Move over Kylie Jenner, there’s a new billionaire in town!
Jay-Z has officially surpassed the millionaire status — it was bound to happen at some point. The good news doesn’t stop there though because according to Forbes, the rapper is not only one of few musicians to reach this level, but he’s now the first hip-hop artist to become a billionaire.
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Make no mistake, this did not happen by accident. 10 years ago, the media outlet captured a moment between the rapper and billionaire Warren Buffett.
“Jay is teaching in a lot bigger classroom than I’ll ever teach in,” the CEO recalled of the rapper. “For a young person growing up, he’s the guy to learn from.”
It seems as though at that moment in time, Jay already had the blueprint drawn out on how exactly he would reach this status.
He didn’t get to this point by just selling albums, performing at concerts or collaborating with his superstar of a wife Beyoncé. His kingdom of riches sits atop a liquor brand, art, real estate and stakes in successful companies like Uber. Not to mention, his Rocawear clothing line.
“It’s bigger than hip-hop … it’s the blueprint for our culture,” Swizz Beatz who is the amazing producer behind some of Jay’s biggest hits stated. “A guy that looks like us, sounds like us, loves us, made it to something that we always felt that was above us.”
“If he’s a billionaire now, imagine what he’s about to be because he’s only just starting,” he added.
It wasn’t such an easy start for the “99 Problems” singer. Starting out, he was a drug dealer from Brooklyn. He eventually started his own record label, Roc-A-Fella Records, which he released his 1996 album Reasonable Doubt. Since then, he’s gone on to win 22 Grammy awards, 14 No. 1 albums and over $500 million in pretax earnings all in a decade.
In 1999 he started his own clothing line: Rocawear. This line sold for $204 million to Iconix in 2007. Then, he started D’Ussé — which is a cognac he co-owns with Bacardi.
Here’s the breakdown:
Armand de Brignac champagne: $310 million.
Cash and investments, including his stake in Uber, which is worth an estimated $70 million: $220 million.
D’Ussé cognac: $100 million.
Tidal streaming service: $100 million.
Roc Nation: $75 million.
Music catalog: $75 million.
Real Estate: $50 million.
Art collection: $70 million.
His net worth was calculated through the rapper’s stakes in companies and discounts towards private firms, then added with his income and subtracted just enough for his superstar lifestyle. The sum proves that Jay-Z is in fact a billionaire.
