As DatPiff tapes and free giveaways proliferate, it can be easy to forget that a career in hip-hop can still reap serious financial rewards.

Forbes Magazine have published their annual chart of hip-hop’s biggest earners. Top of the ‘Forbes Five’ is rap mogul Diddy, valued at a bling-friendly $550m. The magazine points towards his business interests in Ciroc vodka and cable channel Revolt as key factors in his ballooning fortune. Nipping at his heels is last year’s winner Jay-Z, whose fortune currently nudges $460m. Headphone hawker and necromancer Dr. Dre is in third place with $270m, with Birdman and 50 Cent ($125m and $110m respectively) filling out the list.

According to advertiser and Jay-Z associate Steve Stout, there’s still everything to play for in the race to hit the billion mark: “As much as it’s easy to say it’ll be Diddy or Jay, you don’t necessarily know, given what a guy like Kanye or will.i.am is capable of doing. In a world where people are creating applications that sell for a billion dollars, you never know who’s going to come out of leftfield.”