American rapper Jay-Z has become the world’s first hip-hop billionaire, according to US business magazine Forbes.
It says even a “conservative estimate” of his earnings has him breaking the billion-dollar barrier.
Alongside music, his fortune includes more than $410m (£300m) invested in alcohol companies and a roughly $70m stake in Uber.
Jay-Z, real name Shawn Carter, grew up in one of New York’s roughest neighbourhoods. Widely considered one of the best rappers of all time, he once declared: “I’m not a businessman – I’m a business, man”.
His music rights alone, Forbes says, are now collectively worth around $75m, with another $75m for his entertainment company, Roc Nation. As well as putting out music by the likes of Grammy award-winning Rihanna and rapper J. Cole, it also works with athletes and makes films and TV shows.
Then there’s $100m for the streaming service Tidal, a rival to Apple Music and Spotify that he launched back in 2015.
Jay-Z and wife Beyonce who have three children together, own several mansions in places like New York and Los Angeles and, as a couple, Forbes gave them billionaire status two years ago.
Historically, though, not everyone has been on board with Forbes’ evaluations. Back in 2014, revered producer Dr. Dre declared himself a billionaire, but the magazine disputes this. Last year, it estimated Dr. Dre was actually worth a meagre $770m (£607m) that’s despite selling his headphone brand, Beats by Dre, to Apple for more than $3.2bn, reported BBC.
Mogul Diddy is the other big name rapper in the race, worth about $825m (£650m).
