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Hey! Big week for Rihanna. Fenty Eau de Parfum dropped, then Forbes names her a billionaire with $1.7 billion net worth. This announcement is a reminder of what matters to Rihanna and what doesn't.

First, Forbes' net worth is an estimate based on her ownership stake in Fenty Beauty (50% of $2.8 billion) and Savage X Fenty (30% of $1 billion). Given Rihanna's popularity, Forbes would have loved to do a Tyler Perry-level feature and break it all down. Or at minimum, include stats on her earnings from music, acting, and touring. But the fact that Forbes didn't implies that Rihanna declined or didn't respond.

Second, there was no social media post or mention about this from Rihanna. According to reports, a photographer asked Rihanna and she responded, "God is good," and kept it moving.

Rihanna's never been the "check my numbers" type (except that time she came for Teyana Taylor!) Part of that is her personality. Part of that is the fact that in 2009 she was effectively bankrupt due to a shady accountant, and may not trust having her business all out there like that. She's fine letting the media guess with the back-of-the-envelope math.

Rihanna's net worth is likely higher than $1.7 billion, but the much more relevant number is the success of the her two brands. What's better than one billion-dollar brand? Two.

Today's Trapital Memo covers my conversation about music royalties with Anthony Martini, The Lox vs Dipset's Verzuz battle, and Aaliyah's catalog coming to streaming.

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new pod: Anthony Martini, Royalty Exchange

On the Trapital Podcast, Ant and I talked all about the catalog boom and music royalties. We talked about the impact this wave has had on Royalty Exchange, a marketplace where buyers and sellers trade music, rights, copyrights, and NFTs. We also talked about Ant's experience running the indie record label Commission, and working with Tyga, Lil' Dicky, IDK, MadeinTYO, and more.

Tap in on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

On the Trapital Podcast, hip-hop's heavy hitters explore their ideas that helped them level up their game. Learn more here.​​

The Lox vs Dipset: Verzuz Post-Quarantine

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Last Tuesday's The Lox vs Dipset Verzuz battle was a win for a lot of parties:

• Jadakiss
• Styles P
• Sheek Louch
• Triller and Verzuz
• the team that edited this perfect clip​
• the Timberland boots and shorts combo
• Fat Joe
• New York hip-hop, 40+ hip-hop, real MCs

And if I'm being honest, The Diplomats won too. Sure, Dipset was as disorganized as an early 90s Source Awards show. Their anthems didn't ring out how they should have. Juelz Santana is lucky he hasn't had to do a Notes app apology after some of his comments. But the Harlem rappers used this event as a launchpad for a joint tour with The Lox. They'll make more money as a result. If Verzuz was a group project, then Dipset social loafed its way to the post-Verzuz bump.

Outliving the quarantine. When Triller acquired Verzuz in March, I listed its two biggest challenges: the declining interest post-quarantine, and its dependency on marquee matchups.

The Lox vs Dipset proved that Verzuz can outlive the first challenge with livestream concert-style events. Madison Square Garden's Hulu Theater was packed. Jadakiss played to the crowd and commanded the stage. Verzuz has come a long way since Teddy Riley's tech issues. The concurrent viewership on Instagram was over 600,000, the highest since January's Ashanti vs KeyshiaCole event.

The second challenge, Verzuz' dependency on marquee matchups, still exists. Here were the matchups between Ashanti-Keyshia Cole and The Lox vs Dipset:

• NFL Pro Bowl, D'Angelo & Friends, Raekwon-Ghostface Killah, SWV-Xscape, Redman-Method Man, Swizz Beatz-Timbaland rematch, Eve-Trina, Bow Wow-Soulja Boy

No disrespect to any of those talented artists but most of those events came and went with little buzz.

Enough hits to keep demand high. Content creators know that every creation won't be a hit. It's true for albums, songs, blockbuster movies, Trapital memos, and Verzuz events. But depending on the company's cost structure, it needs a certain frequency of hits to justify the rest.

The best-case scenario is for Verzuz to have a Lox vs Dipset level event every few months. The challenge though, is who are the remaining artists with enough interest to participate. Can Swizz and Timbaland convince 50 Cent and Ja Rule? Or Usher and Chris Brown? Or Missy Elliott??

The worst-scare scenario, as I said in March, it that Verzuz becomes hip-hop's NBA Dunk contest. "Fans would love the superstars to participate, but they won’t because they have little to gain. And the remaining talent can only draw in audiences on rare occasions."

Read more in Trapital's Why Triller and Verzuz Teamed Up.

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Aaliyah's music comes to streaming

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After years of waiting, Aaliyah's music will be released on digital streaming providers starting on August 20. Aaliyah's uncle Barry Hankerson made a deal with EMPIRE to distribute the music for the late singer and others once signed to his label, Blackground Records.

What took so long? Family drama. Aaliyah's mother controls the estate, but Aaliyah's uncle (her mother's brother) controls the music. The sibling's relationship fell apart after Aaliyah passed. Their mutual grief, lack of communication, and delays from Hankerson have led to several false starts.

According to Billboard, Hankerson claims he moved forward after Aaliyah's estate released a statement on social media in August 2020 about its discussions to release the music. Hankerson used that as his green light to move forward with EMPIRE. Aaliyah's estate has refuted Hankerson's claims and have implied that this EMPIRE release is an 'unauthorized project,' and further challenged Hankerson in a recent interview by Variety.

Indies making moves. Despite the family controversy, Aaliyah's catalog is a big win for EMPIRE. Since the company launched in 2010, it has grown from an indie distributor to a record label with the ability to release a catalog for one of the most influential musicians of the past 25 years.

EMPIRE-Blackground is also a win for indie record labels. Many indies don't have the capital to maximize the reach of their biggest artists. That's one of the reasons indies have sold to Sony and other major labels. EMPIRE has a chance to prove it can maximize Aaliyah as well as a major record label can. If successful, it sends a strong signal for itself and the rest of the indie community. (note: EMPIRE has a distribution deal with Universal Music Group).

Posthumous struggles are the norm. Aaliyah's streaming hold up was unfortunate, messy, but unsurprising. Estates rarely control the music of posthumous artists and often have misaligned incentives with those who do own the music. Plus, when musicians die unexpectedly, they are more likely to have unsettled estates and wills. The question marks creates tension for all parties involved.

David Bowie is one of the few whose estate is in great shape, but the late musician is was an outlier with his Bowie Bonds and his heads-up planning. For most, posthumous musician management is a shitshow. Unfortunately, the challenges may only grow given the increasing number of ways that estates, labels, and fans can have disputes over future projects.

Read more about Aaliyah's music release and related controversy in Billboard, Variety, and in the 2016 Complex article.​

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Coming soon from Trapital

Trapital Podcast: Mike G, music touring agent at UTA. Mike G and I talk about how he got Young Thug to be a music festival headliner for so many events, working with rising acts like The Kid LAROI, and managing Chris Brown.

Episode drops on Friday. Subscribe here!​