Those who have debated the position of the richest tycoon in the world’s rap music industry may have an answer today, when Forbes magazine officially ranked Jay-Z as the rapper with assets exceeding the billion-dollar mark. USD.
The longtime magazine, famous for its authoritative ranking lists, recognized Jay-Z as the first rapper globally to become a USD billionaire.
Musical talent perfectly complements business sense
According to Forbes’ report, Jay-Z’s huge fortune is not entirely based on his impressive music career. More importantly, black artists know how to use it as a platform to expand their multi-industry money-making empire, including art business, real estate and stock investments in many famous companies. toothpick, like Uber for example…
The path that Jay-Z went through to reach his current position is the most unbelievable story in Hollywood, exactly like “from rags to riches”.
Forbes himself also noted that the core of the rapper’s enormous wealth is his vision of building his own brands, instead of promoting others. Jay-Z launched clothing brand Rocawear in 1999, only to sell it to Iconix in 2007 for $204 million. After that, he co-owned with Bacardi and then the digital music service Tidal.
To estimate Jay-Z’s net worth, Forbes looked at the artist’s holdings in companies, plus other business income, minus the significant sums paid for his super lifestyle. Carter’s stars, and then compared their results with many experts to ensure the most fair and realistic statistics.
In addition to lucrative business projects, Jay-Z also owns many valuable real estate, including a villa worth $50 million, another house in East Hampton worth $26 million, and an apartment in Bel Air worth $50 million. priced at 88 million USD, and a penthouse apartment in Tibeca priced at 6.85 million USD…
With profitable cash flowing into his pocket every day and other wise investments expanding, it is likely that Jay-Z’s “empire” will continue to expand rapidly in the future, helping the artist maintain his position. title of the world’s No. 1 richest rapper for a long time.
The street boy’s journey to change his life
Born as Shawn Corey Carter in 1969, in the rough neighborhood of Brooklyn, the man we know as the powerful Jay-Z is now raised by his single mother, along with three other siblings after they were abandoned by their father.
The neighborhood that marked Shawn’s childhood was not peaceful. He decided to drop out of high school (even though he was considered to have good academic performance) and got involved in a drug trafficking ring. Shawn was even violent enough to shoot his brother in the shoulder during an argument.
Luckily, music brought another ray of light in the young man’s life. With the ability to write unique lyrics, Shawn decided to participate in competitions and win, thereby creating a little fame for himself. He was able to begin telling his stories through music.
After a tiring period of life involving drugs, and being shot several times, Jay-Z decided to focus entirely on his artistic path. He collaborated with a fellow rapper to release the single The Originators, which later charted on MTV.
The young man continued to collaborate with DJs to produce more products, but the songs did not achieve enough success to bring in a recording contract. Every major label refused to cooperate with him.
But instead of letting adversity overcome him and lead him back to his old dark life, Jay-Z looked at things from a different perspective. He decided to become a producer himself and start his own record label, aspirationally called Roc-A-Fella, with two friends.
However, this is also a thorny road. Almost all of their artists left the label before releasing an album. By 1997, only Jay-Z had managed to release a single album. But they persisted.
They had worked with Notorious B.I.G., and when the rapper passed away, Jay-Z was invited to collaborate on the Life After Death tribute album, allowing Roc-A-Fella to get some press attention.
The following year (1998), Jay-Z released Vol. 2 and the song Hard Knock Life has gone down in history. Roc-A-Fella shot to fame, achieved success and was later sold to Def Jam Records for millions of dollars.
For his part, Jay-Z stepped forward and became President and CEO of the new brand after the merger. His music career is also hugely successful, with more than 75 million records sold, winning 19 Grammy awards, owning a record company, designing clothes, real estate, hotels, businesses, even an NBA basketball team.
Although he was once entangled in an adultery scandal, Jay-Z is currently living peacefully with his equally talented and famous wife – Beyonce. They had 3 children together, including Blue Ivy Carter, Rumi Carter, Sir Carter.