Jay-Z, First Rapper to Become a Billionaire

It turns out that even rappers can become a billionaire and who would've thought that the person is no other than Jay-Z. His meeting with the best investors of all time, Warren Buffet definitely changed his life towards becoming a successful billionaire as we see today.

The world of rap or hip-hop can be said to not be as vast as other kinds of music like rock and even ballads. But that never stops the famous rapper from achieving his dreams in life.

The name Jay-Z is very synonymous with hip-hop and even Jay-Z himself has produced 14 albums and established companies that have led him to become a billionaire in the entertainment industry.

Biography

Jay-Z was born in the busy city of New York which happens to be the place of heaven for some of the best stock investments in the world. He was born in 1969 and he was raised in a rather poor family together with his 4 siblings.

His real name is Shawn Corey Carter and his life was rather unfortunate as his father left him when he was only 11 years old. He was raised by a very strong and dedicated single mother.

Marcy Project was the place where he grew up in New York which is where the low-cost houses were at. There are a lot of dark secrets going on at the place where Jay-Z was currently living, a place where no kid should live.

A lot of drug trafficking lingers in the place and it is considered the city with the highest crime rate in New York.

When Jay-Z was just a teenager, he was always having discipline issues and it seems that he is constantly moving from one school to another because of all the troubles he has caused. This is due to the fact that he was used to a surrounding where crimes are considered a norm and he even tried becoming a drug trafficker himself.

Not just that, but what turns out to be most shocking is that he shot his own brother when he was only 12 years old simply because his brother stole his jewelry.

He started his career as a hip-hop artist in 1989 in which Jay-O was his mentor at the time. Jay-O was the man responsible to introduce the world of hip-hop to Jay-Z. The name Jay-Z was also an inspiration from his own mentor and it is also in conjunction with a street close to his home.

Jay-Z released his own album in 1996 and it was given the name Reasonable Doubt it was from the establishment of his own recording company called Roc-A-Fella Records. This was done because it was hard at the time to find any company willing to release an album for an unknown artist considering Jay-Z was not so popular then.

He even tried to sell his own album by driving his cars around town because he did not have any money to promote the album he just recorded.

It was at this time that his life finally changes in which he became one of the best hip-hop artists in the world. Along with his career, he has won as many as 21 Grammy Awards and many other achievements in his music career.

He was also married to a famous R n B artist who is no other than Beyonce Knowles who also happens to be rich just like Jay-Z. They were both gifted, with 3 adorable children in the 10 years of marriage.

Unlike other artists out there, Jay-Z is considered very smart when it comes to financial planning in order to increase his own income. Some of the investments made by Jay-Z have made him eligible to be on Forbe's Billionaires list. There is an abundance of things he has made good use of his money with.

1. Uber

Everyone must have heard of this popular e-hailing app which has helped many people to get to other places easily. The investment made by Jay-Z back in 2011 had definitely paid off especially when we look back at that time, Uber has not even listed their company in IPO.

It was until 2019, that Jay-Z's investment in Uber was worth a staggering $70 million after Uber was listed on the stock exchange at the price of $42 per share.

2. Roc Nation

Roc Nation is the main company established by Jay-Z to handle most of the top artists in the world today like Kanye West, Rihanna, Shakira, and even Beyonce herself. The company was founded in 2008 and it involves many types of businesses even in sports.

The company also owns a basketball team that it manages directly.

3. Real Estate

This jaw-dropping mega-mansion owned by Jay-Z is worth $88 million which showed the strong financial status of Jay-Z. Jay-Z also owns other several estates and one of which he bought for $26 million when he got his first newborn twin back in 2017.

The home he bought for $88 million is situated at Bel-Air in Los Angeles which is considered for the elites.

4. Armand de Brignac

These spade-shaped bottles of wine are one of the exclusive types of wines drank only by those who can actually afford it since it has a hefty price tag. From the name itself, you can guess where it came from which is France and Jay-Z started to invest in wineries back in 2006.

He started to advertise this expensive brand in his music video 'Show Me What You Got. It was believed that he invested $310 million into the company and it turned out well for him. One bottle of wine manufactured by this company costs somewhere around $300.

5. Tidal

This is a music streaming app similar to the one you see today, Spotify. Tidal uses very high frequency in the stream and this causes their services to be much higher compared to their competitors. Jay-Z has spent $60 million in the early phase of this company startup.

He has also influenced some of his friends to invest in the company too like Rihanna, and Nicki Minaj. Kanye West, Daft Punk, Madonna, Jack White, Arcada Fire, Alicia Keys, Usher, Chris Martine, Calvin Harris, Jason Aldean, and including his wife Beyonce.

It can be said that many top artists that you see today have invested in this music streaming app.

6. Music Album

As you can see, these are some of the top albums produced by Jay-Z and it has definitely cashed in big bucks. Along with his career as a singer, he has produced 14 albums in which all 14 of which were paid royalties.

His whole album was estimated to be worth $50 million.

7. Collections

Some of the drawings collection owned by Jay-Z has a big price tag on it and the one produced by Jean-Michel Basquiat was said to be worth $6 million. It was a drawing of the city of New York with the background of the Empire State building.

Jay-Z also owned other several masterpieces worth millions of dollars and some of the drawing he bought was from a known artist born in New York worth $4.5 million named Mecca.

Jay-Z was considered very smart when it comes to making good use of his money as well as grabbing the opportunity firsthand. Due to his smart thinking, he managed to achieve his dream of becoming a billionaire in a period of 23 years after the release of his first album.

Regardless of going through so much pain growing up, it was never an excuse for Jay-Z to become successful today. This just proves that even after you have failed once, you should get back up again and try even harder.

He also proved that just because he is black, any person can become successful regardless of the color of their skin. All that is required is hard work and dedication.

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