He’s the richest rapper in the world, but Jay Z’s net worth isn’t just due to a successful career in the music industry—he’s also one hell of an investor.
So much so that business titan Warren Buffet observed that “Jay is teaching in a lot bigger classroom than I’ll ever teach in. For a young person growing up, he’s the guy to learn from,” in an interview published in Forbes back in 2010. In comparing the two, which span a 40-year age gap, Buffett recalled starting in business early at age seven reading his father’s business books. Jay Z, meanwhile, “started a little later” but the rapper identified with what the Berkshire Hathaway CEO was saying about needing emotional stability, not necessarily smarts, to succeed.
“My first album didn’t come out until I was 26, so I had a bit more maturity. The album had all these emotions and complexities and layers that a typical hip-hop album didn’t have if you were making it at 16, 17 years old,” the rapper said, whose birth name is Shawn Corey Carter. “That isn’t enough wealth of experience to share with the world. I had so much wealth to share with the world at that time, and I’ve never forgotten those things, like you say. You never forget those true things that you stick to, your basic things that make you successful.”
What is Jay Z’s net worth?
Jay Z’s net worth is $1.3 billion according to Celebrity Net Worth, making him the wealthiest rapper in the world. His first musical release came in 1996 with Reasonable Doubt after founding the independent label Roc-A-Fella Records a year prior. “I was around music my whole life. My mom and pop had a huge record collection, so I started out listening to music early on, and I would just write. I had a love for it from there,” he continued to Forbes.
Jay-Z. Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
“I didn’t get to it, you know. I got caught into my neighborhood and my surroundings. But I’ve always taken it with me, and I’ve always gone back to it. It just got to a point where it was, like, “Make this decision, because this is something you really love and you love to do. ‘It’s time to really focus on and then get serious about it, give it your all.’ And once I did that, it was no looking back from there.”
Jay-Z’s next album would prove to be a much bigger hit. Distributed by Def Jam in 1997, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 debuted at number three on the Billboard 200. Its follow-up, Vol. 2… Hard Knock Life debuted at number one and includes one of Jay-Z’s biggest hit singles, “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)”.
At the turn of the millennium, Jay-Z delivered his third album to debut at number one on the Billboard charts. The Dynasty: Roc La Familia is his fifth studio release. With his fourth-consecutive number-one album, The Blueprint introduced the world to its then-unknown producers, Kanye West and Just Blaze. Jay-Z not only has a total of 13 releases himself but he’s a prolific collaborator, too, having signed Rihanna to her first record deal in 2006.
In 1999, Jay-Z achieved his first chart-topping song in the US with “Heartbreaker” which he created with Mariah Carey. He also collaborated with R. Kelly on The Best of Both Worlds. But perhaps he’s best known—at least from a commercial perspective—for his work with former Destiny’s Child member and his now-wife, Beyoncé.
The pair worked together on the song “03-Bonnie & Clyde” as well as her hit singles “Crazy in Love” and “That’s How You Like It”. They married in 2008 and welcomed their first child, Blue Ivy, on January 8, 2012. Five years later, in June 2017, Beyonce gave birth to twins, a daughter Rumi and a son, Sir.
As mentioned, Jay-Z has made a series of smart business moves that are responsible for his considerable fortune. He was the president of Def Jam records from 2005 to 2008 and founded the entertainment agency Roc Nation in 2008 as well. Outside of music, Jay-Z co-founded the clothing line Rocawear in 1999 with Damon Dash. The very next year, the company was generating $50 million in annual revenue, peaking at $700 million. In 2007, after a falling out with Damon, Jay-Z sold Rocawear to Iconix Brand Group for $204 million. He maintains a small stake in the business to this day.
Jay-Z, Beyonce. Photo by KMazur/WireImage
From 2003 to 2013, Jay-Z was a part-owner in the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and along with other ventures, like founding the luxury sports bar chain 40/40 Club, Jay-Z acquired the champagne brand Armand de Brignac and the technology company Aspiro. He launched the digital lifestyle magazine Life + Times as well as created the cannabis line Monogram.
The popularity of his champagne, which is otherwise known as Ace of Spaces, helped boost Jay-Z’s fortune to $1 billion in 2019 and it earned him recognition as the first hip-hop artist to reach a 10-figure milestone. In February 2021, Jay-Z sold 50 percent of Armand de Brignac to the wine and spirits division of the luxury conglomerate LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton) for more than $600 million, which Forbes speculated would have earned him a payment of at least $300 million.
His secret to success is simple. “Do things that are true to you,” Jay-Z said in an interview with CNN Business while promoting his book, Decoded, in 2010. Most things I’m involved with are an extension of being creative. Roc-A-Wear’s a clothing company, part of who you are in hip hop is your attitude and what you’re trying to express, how you dress. I loved sports growing up, I grew up in a household where sports was on 24/7. These [are] all things that are comfortable for me.”
In June 2020, Jay-Z bought full-page newspaper ads in dozens of publications dedicated to George Floyd, including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Philadelphia Inquirer.In a photo of the ad shared by Jay-Z entertainment agency, Roc Nation, the pages include a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. at a 1965 address in Selma, Alabama. “Only way we can really achieve freedom is to somehow hunker the fear of death. But if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live,” the quote starts. “Deep down in our nonviolent creed is the conviction—that there are some things so dear, some things so precious, some things so eternally true, that they are worth dying for.”
“A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true. So we’re going to stand up amid horses. We’re going to stand up right here, amid the billy-clubs. We’re going to stand up right here amid police dogs, if they have them. We’re going to stand up amid tear gas!” At the bottom of the ad are signatures from Jay-Z and organizations, such as the Innocent Project and Until Freedom.
What is Beyonce’s net worth?
Beyoncé’s net worth is $500 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Beyoncé is worth $800 million less than her husband, Jay-Z, who is worth $1.3 billion, according to Celebrity Net Worth. She is worth, however, more than her fellow Destiny’s Child members Kelly Rowland, who is worth $12 million, and Michelle Williams, who is worth $10 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Beyoncé is also worth more than her sister, Solange Knowles, who is worth $9 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Getty Images.
A majority of Beyoncé’s net worth comes from her music career, which includes seven solo albums—2003’s Dangerously in Love, 2006’s B’Day, 2008’s I Am… Sasha Fierce, 2011’s 4, 2013’s Beyoncé, 2016’s Lemonade and 2022’s Renaissance—and five albums with Destiny’s Child: 1998’s Destiny’s Child, 1999’s The Writing’s on the Wall, 2001’s Survivor and 8 Days of Christmas, and 2004’s Destiny Fulfilled. Beyoncé also has one album with her Jay-Z: 2018’s Everything in Love. Beyoncé’s net worth also includes her five headlining tours: Dangerously in Love Tour in 2003; The Beyoncé Experience in 2007; I Am… World Tour from 2009 to 2010; The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour from 2013 to 2014; The Formation World Tour in 2016; and The Renaissance World Tour in 2023. The Formation World Tour grossed $256 million worldwide from 49 sold-out shows, according to Billboard, and ranked number two on Pollstar’s Year End Tours chart in 2016.
Beyoncé’s fortune also includes what she makes from her businesses and sponsorships, including her entertainment company Parkwood Entertainment, which she founded in 2010 as an imprint from Columbia Records and is named after the street in Houston, Texas, she once lived. Beyoncé has also worked with companies like Pepsi, which she signed a $50 million deal for in 2012, according to The New York Times, Tommy Hilfiger, Emporio Armani, American Express, Nintendo DS, and Tiffany & Co. Beyoncé’s net worth also includes what she makes from her fashion brand Ivy Park, which she launched in 2016.
Decoded, Jay-Z. Amazon
Decoded is a book like no other: a collection of lyrics and their meanings that together tell the story of a culture, an art form, a moment in history, and one of the most provocative and successful artists of our time. Here’s what others have said about it: “One of a handful of books that just about any hip hop fan should own,” said the New Yorker. Meanwhile Entertainment Weekly says: “Shawn Carter’s most honest airing of the experiences he drew on to create the mythic figure of Jay-Z . . . The scenes he recounts along the way are fascinating.”
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