DR. Dre Donates $70 Million to USC

Rapper Dr. Dre donated $70 million to USC to train “and inspire a new generation of innovators.” Music industry executive Jimmy Iovine also pitched in a couple hundred million. Both men donated to a program entitled the “USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation.” The purpose of the program “is to shape the future by nurturing the talents, passions, leadership and risk-taking of uniquely qualified students who challenge conventional views of art and industry,” according to USC.

The academy will begin enrolling 25 students to its first class in the fall of 2014. The program seeks students who have an interest in marketing, business entrepreneurship, computer science and engineering, audio and visual design and the arts.

Dre, 48, is among the wealthy elite who donate millions of dollars to offset their income taxes. Dre’s estimated net worth is $350 million. He earned most of his wealth from sales of the wildly popular Beats by Dre headphones. Dre, born Andre Romelle, is best known as a hip hop producer whose classics include 1992′s The Chronic.