Kollegah assets: Hartz IV or millionaire?
How much money does Kollegah have?
In the US, rappers earn loads of gravel and flaunt it. In Germany, people hold back elegantly, which could also be due to the fact that rappers like Kollegah don’t earn as much as their American colleagues. You do not talk about money. One loves money. That is at least true for the self-proclaimed “boss of the bosses” Kollegah. Although he loves to promote life on a grand scale in his music videos, there are no reliable sources about his actual earnings.
Various estimates are circulating on the Internet: between Hartz IV level, standard income of around 2,000 euros, a reasonable fortune of 7 million euros and 10,000,000 euros, which is not really serious (from drug deals). But which of these are really Kollegah’s private assets? The Estimated net worth of Kollegah is 10 million euros. Here we have included the album sales and fees from live performances, as well as income from YouTube advertising and merchandising, minus taxes.
Kollegah’s net worth: this is how his income is composed
1 Revenue from album sales and streams
A rapper like Kollegah can only post an average of ten percent of record sales as income. The rest goes to record company, video production and retail. So if a Kollegah album is downloaded for just under 10 euros, he will get maybe 3 euros of it. For “JBG 2” there was a gold record for Kollegah and Farid Bang, that is at least 100,000 albums sold. After deducting video production costs of around 100,000 euros and numerous promotional expenses, there weren’t many euros left simply through the sales of the albums. We reckon with around 50,000 – 200,000 euros per head. You don’t get rich with it.
“Young, brutal, handsome 3“On the other hand, could really clear away. After its release in December 2017, the collaboration album went platinum. According to figures from the Bild newspaper, BMG Verlag had a turnover of more than 4 million euros through album sales alone, streaming is not yet included here. 40% of this is paid directly by BMG and the two rappers each collect 15% from the sales proceeds. In addition, a seven-figure sum is said to have flowed to the artists for the rights. In August 2018, the two released their next collaboration album “Platin was yesterday”, which however could not follow on from the success of JBG3.
In an interview with laut.de, Kollegah said about delivering songs that always sound the same: “This way we can easily milk the fans for five or six years!” Has he cracked the million mark? We think so! The signs are not bad and the album “King” was released on May 9th, 2014. It achieved gold status within 24 hours (at least 100,000 albums sold) and platinum status within the first 4 weeks. So it was sold at least 200,000 times. For Kollegah this is also a great success financially, probably because of them 3 EUR per album sold wander into his own account. A new record was even set for the German-speaking region on the Spotify streaming platform. King was streamed more than three million times in two days.
After “King” (2014) the album “Pimp Tape Volume 4“Which also achieved gold status and was the last album on the Selfmade Records label. The studio album “Emperor“Was released in 2016 under its own label” Alpha Music Empire “and also went gold. The next album “monument“Was released on December 7th, 2018 and fell short of expectations. The new and eagerly awaited album “Alphagene II“Was published on December 13, 2019 and should build on old successes.
Income from streaming music
According to its own information, Kollegah receives around 3,500 – 6,000 euros from Spotify and Apple Music for one million streams of his music.
2 Income from your own music label
In March 2016, Kollegah announced its own Alpha Music Empire label to have founded. The Warner Music Group is responsible for distribution. In the song “Fanpost 2” he indicates that he is one with the major label Deal over 6 million euros completed. The rapper Seyed from Wiesbaden was announced as the first signing of Alpha Music Empire. Shortly afterwards, the video for the song “MP5” was released together with label boss Kollegah. The debut album “Engel mit der AK” followed in June 2016 and reached number 3 in the German album charts, as well as number 4 in Austria and number 5 in Switzerland. Since a music label gets about 1/3 of the CD revenue, Seyed’s album should have played some money into the pockets of the self-proclaimed boss. Since 2018 he also has the artist Jigzaw and Ghent under contract.
Artists under Alpha Music Empire:
- Kollegah (since 2016)
- Seyed (since 2016 – 2018)
- Jigzaw (since 2018)
- Ghent (since 2018)
- Ash (since 2018)
3 Merit with many appearances
Good money can also be earned through tours and appearances at various festivals. What the bottom line is, however, cannot be reliably said. Thanks to the “King Tour” alone, Kollegah had a total of 22 gigs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in 2014. Let’s calculate realistically around 10,000 Eur per concert for the badboy, then the tour alone would cost 220,000 euros. In addition, the sale of T-shirts brings a few thousand more to the account. However, in order to get more profit out of the gigs, the “Alpha Music Group“Founded, which organizes all events and tours as its own booking and live agency. The agency also works for other artists such as Pietro Lombardi or Conchita Wurst.
4th Merchandising income
Kollegah should also earn good money with merchandising (selling T-shirts, sweaters and caps). In addition, there is also their own jewelry collection, which has a very provocative effect with its “brutal” necklaces. In addition to the merchandise, Felix Blume then founded the fashion brand “Deus Maximus“. This is priced well above the merchandise items, from 40 euros you can dress in the style of the boss.
5 Youtube and social media
Kollegah’s “Alpha Music Empire” YouTube channel alone has almost 1.2 million subscribers and over 275 million video views. One can assume that between Earned 100,000 and 300,000 euros per year will. His Facebook page has over 1.8 million fans and Instagram 1.6 million subscribers. Merchandising and advertising can be perfectly placed here.
6th Fitness guru thanks to boss transformation
Outside of music, too, Kollegah does a lot of advertising for his “Bosstransformation” fitness program. For 197 EUR the program promises to lower the body fat percentage and build muscle mass at the same time. Other German rappers like Farid Bang and Majoe also tried the fitness program with success. Due to his incredibly good self-marketing, the rapper has probably already convinced many to join his program and earns really good money in addition to the music. According to its own statements, it has since been sold 30,000 times.
7th Best-selling author
In September 2018 Kollegah published his first book with the title “THAT’S ALPHA: The 10 Boss Commandments”. He immediately stormed the bestseller lists and, according to his own statements, sold over 80,000 pieces in the first two months. At the moment he should already be thinking about the second book.
8th Shisha bar “Alpha Lounge” in Düsseldorf
In June 2019 the rapper opened his “Alpha Lounge” in the Oberbilk district of Düsseldorf. This bar will be a great success in the hope of many fans to meet their idol in person.
9 Money with real estate and land
The rapper has tapped another source of income through skillful real estate deals. In an interview with Orange, the rapper is said to have bought a factory site in Turkey and own several condominiums. Including a 70m2 apartment in Düsseldorf. In addition, Kollegah owns several speculative properties.
10 Fan rip-off with “Alpha Mentoring”
With its own life coaching program (e) Kollegah skilfully rips off its fans. For around 2,000 euros, he wanted to improve the lives of his “disciples” and turn them into real “BOSSES”. In return, there was access to a Facebook group, live video chats and great sermons from the self-proclaimed Messiah. VICE snuck undercover into “Alpha Mentoring” and uncovered the rip-off system. A major event with ex-business partner Dirk Kreuter was also planned with the name “Alphaoffensive”. A ticket should have cost up to 2,500 euros. The event was canceled due to the great criticism.
Kollegah: street boy or brilliant businessman?
Born Felix Blume, Hesse has a Canadian father and a German mother. But his father shone with one thing above all: absence. After his mother’s divorce, he is said to have been poor. In his songs he raps in the best gangster mania, or as he calls it: pimp rap. Kollegah is not stupid. Not only does he have a high school diploma, but meanwhile also studies law at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. He realized early on that you can make money with guns, drugs and women – especially in the music business. In 2003 he appeared as a rapper for the first time under the pseudonym TONI. In 2004 Kollegah competed in the federal battle for Hamburg. He cleverly uses the Internet to push himself up. He is therefore also offering his first mixtape, “Zuhalterertape Vol.1”, free to download. A smart PR scam that pays off later.
Successful albums
Kollegah’s album – King
In 2005 he signed a record deal with Selfmade Records. In 2007 his first real solo album will be released. However, not without being postponed beforehand in the media due to criminal proceedings: Kollegah was caught with amphetamines and cocaine – and found guilty. Nevertheless, his image as a gangster is repeatedly questioned. Also because he converted to Islam privately as a teenager and is less flexible here than in his texts. Private and business strictly separated? Kollegah would probably not be so successful with strictly Islamist texts – not financially, of course. The pimp image is good for its assets, that’s for sure. In 2011 he entered the top 10 of the German album charts for the first time.
The “boss” made it to the top. And he owes that not only to his creative rap technique, but also to a keen nose for business. His income should have increased many times over with the success. A collaboration with Bushido and Farid Bang on the track “Gangsta Rap Kings” on Bushido’s album “Sonny Black” also bore fruit.
The top 5 richest rappers
- Kanye West, 1.2 billion euros
- Jay-Z, € 1.18 billion
- Diddy, 770 million euros
- Dr. Dre, 730 million euros
- Russell Simmons € 305 million
Image sources:
Photos: Selfmade Records [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Kollegah King album cover via Amazon.de
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