Jay Z Becomes First Hip Hop Billionaire

Jay-Z is the first hip-hop artist to become a billionaire, according to the new cover story in Forbes.

The article begins by recalling a 2010 meeting between the veteran rapper and billionaire Warren Buffet, from which the octogenarian came away impressed and heaped him with praise. “Jay is teaching in a lot bigger classroom than I’ll ever teach in,” he said. “For a young person growing up, he’s the guy to learn from.”

Jay-Z once rapped “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man” and has lived up to his words.

Here are the various businesses that Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, either owns or has a stake in:

• a $70 million stake in Uber
• his ownership of the streaming service Tidal
• his $70 million art collection
• his ownership of the Roc Nation sports management company
• $50 million in assorted real estate holdings and his music catalog.

And being married to uber-superstar Beyonce, worth an estimated $355 million herself according to Forbes, doesn’t hurt.

“Less than a decade later, it’s clear that Jay-Z has accumulated a fortune that conservatively totals $1 billion, making him one of only a handful of entertainers to become a billionaire—and the first hip-hop artist to do so,” Forbes’ Zack O’Malley Greenburg wrote.