A new report by Forbes puts Jay-Z as the highest earning artist in hip-hop in 2006.

Last year he raked in an astonishing $34M. Second in the list was 50 Cent ($32M), closely followed by P. Diddy ($28M). Most succesful hip hop acts have embraced a variety of revenue opportunities often with their own record sales becoming almost incidental to their total earnings as endorsements, sponsorship, clothing lines, production duties and even label imprints which all swell their coffers dramatically.