will.i.am has revealed how he made millions from Dr. Dre’s Beats headphones after being involved with the company from the beginning.
Talking exclusively to HipHopDX, the Black Eyed Peas legend discussed how Beats By Dre came to be and recalled an initial conversation with Interscope Records founder Jimmy Iovine.
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“I come home from tour one day and I’m like, ‘Yo Jimmy, these brands are pimping us, using our reach to sell their product. We need to make our own product, our own hardware,'” he said. “So Jimmy classically says, ‘You know why they call it hardware, Will? ‘Cause it’s hard.'”
The rapper and producer then proposed to Iovine that they should sell their own equipment and market it using themselves. While doing a spot-on impression of the record executive, Will recalled Jimmy asking him be a part of the company.
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“So then a year later, he’s like, ‘I was talking to Dre and Dre was walking down the beach with his manager, and his manager told him he should sell sneakers.’ And I remembered our conversation and I told Dre, ‘Fuck sneakers; let’s sell speakers!’ You wanna be a part of it?'” he continued.
“[Jimmy’s like], ‘With your ideas and Dre’s Dre-ness, we could do something.’ So I was a part of Beats. No one knew it. I was just an equity shareholder. My contribution was to think and brainstorm and see around corners.”
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“One of the first commercials for Beats was ‘Boom Boom Pow’,” he added, referencing the Black Eyed Peas song which namedropped the brand and prominently featured its headphones in the music video.
“You don’t always have to be the dude in the front — no, you just want to be a player that adds points on the board, whether you’re doing it invisibly or visibly. Actually, being invisible is where it’s at at.”
will.i.am has been known to be a shrewd investor over the years. As well as his early stake in Beats which was sold for millions after Apple bought the company in 2014, the Grammy winner has also invested heavily in AI technology.
One investment decision he does regret, though, is passing on getting involved with AirBnB.
During an appearance on the High Performance podcast last year, Will admitted he did not see the company’s potential when he was approach to invest.
“I couldn’t see Airbnb. There was an opportunity I had to invest — this is before they launched,” he said. “If you’re anchored in your perception, that’s healthy. Sometimes that could cripple you. In this case, it crippled my ability to see the scope of what was possible.
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“If you don’t have concierge, if you don’t have house cleaning and room service, I don’t know if this company is gonna take off. Because at that time, I was travelling around the world in the best hotels, getting the best treatment. And I couldn’t see Airbnb.”
When asked if he’s ever calculated how much money he missed out on by passing on the investment opportunity, will.i.am let out a dejected laugh and replied: “You know what that would have been worth?”
