He is 53 years old and is the most recognized rapper in the world as well as the famous husband of Beyoncé. Together they have made a fortune.
Born in Brooklyn, (New York), Jay-Z has an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion, according to the latest estimate from Forbes.
He became the world’s first rap music billionaire in 2019, with stakes in the Armand de Brignac champagne company and D’Usse cognac valued at more than $400 million at the time. He also has several real estate properties in New York and Los Angeles that add to his fortune.
On the other hand, his wealth has skyrocketed in recent years thanks to the growth of his entertainment company Roc Nation, the sale of streaming service Tidal, and numerous investments in companies like Uber. Forbes pegged his net worth at $1.4 billion on last year.
“Even in a year without a tour or album release, Jay-Z mints millions from his investments,” says a latest Forbes report. His fortune is enough to make him one of the richest people in the world.
In a 2010 meeting with legendary investor Warren Buffett, nearly a decade before he became a billionaire, Jay-Z compared his approach to his music career to the well-known guru Oracle of Omaha’s strategy of only investing in businesses he understands rather than what is most popular .
“Music is like stocks, that’s where the heat of the moment is,” Jay-Z told Forbes magazine at the time. “People tend to make emotional decisions based on that. They don’t stick with what they know.”
The famed singer approached his career with the goal of making money and challenged the common sentiment in the ’90s that musicians shouldn’t aspire to be rich.
Jay-Z’s financial achievements prompted famed American investor Buffett to speak about the singer at one of his meetings with his investors years ago. “That has been the greatest achievement in music that people have ever achieved, knowing how to convince artists that you can be an artist and make money,” he said. “Hip-hop from the beginning has always been aspirational. It has always wanted to break that notion that an artist can also think about money and know how to do it well through good decisions,” Buffett said then.
At the end of their conversation, Buffett said that very soon, young people would be looking to Jay-Z for advice on making money. “Jay is teaching on stage much more than I will ever teach,” he noted. “For a young person growing up, he’s the guy to learn from,” he said.
The work undertaken by Jay-Z has led him to stardom not only financially but also in the world of music. He has sold an estimated 75 million albums worldwide, and has received 83 Grammy Award nominations for his musical work, making him the most nominated musician in Grammy history, of which he has won 23.
He is considered one of the best rappers of all time. And he was named number one on MTV’s controversial 2006 list of The Greatest MCs of All-Time.
Three of his albums, Reasonable Doubt (1996), The Blueprint (2001) and The Black Album (2003), are considered milestones in the genre and all three rank on Rolling Magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Stone, who also ranked him 88th on the Top 100 Artist of All Time.
Jay-Z isn’t just known for his music and financial role. He is also a relevant person due to his marriage to the well-known singer and international star Beyoncé.
Before getting married they were friends. In 1999, Jay-Z directed the video for Amil’s single I Got That, which featured Beyoncé. In the following years, until 2002 they had other successful collaborations.
On April 4, 2008, Jay-Z married the singer in Paris, in a ceremony with the necessary people for the event and close friends of the couple such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Martin, Rihanna and Chris Brown. For the ceremony, the two thought of doing something unusual, getting a ring tattooed as a token of their lifelong love.
When they got married they joined their ambitions and since then they have dedicated themselves, among other things, to investing in the real estate sector. Since then, they have owned and sold homes in New York, Miami Beach, New Orleans, the Hamptons, and Los Angeles.
At the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, Beyoncé confessed that she was pregnant and celebrated after performing her song Love On Top live, uncovering her jacket and revealing the signs of her future motherhood. At the time, the father of the future baby was congratulated by Kanye West, Lady Gaga, Tony Bennett, among other celebrities and colleagues.
On January 7, 2012, she gave birth to their daughter, named Blue Ivy Carter. On January 9, 2012, Jay-Z released Glory, a song dedicated to his daughter, through his website LifeandTimes.com.
Five years later, on February 2, 2017, Beyoncé revealed that she was pregnant with twins along with the rapper through her official Instagram account. Sir and Rumi Carter were born on June 13 of that year.