1. 50 Cent
2. Jay Z
3. Diddy
4. Kanye West

It’s been some year for Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter. In the past 12 months, the Brooklyn, N.Y.-born hip-hop demigod released a platinum album, signed a 10-year, $150 million deal with concert promoter Live Nation and tied the knot with longtime girlfriend Beyoncé Knowles. Quite a record. But only good enough for a silver medal.

While Jay-Z topped Forbes.com’s inaugural Hip-Hop Cash Kings list of the top-earning people in the business last year, in 2008 he cedes the throne to Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, who raked in $150 million over the past 12 months–almost twice what Jay-Z made.

Kanye West clocks in at No. 4 with $30 million. The pink-polo-sporting rapper and producer released his third solo album, Graduation, last September. After handily outselling 50 Cent’s Curtis in a head-to-head opening-week matchup, West’s album went multiplatinum and won four Grammys. West has penned hits for Jay-Z, Alicia Keys and Diddy, among others. Earlier this month, he headlined the music festival Lollapalooza in his native Chicago.

5. Timbaland
6. Pharrell
7. Swizz Beats
8. Snoop
9. Dr. Dre
10. Ludacris
11. T.I., Lil Wayne
12. Eminem, Common, Akon (whoa, Common is rakin in as much as Akon???)
13. JD
14. Lil Jon, Outkast, Chamillionaire, The Game

Some hip-hop legends don’t need to do anything to keep earning outrageous sums of money. Andre “Dr. Dre” Young banked $15 million even though he hasn’t had a hit in years–he still gets rich on royalties from two decades of hits. A founder of the seminal rap group N.W.A he released his multiplatinum solo opus The Chronic in 1992 and has produced hits for the likes of Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Eminem and Tupac Shakur.

Tupac himself pulled in a handsome sum this year–about $15 million–even though he’s been dead for over 10 years. Tupac is probably having himself a last laugh from beyond the grave, knowing that his onetime friend Suge Knight isn’t cashing in on the bonanza. Knight, the bodyguard-turned-president of Death Row Records, long rumored to have arranged Shakur’s killing, filed for bankruptcy and put his Malibu, Calif., mansion up for sale last June.

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