Beats by Dre

Hip-hop relevance

Beats Electronics was founded in 2006 by Dr. Dre and Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine. The over-ear consumer headphone brand became the dominant premium headphone in the United States by the early 2010s. Apple acquired Beats Electronics and the Beats Music streaming service in 2014 for $3 billion — the largest acquisition in Apple's history at the time and one of the largest financial windfalls for a hip-hop founder in the industry's history.