Top 10 Highest Earning Black Celebs

By Lateesha | 07-Dec-08 in Celebrity Life

Check this out. Forbes magazine recently did a list of the highest earning black celebs and guess who came out on top? Oprah, Oprah, Oprah! Apparently Oprah isn’t just a rich black mama and her fortunes aren’t just in millions no more, but in billions. Forbes’ ‘International Billionaires List’ features O, and she’s the only black billionaire to make it to the list three years running! Woo hoo!

Anyway, I’ll trip over Oprah another time, but y’all have a look at this list of superstars who made it to the Forbes list for earning indecent amounts of money last year!

Oprah
Earnings: $260 million
Queen O isn’t going to fall of this list anytime soon. $260 million for one year works out to about $712,000 a day! Oh and guess what, this makes Oprah the highest-paid celeb in Hollywood!

Oprah - photo by nayrb7
Tiger Woods
Earnings: $100 million
At 15, Tiger Woods knew he didn’t just want to be a famous black golfer, but the best in the world. At 32, he’s the reigning king of golf. And with his Nike endorsement deals, and Gatorade royalties, the Black Tiger is going to keep bringing it.

Tiger - photo by James Marvin Phelps
Jay-Z
Earnings: $83 million
There was the Beatles and then there’s Jay-Z. I’m not playin’. ‘American Gangster’ helped Jay-Z tie with Elvis Presley in the second spot for having the highest number of No. 1 albums, beaten only by the Beatles. Life couldn’t get better, unless of course you secretly get married to Beyoncé!

Jay-Z - photo by Mike Barry
50-Cent
Earnings: $33 million
And the G-unit empire just keeps growin’ – record label, ringtones, apparel, videogames, street fiction books etc. And when Coke decided to buy Vitamin Water, 50’s pockets just got $100 million deeper for just holding a stake in the company!

50 Cent - photo by Alex Const
Kobe Bryant
Earnings: $33 million
He just beat superstar Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain and became the youngest ever ball player in the history of the NBA to notch up 20,000 career points! 29-year old Lakers ‘baller has been driving fans crazy with rumors of him leaving the team but Kobe recently said he and the team are happy, so phew!

Kobe - photo by Richard Giles
Shaquille O’Neal
Earnings: $32 million
Diesel may have been slower recently because of injuries, and he even lost career points, but that don’t make Shaq any poorer! He is sitting on a happy $40 million that the Miami Heats will pay him over the next couple of seasons, injured or not.

Shaq - photo by Jeramey Jannene
Michael Jordan
Earnings: $31 million
He made history and will always be the best. And though he’s retired from the game, he’s making enough green, off his stakes in various businesses. But guess what’s bringing in the greens? His $500 million Nike Air Jordan business of course!

Mike - photo by jimcchou
Will Smith
Earnings: $31 million
A 39-year old piece of black hotness (ha ha…sorry, but the Fresh Prince floats my boat!). So where was I? Yeah, if I made $20 million per movie like Mr. Smith, I’d say ‘I Am Legend’ too! After all his last three movies have made him a mountain of money; and when they count ‘Hancock’s’ earnings next year, I bet he’ll be on this list again!

Will - photo by Alan Light
Beyoncé
Earnings: $27 million
Quite a couple they make, with both husband and wife being on the rich list. ‘B’Day’ sold 7 million copies. And just looking at how many times the radio keeps playing “If I Were A Boy”, I can tell ‘I Am…Sasha Fierce’ is going to make Beyoncé some big dough too!

Beyonce - photo by Alex Johnson
LeBron James
Earnings: $27 million
At 23, King James is blazing the courts with the Cleveland Cavaliers winning their first conference title. He is leading the team to several victories, such as the recent game against the Milwaukee Bucks! No wonder he makes the big bucks too! And when’s he not playing ball, he’s obsessing over his house or cycling away his spare time.

LeBron - photo by Craig Hatfield