Artist Icon Billionaire: How Jay-Z Created His $1 Billion Fortune

(Forbes) Zack OMalley Greenburg June 3 2019 5:56am Nine years ago two unlikely lunch partners sat down at the Hollywood Diner in Omaha Nebraska. One Warren Buffett was a regular there. The other Jay-Z was not. The billionaire and the rapper ordered strawberry malts and chatted amiably continuing the conversation back at Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway offices. Buffett then 80 walked away impressed with the artist 40 years his junior: Jay is teaching in a lot bigger classroom than Ill ever teach in. For a young person growing up hes the guy to learn from." This moment which was originally captured in our 2010 Forbes 400 package made it clear that Jay-Z already had a blueprint for his own ten-figure fortune. Hip-hop from the beginning has always been aspirational" he said. Less than a decade later its 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 billionaireand the first hip-hop artist to do so. Jay-Zs steadily growing kingdom is expansive encompassing liquor art real estate (homes in Los Angeles the Hamptons Tribeca) and stakes in companies like Uber. His journey is all the more impressive given its start: Brooklyns notorious Marcy housing projects. He was a drug dealer before becoming a musician starting his own label Roc-A-Fella Records to release his 1996 debut Reasonable Doubt. Since then hes amassed 14 No. 1 albums 22 Grammy awards and over $500 million in pretax earnings in a decade.