Strong self-association of hydrophobic solutes takes place in water. However, solute selfassociation has often been neglected in understanding the aqueous solubility of drugs as well as their solubilization by excipients, cosolvents and hydrotropes. Based on a rigorous statistical thermodynamic foundation, here we show how to estimate the contribution from solute selfassociation to solubility and solubilization, based on experimental data such as solubility and the osmotic second virial coefficients. Such data show that solute self-association can indeed be negligible in most common cases of hydrotropic solubilization, Setschenow coeffficients and the hydrophobic hydration.