But while MCs might be the ones holding the mic, hip-hop would never have become such a culture-shifting force without smart, savvy and dedicated people making sure the music reaches ears.

This list, celebrating hip-hop’s 50th anniversary, is intended to honor those who have made that industry into what it is. To compile it, Variety editors teamed up with the Black Music Action Coalition, created a list of nominees (with a write-in option) and sent it to a select list of several dozen executives, journalists and other veteran observers.

Around 40 people voted, and this is the result. There are some artists on the list, but they’re recognized here for their business contributions to the genre — artists who founded or co-founded their own labels, such as Eazy-E and Master P and Lil Wayne, as well as world-beating entrepreneurs who did that and a lot more, including Jay-Z, Dr.

Dre, Diddy, 50 Cent and others, whose empires are part of hip-hop’s foundation but also reach far beyond it. There are some controversial individuals on this list, but their real or alleged transgressions should not take away from their contributions to the business and the culture.