Alicia Keys or Swizz Beatz: Who’s Got More Money in the Bank?
by Paul Cantor Posted Sep 1st 2010 11:30AM
Marrying in July, Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz are now one of the most powerful couples in the music industry. She’s a multiplatinum recording artist and he’s a superproducer-cum-rapper with a discography longer than ‘Avatar.’ But really, we just want to know who’s got more money in the bank?
All signs would indicate that Alicia’s raking in the bigger pile of cash, and that’s not necessarily because she makes infinitely more than Swizzy. It’s just Swizz seems to, like most people in hip-hop, be caught up in a lot of BS.
Without looking over Alicia’s tax return, it’s hard to gauge just how much she made last year, let alone in her career. But according to a recent report in Pollstar (a trade magazine for the concert industry), the singer made a whopping $11.7 million from touring alone in just the first six months of 2010. If we’re to assume she continued at that clip, she’d double it by the year’s end, which means she’d make more than $23 million just from performing. That’s not even factoring in her record sales (her last album, ‘The Element of Freedom,’ spawned five singles and went platinum); a rumored $25 to $50 million that she got from Coca-Cola for endorsing Vitamin Water in 2008; and royalties from odds and ends like Alicia’s Keys, a virtual instrument for music producers. She’s also involved in The Barber’s Daughter’s jewelry line and recently canned her manager Jeff Robinson, who reportedly had his hands all up in her cookie jar.
On the flip side, Swizz made Forbes magazine’s 2010 “Cash Kings” list, coming in at number 12, with $9 million earned. But like Big said, more money, more problems. The IRS is reportedly chasing Swizz for approximately $2 million in back taxes, and he had to pay his former wife, Mashonda, $334,000 (pocket change) in a child support settlement, not to mention future payments.
Beatz was recently linked to a money-laundering scheme in Arizona, involving nightclubs and car dealerships, and he previously owned his own car lots and nightclub in Las Vegas. The producer just inked a new record deal with Atlantic Records through Lisa Marie Falcone’s Everest Entertainment, which will release his upcoming LP, ‘Haute Living.’ He also maintains a serious art collection, which includes pieces by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, along with a shiteload of premium luxury vehicles. Swizz definitely isn’t starving.
So who’s the bigger bread winner?
Odds are, after taxes (which Swizz owes), Alicia’s bringing in more dough. But really, last February the couple bought Lenny Kravitz old crib for $14.5 million. So it seems like whomever makes more, money definitely ain’t a thang.
