In an era where clicks equal instant revenue, a media outlet’s first instinct is to strike the iron hot with a hit story first. Today is no different. Reports are surfacing, primarily from Hip Hop outlets such as Vlad TV and iHeartRadio syndicated radio show The Breakfast Club, that musician-turned-mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has become the world’s newest billionaire. The news stems from a video posted on Diddy’s social media accounts where he boldly proclaims “A young boy from Harlem, I couldn’t even be a waiter. They didn’t want me to be a waiter, so you know what I did? I became a billionaire.” The news comes straight from the mogul’s mouth but, after hours of fact-checking, I’m not quick to confirm this news.

Be clear, Diddy is immensely wealthy. He boast an impressive portfolio with his majority owned television network Revolt TV and a significant stake in liquor company Ciroc. His clothing line Sean John is still rather prominent and his record label Bad Boy struck a deal with Sony for distribution. All these moves secured him with a net worth of $750 million going into 2017, $250 million from the billion dollar mark he surely is chasing. According to Heavy.com, Diddy made an estimated $62 million dollars in 2016 alone. With no news of a huge deal in the realm of Apple buying Beats for 3.8 million back in 2014, one would wonder if Diddy was just saying he was a billionaire to show off, drum up attention or motivate his millions of social media followers.

In wake of the announcement that Diddy could very well be “Hip Hop’s First Billionaire”,  many social media users contended that Dr. Dre holds that distinction with the aforementioned Apple purchase of Beats By Dre in 2014. The deal itself was 3.8 billion dollars but it didn’t push Dr. Dre into the billionaire club. Forbes.com explains:

When the Apple deal was initially reported in May, it seemed Beats was going to sell for $3.2 billion, or about twice its estimated value. On paper, that meant Dr. Dre’s stake was suddenly worth $800 million; indeed, that would have put him a rounding error away from being a billionaire.

But the deal closed at an even $3 billion in cash, and then Uncle Sam took his cut—an estimated 33%—leaving Dre with a $500 million payout for his Beats stake, only $100 million more than we’d figured it was worth before the deal.

Seeing what happened with Dr. Dre’s proclamation that he was a billionaire, we should approach this with skepticism.  Taxes are a monster!