UK Celebrity News, Fashion Tips, Gossip and Pictures

While most of us worry about the credit crunch and panic about where our next meal is coming from, many hip-hop stars are not feeling the bite on their bling. With many now owning their own record labels, luxury houses and apartments, night clubs, and some rather expensive jewelry, the multimillion dollar stars are set through this groveling recession.

So set, in fact that their spending habits are going through the roof. Take a look at these extravagant celeb spends and prepare to feel the tug on the purse strings even more. 

50 cent and more

50 cent is known as the priciest rapper on the planet and worth over £60 million.

The stars collection boasts of a Ferrari Enzo worth £1 million, as well as three other Ferraris’, two Jags, three Bentleys, six Lamborghinis and two Jets. 

At his 48,000-square-foot mansion, the star has his own lake, waterfall and in-house club, complete with 52-rooms, servants’ quarters and a boat house, all costing a staggering £2.5million.

Jay-Z liked it enough he put two rings on it

Multimillion dollar rapper, Jay Z, proves his babe Beyonce is more than enough by splashing most of his cash on the R&B star.

Beyonce’s engagement ring cost a whopping £3.5million, which she believes is too expensive to wear out so she had a cheaper version made to wear instead. 

Kanye believe it?

A shoe fetish is generally deemed as a female trait, but rapper Kanye boasts a collection of 450 pairs of designer shoes, with a resident ‘shoe keeper’ to specifically look after his shoes.

With a keen appetite for UK takeaways, the ‘Golddigger’ star ordered an Indian takeaway from a restaurant in Wales, to be delivered to his pad in New York, costing a mega £2,775.

P DIDDY

Sean Combs, as his real name goes, is worth a mega £25 million and owns two luxury homes costing a combined £22 million.

Pretty reasonable for a hip hop star, but his demands on tour is what gives him the diva bling factor. Travelling with a personal entourage of 30, P Diddy takes his own barber, the only man allowed to touch his hair, alongside a team to lay out all of his 80 black and white suits for him to choose every morning. On standby is a barman to mix his favourite cocktail and a guy to carry his gem encrusted iPod. Nice!

Akon

Akon doesn’t waste any time on measly one off diamonds, instead he just buys a whole mine instead. 

The ‘Right Now’ star bought a whole South African diamond mine all for himself in 2007.

Russell Brand

Russell Brand resigned from his BBC Radio 2 show in November following prank calls he and Jonathan Ross made to ex Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs, which lead to an Ofcom investigation. But that little scandal was a mere blip in an otherwise glowing 12 months for the long-haired lady-magnet. Russell hosted one of the biggest awards ceremonies in America – the popular MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles at the start of 2008 and he’s already been asked to present the 2009 ceremony. Russell released his autobiography, My Booky Wook, for which he won the top prize at the British Book Awards. Russell also had a main role in the hit comedy film of 2008 Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Cheryl Cole

Cheryl has climbed the celebrity ranks in 2008. She was just one-fifth of Girls Aloud and a mere WAG to Chelsea and England footballer Ashley Cole. She had a horrible start to the year, temporarily separating from Ashley after stories of his infidelity were splashed across the tabloids. But the feisty Geordie soon picked herself up and fended off the likes of Mel B and Charlotte Church to land one of the biggest jobs on television, on the X Factor judging panel. Since taking the job, the 25-year-old’s popularity has soared, as she’s blubbed and bitched her way into millions of homes every Saturday night.

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton had a great year in 2008, he began dating Pussycat Doll’s lead singer, Nicole Scherzinger, early in the year, then later in January, the F1 driver signed a multi-million pound deal with McLaren Mercedes and won the first race of 2008, the Australian grand prix. After several other wins and high placings, he clinched the Formula One World Championship in Brazil in November, becoming the youngest driver to win the title. Lewis was also featured in the Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated fortune of £15 million – at only 23 years old!

Britney Spears

Britney’s year didn’t start brilliantly – she’d had two stints in a mental hospital, but the only way was up and Britney quickly got to work on putting her life back together. In September, Britney won her first ever MTV Award – in fact, she won three, for Best Female Video, Best Pop Video and Video Of The Year. By the end of 2008, the mum-of-two had regained shared custody of her sons and had returned to the stage with a new album and her first UK performance in years, on X Factor. She may have been criticised for miming, but the show received the highest ratings of the year to date as 12.8 million viewers tuned in.

Beyonce

In April 2008, Beyonce married the biggest rapper on earth Jay-Z, at a very intimate ceremony in New York. No photos of the wedding were released, making it the most private A-list nuptials in years; Beyonce only confirmed the marriage publicly in September. Also in 2008, the dynamic duo was named the richest celebrity couple in the world by Forbes magazine, which noted that Beyonce herself earned an estimated $80 million in the year up to June.  It is also been reported that Beyonce will be appearing in two films in 2009, so watch this space!

Beyonce has spoken publicly about her marriage to Jay-Z for the first time, and admitted that she and the rapper began dating when she was still a teenager.

“I was 18 when we first met, 19 when we first started dating,” the 27-year-old singer revealed. “There was no rush. I really don’t believe that you will love the same thing when you’re 20 as you do at 30.”

“Before the age of 25, I would never get married, feel like you have to get to know yourself, know what you want, spend some time by yourself, and be proud of who you are before you can share that with someone else.”

The couple married at Jay-Z’s New York apartment on April 4 2008 but this is the first time Beyonce has spoken to the press about their nuptials. Beyonce also said she does want to have babies and become a family, but this is all to come – possibly in a few years. 

Beyonce has revealed that she was on the way to having a nervous breakdown when she was in her teens. The star singer has revealed that years ago she is certain she was heading towards a breakdown - 

“Years ago, I was definitely headed for a breakdown, Just way too much work – my life was my career and I had no other life. It started when I was 15 and I hadn’t learned the importance of balance, making sure I took a day off. I didn’t know what ‘no’ was, what boundaries were.”

“At this point, I know that after a certain amount of time I have to go home,” Beyonce continued. “I know what I like now. It just takes life experience to get a good balance. When you’re young, you don’t know what relaxes you.”

Beyonce has been in the music business since the young age of only eight, when she joined the girl group Girl’s Tyme. The group went through many line-up changes before becoming Destiny’s Child in 1993 and the band had their first major hit, No No No, when Beyonce was just 17.

Former Destiny’s Child singer and wife of rapper Jay-Z Beyonce Knowles has been tipped to beat stick-thin mess Amy Winehouse in the battle to record the new James bond theme song for Quantum of Solace.

Music industry insiders claim that Beyonce, 26, is the film maker’s favourite after Winehouse, 24, started her, seemingly endless, downward spiral.

Mark Ronson, Amy’s producer, pulled the plug on the recording session for the theme due to her erratic behaviour.

He said: “We did work on it but we never finished it. I don’t think it will happen unless by some miracle it gets recorded and someone sings vocals.“I’m not sure Amy is ready to work on music yet.”

The drug-addled walking hair-do Winehouse was pretty livid about his comments but they made up at the Ivor Novello awards, with Amy claiming, “I’ve done loads of Bond songs I’m really happy with. I don’t know what the problem is.”

Her third album is on hold at the moment as her label wants her to clean up her act before they will release it. They are also holding her in her contract so she can’t make music for any other labels.

The choice is up to the late Bond producer Cubby’s daughter, Barbara Broccoli. If she gives the go ahead to Beyonce then she will likely start writing with British songwriter Amanda Ghost – who is currently writing songs for Beyonce’s next album, as well as Shakira’s new one.

John Barry, 74 who was the former 007 musical mastermind is also rumoured to contribute for the first time in two decades.

He orchestrated the Dr No music in 1962 and co-wrote mot of the themes for the first 25 years of the franchise. The new Bond film is released on October 31st.