Top 10 Richest Jamaican Dancehall/Reggae Artistes (Alive)

So… has it ever crossed your mind, who are the richest Jamaican entertainers? Usually, we love information like these by Forbes, but too bad — this list doesn’t exist in their catalog. However, according to the Jamaica Observer, someone — whosoever sat down and did a quite interesting research and so, we are not sure if these are just speculations or actual facts.
Anyways, Shaggy reportedly tops list of richest Reggae acts. There are no doubts that if this list was for the all time richest reggae musician, the number one person would be Bob Marley, with an estimated worth of over US$130 million.
Shaggy topped the list due to selling over 20 million copies worldwide of his 2001 album Hot Shot, but equally due to securing a lucrative royalty deal for that album better than 90 per cent of the industry. We spotted the list as followed below.

1. Shaggy at US$22 million (JM$1.8 billion)

2. Jimmy Cliff at US$18 million (JM$1.5 billion)

3. Sean Paul at US$11 million JM($944 million)

4. Ziggy Marley at US$10 million (JM$858 million)

5. Sean Kingston at US$7 million (JM$601 million)

6. Damian Marley at US$6 million (JM$515 million)

7. Maxi Priest at US$4.6 million (JM$395 million)

8. Buju Banton at US$4 million (JM$343 million)

9. Beenie Man at US$3.7 million (JM$318 million)

10. Bounty Killer at US$3 million (JM$258 million)

Shaggy managed to sign a sweet deal with UMG, named MCA Records at the time, where he earned (greatly on) each album sold for Hot Shot. Majority of artistes are lucky to earn $1 off each album sold. The Marley’s on the other hand having their own company to work with, puts them at an advantage to earn more off album sales.
Regarding tour dates, again each artist’s earnings vary according to their popularity and demands. Therefore, when artistes like Sean Paul or Sean Kingston would earn an average US$40,000 per tour date, other artists like Bounty and Beenie would be brushing an average US$10,000.
Sean Paul is very conservative, and it is possible that Bounty Killer accumulated that amount because he is also a conservative spender and has other businesses. Regarding Jimmy Cliff, he has been around from in the early days of reggae and has been involved in music, songwriting and movies. He did songwriting for big artistes and also got his songs covered by the likes of Bruce Springsteen with Trapped.
According to the Jamaica Observer, the total combined worth at US$90 million is greater than the annual earnings from Jamaica’s major exports including bauxite at US$85 million in 2009 (separate from the US$368 million earned from alumina exports) and sugar at US$72 million according to Bank of Jamaica statistics.
It signifies the earning potential of the nation’s music which has come under threat in recent years from international gay and government lobby groups. Consequently, all the top 10 artistes made the bulk of their income prior to the mid 2000′s.