Jay-Z reaped a massive windfall selling a piece of his champagne brand to luxury goods giant LVMH – but it doesn’t beat stars like Dr. Dre or Kylie Jenner when they sold their stakes in major companies.



By Abigail Freeman,Forbes Staff



It turns out Jay-Z’s luxury champagne brand is worth more than “half a B.”



The partnership announced on Monday between Jay-Z and the wine and spirits division of LVMH makes the billionaire rapper the latest celebrity to pocket a windfall by selling part of a consumer brand to a major distributor. The deal appears to have valued the brand, Armand de Brignac, at more than $600 million, which would land him a cash payment of at least $300 million—about $50 million more than he would have made based on the $500 million value he rapped about in Meek Mill’s 2018 song “What’s Free.” &nbsp;



The founder of RocNation sold 50% of the champagne business to LVMH’s Moët Hennessy in a move aimed at “taking the business to new heights across the world,” according to Moet’s CEO Philippe Schaus.&nbsp; LVMH is known to bid competitively, and that certainly appears to have been true for this latest deal.&nbsp;



Forbes&nbsp;values the deal for the bubbly wine, known by its nickname Ace of Spades thanks to its logo design and several of Jay-Z’s lyrics promoting it, at roughly $630 million, based on conversations with five beverage analysts and industry insiders. That’s double&nbsp;Forbes’ previous valuation of the brand. The terms of the deal have not been publicly reported by LVMH or Jay-Z, whose company will still handle production. Neither side would comment, but based on analyst estimates, Jay-Z likely pocketed at least $315 million in the deal.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“The multiples for Armand de Brignac—based on the category and volume size of the brand—far outreach brands that don’t have that celebrity ownership,” says beverage market analyst Eric Schmidt.&nbsp;



Still, it’s not the biggest celebrity cash out by a long shot: Kylie Jenner sold 51% of her cosmetics company to Coty in a deal that valued the brand at more than $1 billion; she got $540 million pre-tax. Rapper-Producer Dr. Dre sold his audio product company Beats to Apple in 2014 for $3 billion, pocketing $585 million himself before taxes.&nbsp;



Plenty of other pop stars have followed suit, not just selling out or selling stakes but often partnering with global giants. LVMH struck an earlier deal with Jay-Z protégé&nbsp; Rihanna in 2017 to launch Fenty Beauty, and most recently invested indirectly in her lingerie line Savage x Fenty earlier this month. The value of her stakes in both businesses totals $530 million.&nbsp;



“With celebrity association, particularly in the earlier years, the valuation of a company could be higher by three to seven times,” says food and beverage marketing consultant Arthur Gallego. “But I don’t think it works for every celebrity. There’s got to be something authentic about it.”



Jay-Z’s<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2014/11/06/why-jay-zs-champagne-news-isnt-so-new/?sh=17b1677528d3">journey with Ace of Spades</a>&nbsp;began in 2006, a year after he signed Rihanna to her first record deal. At the time, the Brooklyn-born mogul called for a boycott from Cristal champagne after CEO Frédéric Rouzaud said, &#8220;What can we do? We can&#8217;t forbid people from buying it,&#8221; in response to being asked about the brand’s popularity among rappers at the time. Later that year, Jay-Z debuted his champagne brand by featuring its signature gold bottle in his &#8220;Show Me What You Got&#8221; video.



The popularity and strong sales of Ace of Spades helped boost Jay-Z’s fortune to $1 billion by 2019, earning him&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;recognition as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2019/06/03/jay-z-billionaire-worth/?sh=28eea6cf3a5f">first hip-hop artist</a>&nbsp;toreach the 10-figure milestone. The latest deal will likely bump that figure up, while leaving him with other assets to monetize, including RocNation’s entertainment business, music streaming service Tidal, an athlete representation agency, his master recordings and music publishing rights, and a second liquor brand, D’usse.



Here is how his windfall stacks up against some of the most notable celebrity deals inked in the past five years.



<h3 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading" id="h-george-clooney">George Clooney</h3>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1148820506-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-50129" width="403" height="268" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1148820506-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1148820506-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1148820506-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1148820506-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1148820506-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1148820506-600x400.jpg 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 403px) 100vw, 403px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



British liquor giant Diageo purchased the movie star’s tequila company Casamigos in 2017 in a transaction that valued the company at up to $1 billion including $700 million up front and another $300 million based on performance over the following 10 years. The A-list actor netted more than $200 million pretax, making him Forbes’ top paid actor of 2018. He cofounded the company with nightlife entrepreneur Rande Gerber (husband of supermodel Cindy Crawford) and real estate tycoon Mike Meldman in 2013. Clooney, Gerber and Meldman each invested $600,000 apiece as equal partners to start up Casamigos, which loosely means house of friends, and then reinvested profits, earning them an impressive ROI. The star and his pals are still involved in the business.



<h3 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading">Kylie Jenner</h3>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205228158-683x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-50131" width="378" height="566" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205228158-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205228158-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205228158-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205228158-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205228158-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205228158-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205228158-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205228158-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 378px) 100vw, 378px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Rich Fury/VF20/Getty Images for Vanity Fair)</figcaption></figure></div>



Jenner used $250,000 of her earnings from modeling to pay an outside company to make her first 15,000 lip kits, which sold out in minutes in 2015. Kylie Cosmetics quickly became one of the fastest growing makeup brands, thanks to the reality TV star’s massive social media following—now at 265 million followers across Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. Cosmetics giant Coty Inc paid $600 million for a 51% stake of the brand in January 2020; she pocketed $540 million, pretax. She still has <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2020/05/29/inside-kylie-jennerss-web-of-lies-and-why-shes-no-longer-a-billionaire/?sh=520c80cc25f7">an estimated 44.1%</a> stake—with Kris Jenner owning a small stake—in the brand, and she and her team oversee all creative efforts.  



<h3 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading">Kim Kardashian West</h3>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205274440-1024x682.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-50132" width="424" height="282" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205274440-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205274440-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205274440-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205274440-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205274440-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205274440-600x399.jpg 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 424px) 100vw, 424px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)</figcaption></figure></div>



Kardashian West sold 20% of KKW Beauty to publicly traded Coty in a deal that closed in January, and took home $180 million pre-tax. Kardashian West still has a 72% stake, worth an estimated $500 million. The new partners plan to enter new beauty categories together and expand overseas. In the works: a skincare line set to launch in fiscal year 2022. Kardashian West filed for divorce from Kanye West, her husband of seven years, in February; the couple had signed a pre-nup. 



<h3 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading">Rihanna</h3>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208055829-1024x705.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-50133" width="491" height="338" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208055829-1024x705.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208055829-300x206.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208055829-768x529.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208055829-1536x1057.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208055829-2048x1410.jpg 2048w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208055829-600x413.jpg 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 491px) 100vw, 491px" /><figcaption>. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET)</figcaption></figure></div>



The pop star has made the bulk of her fortune from Fenty Beauty, the makeup brand she started with LVMH in September 2017. Forbes estimates that LVMH owns 50% and she owns 15%, or $450 million worth, of the $3 billion (est. value) brand. Fashion house Fenty, which she launched less than two years ago as a joint venture with LVMH, has been less successful. Following a decline in business at Rihanna’s Fenty clothing line, LVMH said it is halting the luxury fashion house after less than two years of operation. Rihanna also has a roughly $80 millionstake in lingerie line, Savage x Fenty, a joint venture launched in 2018 with TechStyle Fashion Group. Investors in the business include L Catterton and Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners. 



<h3 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading">Kanye West </h3>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1144131570-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47745" width="413" height="275" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1144131570-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1144131570-scaled-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1144131570-scaled-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1144131570-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1144131570-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1144131570-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 413px) 100vw, 413px" /><figcaption>. (Photo by Timothy Norris/Getty Images for Coachella)</figcaption></figure></div>



In a deal perhaps more reminiscent of Michael Jordan’s partnership with Nike or rapper Diddy’s Ciroc vodka with liquor giant Diageo, West gets much of his money from a profit sharing agreement with Adidas.&nbsp; West owns 100% of his super popular sneaker brand Yeezy. But it’s a complicated deal in which Adidas handles all the production, marketing and distribution, and West receives a royalty of approximately 11% of Yeezy revenue. Based on estimated revenues of $1.3 billion in 2019, West likely received royalties of over $140 million.&nbsp; That was more than either Jordan, who earned $130 million from his cut of Air Jordan sales, or Diddy, who pocketed $50 million, the bulk of his earnings, in beverage partnerships, mostly from Ciroc. Based on the royalty stream,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;valued West’s business at nearly $1.3 billion.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Additional reporting by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/madelineberg/">Madeline Berg</a>.

2020 Roc Nation THE BRUNCH – Inside

Here’s How Much Jay-Z Made On His Ace Of Spades Deal—And How It Stacks Up Against Other Celebrity Cashouts

There’s no longer a reasonable doubt that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2020/04/09/jay-z-net-worth-1-billion-in-2020/?sh=29f4c20439de">Jay-Z</a>&nbsp;is now a player in the cannabis industry.



Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter’s high-end cannabis brand, Monogram, launches its first products in California on Thursday with a four-strain line of craft, indoor-grown cannabis flower and joints.



The company’s flagship product is the “OG Handroll,” a 1.5-gram joint rolled by “highly trained artisans,” the company says, that use a technique Monogram developed over a year. The joint is made with small-batch flower and is supposed to burn like a premium cigar. And it retails for nearly twice as much at $50.



Monogram’s cannabis strains—named No. 88, No. 96, No. 70 and No. 01 and developed by veteran grower DeAndre “De” Watson —come in three strengths: “light,” “medium” and “heavy.”



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/1.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-49294" width="502" height="334" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/1.jpeg 950w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/1-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/1-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/1-600x400.jpeg 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 502px) 100vw, 502px" /><figcaption>(Photo: PRNewFoto/Monogram)</figcaption></figure></div>



Michael Auerbach, the founder and chairman of Subversive Capital Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company that announced a deal to acquire Jay-Z’s Monogram and California cannabis company Caliva last month, says Jay-Z is not just a front man for the brand.



“He’s a real executive, he’s not some ancillary ambassador who says something nice about us once a year,” says Auerbach. “He’s the tip of our spear who’s building out our house of brands, like he has done with Aces of Spades and D’Ussé.”



In 2019, Jay joined Caliva as its chief brand strategist, where he&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lindseybartlett/2020/10/23/rapper-jay-z-launches-his-own-cannabis-brand-monogram/?sh=2f58d626180e">developed Monogram</a>. In November 2020, Auerbach’s SPAC announced a deal to acquire Caliva and Monogram, which was a joint venture between Jay-Z and Caliva, and Left Coast Ventures, which owns musician cannabis brands like Marley Natural and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/10/22/carlos-santana-talks-cannabis-its-all-about-consciousness-man/?sh=535b8f4f7b64">Carlos Santana’s Mirayo</a>. The new name for Auerbach’s company is “The Parent Co.” It raised $575 million when it went public on Canada’s microcap stock exchange NEO last summer. &nbsp;



The name “The Parent Co.,” which Jay came up with, might sound like a joke, but Auerbach says its serious.



“We are looking at building the first 100-year company in cannabis, and he was looking at it in the same way,” says Auerbach. “What does the first 100-year company in this industry look like? How do we create a generational company that will dominate the industry globally? And ‘The Parent Co.’ is a meta name that represents what we’re trying to do.”



The all-stock deal to acquire Jay-Z’s 50% of Monogram has not closed yet, but he is supposed to receive 5 million shares in The Parent Co. and the right to 1 million more. The Parent Co. also struck an exclusive agreement with Jay’s Roc Nation to become its cannabis brand partner. The deal, which will pay Roc Nation $25 million in stock after the transaction closes and $7.5 million each year, gives The Parent Co. access and rights to Roc Nation’s roster of artists and athletes.



Auerbach says the “pipeline of artists and athletes” under Roc Nation, including Rihanna, will play a crucial role in the development of future brands. &nbsp;&nbsp;



In addition to developing brands and business strategy, Jay will also lead the company’s social justice program. The venture fund has been seeded $10 million and the company will give 2% of its net income each year in order to invest in Black and other minority-owned cannabis business.



To be sure, this is only Jay-Z’s latest business venture. In 2019, he became the first&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2019/06/03/jay-z-billionaire-worth/#c7e93173a5f0">hip-hop artist turned billionaire</a>. Jay-Z, who grew up in the Marcy housing projects in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, built a fortune thanks to his music catalog—he’s amassed 14 No. 1 albums and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/jay-z" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">22 Grammy awards</a>—and also owns Armand de Brignac champagne and part of D’Ussé cognac, not to mention his music streaming platform Tidal, Roc Nation and sizable stakes in companies like Uber and Robinhood.



Warren Buffett once&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/1011/rich-list-10-omaha-warren-buffett-jay-z-steve-forbes-summit-interview.html#254450666480">said</a>&nbsp;about Jay: “For a young person growing up, he’s the guy to learn from.”



Auerbach describes Jay succinctly: “He’s a hands-on creative genius.”



For The Parent Co., Monogram is just the first brand out of Jay-Z’s head and there’s more to come. In the world of celebrity-built brands, Auerbach says the strategy around Monogram is more Casamigos—George Clooney’s tequila company that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2017/06/21/george-clooney-is-expected-to-make-up-to-233-million-from-casamigos-tequila-sale/?sh=1ead73943ff8">Diageo bought for $1 billion</a>—and less&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/katieshapiro/2020/12/09/martha-stewart-cbd-goes-coast-to-coast-with-first-national-retail-expansion/?sh=42ac0a6841cb">Martha Stewart CBD</a>.



“My preference is for celebrities to associate with brands instead of name brands after themselves. There’s no way I’d drink it if it were called ‘Casa Clooney’—people would think it’s crap, people would think it’s a gimmick,” says Auerbach. “Many people don’t know Ace of Spades is Jay-Z’s champagne company, but it’s the fastest-growing champagne company.”



As for what Jay-Z thinks about it all, in a statement, he said Monogram is here to celebrate craft cannabis.



“Cannabis has been around for thousands of years, yet it is still an industry whose legacy of skilled craftmanship is often overlooked,” said Jay. “I created Monogram to give cannabis the respect it deserves by showcasing the tremendous hard work, time and care that go into crafting a superior smoke. . . . We’re just getting started.”



-By Will Yakowicz, Forbes Staff

SOMETHING IN THE WATER – Day 2

Jay-Z’s Cannabis Brand, Monogram, Launches With $50 Hand-Rolled Joints

Back in 2007,&nbsp;Jay-Z made a bold statement&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2010/12/14/jay-z-50-cent-and-diddy-i-get-money-forbes-1-2-3-billion-dollar-remix/#283e75c86ec2" target="_blank">in song</a>&nbsp;about both his lyrical prowess and his future financial fortunes: “I’m already the G.O.A.T.–next stop is the billie.”



Sure enough,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2019/06/03/jay-z-billionaire-worth/#70f0b90d3a5f" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">declared</a>&nbsp;him hip-hop’s first billionaire earlier this month. The news caught the attention of observers around the world—not only due to the breadth of Jay-Z’s financial achievement, but because of what it means for others looking to follow in his footsteps.



“Jay-Z’s entire life is the real blueprint,” says hip-hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy, longtime host of the show&nbsp;Yo! MTV Raps. “He’s one of the best examples in our lifetime of one who’s truly achieved the American dream and billionaire status.”



Naturally, Jay-Z tops this year’s ranking of hip-hop’s richest stars. Who will be the next billionaire from the rap world? The answer is almost certainly one of the names below.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5d010d70142c50000a32b592/960x0.jpg?cropX1=1&amp;cropX2=4689&amp;cropY1=693&amp;cropY2=3126" alt="richest rappers Drake"/><figcaption>GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">5. Drake</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$150 million</h3>



The 32-year-old Canadian is the youngest on this list by a decade, but he’s quickly gaining ground on hip-hop’s elder statesmen. Drake’s fortune grew 50% over the past year, boosted by holdings ranging from real estate to his Virginia Black whiskey, as well as a lucrative tour and new residency at the XS Nightclub in Las Vegas.



“Every year, we just want to get more prepared and better at touring and better at things that make money,” he&nbsp;told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;in 2013 (his average gross has since surged from $500,000 to more than $2 million per stop). “That’s pretty much my objective every year, other than making good music.”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5d010dbe4c687b0008596731/960x0.jpg?cropX1=4&amp;cropX2=4698&amp;cropY1=679&amp;cropY2=3122" alt="richest rappers Kanye"/><figcaption>GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">4. Kanye West</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$240 million</h3>



A onetime protégé of Jay-Z, the superproducer has been making headlines recently for his Sunday Service, an invitation-only get-together mostly in Southern California that is&nbsp;reportedly&nbsp;frequented by the likes of Courtney Love and Tyler, the Creator. He took the show on the road in April for a Coachella service on Easter Sunday featuring appearances by Chance the Rapper, DMX and a gospel choir—while&nbsp;hawking&nbsp;socks and “holy spirit” sweatshirts. But selling church clothes alone won’t be enough to push West into ten-figure territory.



Despite&nbsp;declaring&nbsp;himself $53 million in debt and beseeching Mark Zuckerberg for $1 billion to fund future creations in 2016, West makes his debut on this list thanks to a another patron: Adidas, which lured West and his Yeezy shoe line from Nike several years ago. Our accounting of West’s wealth is almost entirely predicated on a conservative estimate of that brand’s value. As it continues to scale up, he could one day join his sister-in-law, Kylie Jenner, as a billionaire.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5d010ee84c687b0008596780/960x0.jpg?cropX1=1&amp;cropX2=4697&amp;cropY1=804&amp;cropY2=3128" alt="richest rappers Diddy"/><figcaption>GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">3. Diddy</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$740 million</h3>



“I started my business career at age 12, delivering newspapers,” Diddy explained two years ago in our centennial issue, where we named him one of the world’s greatest living business minds. “Since then, I’ve always understood that if I give the customers my best and service them differently, whether music, clothing or vodka, I’ll get a return on my hard work.”



The artist formerly known as Puff Daddy dips to No. 3 on this list as industry trends weigh on some of his holdings, including cable network Revolt and clothing line Sean John (though Diddy has sold much of his stake in the latter, he retains a sizeable piece). But Ciroc, the main driver of his fortune, is growing again after case volumes fell from all-time highs in recent years—making the impresario perhaps the most likely candidate to join Jay-Z in the billion-dollar club.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5d010e3234a5c40008482a48/960x0.jpg?cropX1=0&amp;cropX2=4695&amp;cropY1=603&amp;cropY2=3131" alt="richest rappers dr dre"/><figcaption>GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">2. Dr. Dre</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$800 million</h3>



It’s been five years since Dr. Dre proclaimed himself a billionaire, but&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;still doesn’t agree with the assessment made in the wake of Apple’s $3 billion 2014 purchase of his Beats By Dr. Dre headphone line. The superproducer owned an estimated 20%-25% of the company at the time; of the $2.6 billion Apple paid upfront in cash, another $295 million was&nbsp;earmarked&nbsp;to cover debt payments, leaving Dre with a little over $500 million.



Even with the vesting of his final slug of Apple stock last summer, Dre hasn’t quite made it into billionaire territory. He has spent heavily over the years on property (he&nbsp;paid&nbsp;$40 million for Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen’s Los Angeles estate) and charitable donations (along with Beats cofounder Jimmy Iovine, he&nbsp;gave&nbsp;$70 million to start a school at USC). And with his formal involvement at Apple seemingly wrapping up, Dre will likely need to get back on the festival circuit—or start a new company—if he’s to make good on his 2014 declaration.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5d010e694c687b0008596774/960x0.jpg?cropX1=10&amp;cropX2=4698&amp;cropY1=739&amp;cropY2=3130" alt="richest rappers jay-z"/><figcaption>GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">1. Jay-Z</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$1 billion</h3>



Though he’s hip-hop’s first billionaire, Jay-Z’s lead on the rest of the pack is even larger if his entire family fortune is taken into consideration: He and wife Beyoncé are now worth a combined $1.4 billion. So much for the notion that music is a dying business.



“To convince artists that you can’t be an artist and make money … was the greatest trick in music that people ever pulled off,” Jay-Z&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/1011/rich-list-10-omaha-warren-buffett-jay-z-steve-forbes-summit-interview.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;in 2010. “I think the people that were making the millions said that.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Methodology</h3>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">In order to compile our ranking of the richest rappers, we use the same procedures employed in the calculation of our annual&nbsp;billionaires list: poring over financial documents, valuing major assets, and consulting with analysts, managers, attorneys and other industry insiders.</h5>



Cover photographs: Getty Images (Dr. Dre: AP Images)



-Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg; Forbes Staff

hiphop

Hip-Hop’s Next Billionaires: Richest Rappers 2019

“Got that dinero on my mind,” Beyoncé and Jay-Z wrote on the third track of their surprise album&nbsp;Everything is Love, which came out last June.&nbsp;A year later, it’s clear that the couple wasn’t just taking poetic license: With Jay-Z’s<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2019/06/03/jay-z-billionaire-worth/#12477d163a5f" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;newly minted</a>&nbsp;status as a billionaire and Beyoncé’s place on<a href="https://www.forbes.com/self-made-women/list/#tab:overall" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;Forbes’ richest self-made women list</a>, the music moguls are one of America’s wealthiest couples.



It’s been a banner year for the married couple, whose combined net worth now totals an estimated $1.4 billion. Jay-Z, whose steadily growing portfolio of businesses includes liquor, art, real estate and stakes in companies like Uber, is the first hip-hop artist to become a billionaire. 



Meanwhile Beyoncé , whose fortune increased to an estimated $400 million from $355 million last year thanks to continued touring and an album release, ranks No. 51 on Forbes 2019 list of America’s most successful self-made women (up two places from last year).



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2019/06/05/from-beyonce-knowles-carter-to-kim-kardashian-west-americas-richest-self-made-women-under-40/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="From Beyoncé Knowles-Carter to Kim Kardashian West, America’s Richest Self-Made Women Under 40 (opens in a new tab)">From Beyoncé Knowles-Carter to Kim Kardashian West, America’s Richest Self-Made Women Under 40</a>



Their combined net worth of $1.4 billion makes the music moguls one of the 10 most successful husband-and-wife teams in the country, and certainly the most recognizable. &nbsp;Unlike many other couples who founded businesses together, they both struck it rich with complementary but separate businesses. Beyoncé’s wealth comes mostly from earnings from touring, music sales and merchandise. 



Her husband, on the other hand, amassed most of his wealth from his ownership of Armand de Brignac champagne, investments, his cognac partnership with Bacardi and his own music career, among other sources. Both Beyoncé and Jay-Z have stakes in music streaming service Tidal.



Other entrepreneurial husband-and-wife teams might not be as famous, but their businesses are well known. Do Won and Jin Sook Chang came from South Korea in 1981 in search of better opportunities. “At the time [people in] South Korea weren’t living as well,” Do Won told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/gracechung/2016/10/05/exclusive-interview-with-one-of-americas-most-successful-immigrants-forever-21s-do-won-chang/#b1bfeea42ab0" target="_blank">in 2016</a>. 



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Artist, Icon, Billionaire: How Jay-Z Created His $1 Billion Fortune (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/billionaires/2019/06/03/artist-icon-billionaire-how-jay-z-created-his-1-billion-fortune/" target="_blank">Artist, Icon, Billionaire: How Jay-Z Created His $1 Billion Fortune</a>



He worked three jobs as a dishwasher, gas station attendant and office cleaner while she worked in a hair salon. They saved up and in 1984 opened a clothing store. Today they co-own and run Forever 21, a clothing empire with over 815 stores &nbsp;and $4 billion in sales. Their combined net worth is $3 billion.



Another couple, the Cherngs, found success together through food. Andrew Cherng opened a Chinese restaurant with his father in 1973. His wife Peggy, who had a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and held positions at 3M and the U.S. Navy,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/peggy-cherng/?list=self-made-women#66ed56262c04" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">gave it all up</a>&nbsp;to help her husband expand the one restaurant into a Chinese fast-food chain. That chain, Panda Express, along with several other fast casual chains the couple owns stakes in, have brought the Cherngs’ combined net worth to $3.4 billion.



Sometimes the strength of a husband-wife partnership comes from their ability to support one another. This was the<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://www.forbesindia.com/article/cross-border/the-ozmens-galactic-gamble/50973/1" target="_blank">&nbsp;case</a>&nbsp;for Eren Ozmen and her husband Fatih, the president and CEO team behind aerospace giant Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC). 



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="How Rihanna Created A $600 Million Fortune—And Became The World’s Richest Female Musician (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2019/06/04/how-rihanna-created-a-600-million-fortune-and-became-the-worlds-richest-female-musician/" target="_blank">How Rihanna Created A $600 Million Fortune—And Became The World’s Richest Female Musician</a>



Before they were a couple, Fatih encouraged Eren to pursue an M.B.A. (the couple originally met at Ankara University in Turkey before separately immigrating to the U.S.). 



Once they were married, Eren put her business school training to good use by helping automate the financial reports at Fatih&#8217;s employer, a then-struggling SNC. Eventually, the couple decided to buy the company and took the business from the verge of bankruptcy to a top military contractor.



While building a vast fortune is rare for couples running businesses together, it has been a winning formula for some women: Nearly one fourth of those on&nbsp;Forbes’ 2019 self-made women list achieved their fortunes through businesses they cofounded with their husbands (though some now are widows or have since divorced).



Below are the 10 wealthiest self-made husband and wife teams in the nation:



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">1. Tom &amp; Judy Love</h4>



Net worth:&nbsp;$5.9 Billion



Tom and Judy Love leased their first gas station in Watonga, Oklahoma, with a $5,000 loan from Tom’s parents. Now Love’s Travel Stops &amp; Country Stores has more than 430 locations in 41 states.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/949970772/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="LACMA 2018 Collectors Committee Gala"/><figcaption>Stewart and Lynda Resnick cofounded The Wonderful Company, which owns Fiji Water and mandarin Halos.&nbsp;STEFANIE KEENAN/GETTY IMAGES FOR LACMA</figcaption></figure></div>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">2. &nbsp;Lynda &amp; Stewart Resnick</h4>



Net worth:&nbsp;$5.6 Billion



The couple are the force behind snack and drink conglomerate the Wonderful Co., known for Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice, Halos mandarin oranges and Fiji water. The couple is also known for philanthropy, giving millions of dollars to educational causes and earning the #29 spot on Forbes&#8217;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/top-givers/#7d030d4566ff" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">list&nbsp;</a>of top givers.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/488125078/960x0.jpg?cropX1=200&amp;cropX2=1800&amp;cropY1=166&amp;cropY2=1500" alt="Diane Von Furstenberg - Front Row - Spring 2016 New York Fashion Week"/><figcaption>Barry Diller (left) and Diane von Furstenberg run their own businesses in separate industries.DIMITRIOS KAMBOURIS/GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure></div>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">3. Diane von Furstenberg &amp; Barry Diller</h4>



Net worth: $4 billion



Diller is founder, senior executive and chairman at internet and media conglomerate IAC,. His wife Von Furstenberg is the designer and founder of the eponymous fashion label. Diller owns one third of DVF, while Von Furstenberg and her two children from a previous marriage own the rest. &nbsp;



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cfad39534a5c4000847c924/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="The Cherngs At Panda Express"/><figcaption>Peggy and Andrew Cherng own and run $3.5 billion (sales) Chinese fast-food chain Panda Express. (Photo by Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images)GETTY</figcaption></figure></div>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">4. Peggy &amp; Andrew Cherng</h4>



Net Worth:&nbsp;$3.4



In addition to fast-food chain Panda Express, the Cherngs also own stakes in Urbane Cafe, Just Salad, Uncle Tetsu, Pieology and Ippudo.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">5. Jin Sook &amp; Do Won Chang</h4>



Net Worth:&nbsp;$3 billion



The Changs’ clothing retailing business is all in the family—the couple’s nieces work at the company as do their daughters, who launched Forever 21’s beauty brand Riley Rose.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/42328010/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="PENCE SPACE SYMPOSIUM"/><figcaption>U.S. Vice President Mike Pence (center) joins Sierra Nevada co-founders Eren and Fatih Ozmen at the 34th Space Symposium.&nbsp;MATHEW STAVER/© 2018 BLOOMBERG FINANCE LP</figcaption></figure></div>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">6. Eren &amp; Fatih Ozmen</h4>



Net Worth:&nbsp;$2.8 billion



The Ozmens built their defense contractor Sierra Nevada Corp. through a series of some 20 acquisitions. Describing their strategy, Eren told&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesdigitalcovers/2018/07/11/meet-the-unknown-immigrant-billionaire-betting-her-fortune-to-take-on-musk-in-space/#6fac017c5f0d" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Forbes&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;last year: &nbsp;“Our guys go hunting, and they bring me this giant bear and say, ‘Now you do the skinning and clean it up.’ ”



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">7.Neerja Sethi &amp; Bharat Desai</h4>



Net worth:&nbsp;$2.4 billion



Sethi and Desai cofounded IT consulting and outsourcing firm Syntel out of their Troy, Michigan, apartment in 1980. In October 2018, French IT company Atos SE bought Syntel for $3.4 billion.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">8. Weili Dai &amp; Sehat Sutardja</h4>



Net Worth:&nbsp;$2 billion



The couple headed semiconductor company Marvell Technology for 11 years until they were forced out as a result of an internal accounting investigation in 2016. Neither was found guilty of any fraudulent activity. The couple has diversified their investments into real estate and technology.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">9. Kit Crawford &amp; Gary Erickson</h4>



Net Worth:&nbsp;$1.8 billion



The couple behind Clif Bar met at Erickson’s bakery, where Crawford was working part-time. They each have a 40% stake in the company.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">10. Beyoncé &amp; Jay-Z</h4>



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Net Worth:&nbsp;$1.4 billion



The musicians have shown distinct business savvy, giving users of Tidal, the music streaming service the couple partially owns, exclusive access to their albums.



-Catherine Perloff; Forbes Staff

960×0 (3)

Beyoncé And Jay-Z’s Combined Billion-Dollar Fortune Makes Them One Of The Richest Self-Made Couples

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 Buffett’s 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 I’ll ever teach in. For a young person growing up, he’s the guy to learn from.” This moment, which was originally captured in our&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/1011/rich-list-10-omaha-warren-buffett-jay-z-steve-forbes-summit-interview.html#5c2e29d66480" target="_blank">2010 Forbes 400 package</a>, 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.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/arts/2019/04/01/inside-nipsey-hussles-blueprint-to-become-a-real-estate-mogul/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Inside Nipsey Hussle’s Blueprint To Become A Real Estate Mogul (opens in a new tab)">Inside Nipsey Hussle’s Blueprint To Become A Real Estate Mogul</a>



Less than a decade later, it’s 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 billionaire—and the first hip-hop artist to do so. Jay-Z&#8217;s 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: Brooklyn’s 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,&nbsp;Reasonable Doubt. Since then he’s amassed 14 No. 1 albums,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/jay-z" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">22 Grammy awards</a>&nbsp;and over $500 million in pretax earnings in a decade.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf144d6142c500008f463fb/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Forbescover-jay-z-buffett"/></figure>



Crucially, he realized that he should build his own brands rather than promote someone else’s: the clothing line Rocawear, started in 1999 (<a href="https://content.edgar-online.com/ExternalLink/EDGAR/0001144204-07-058548.html?hash=c289c7e04f5c956d46d401084fa3cfcaf2c0db9bcd375e90576f2e974a8a6105&amp;dest=V092473_EX3I_HTM#V092473_EX3I_HTM" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sold</a>for $204 million to Iconix in 2007); D’Ussé, a cognac he co-owns with Bacardi; and Tidal, a music-streaming service.



Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean, the superproducer behind some of Jay-Z’s biggest hits (“<a href="https://tidal.com/browse/video/44153680" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">On To The Next One</a>,” Beyoncé’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nr8hPnZfMU" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Upgrade U</a>”), looks at Jay-Z as something others can model: “It’s bigger than hip-hop … it’s the blueprint for our culture. A guy that looks like us, sounds like us, loves us, made it to something that we always felt that was above us.”



“If he’s a billionaire now, imagine what he’s about to be,” Swizz Beatz says. “Because he’s only just starting.”



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2018/03/02/forbes-five-hip-hops-wealthiest-artists-2018/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="The Forbes Five: Hip-Hop’s Wealthiest Artists 2018 (opens in a new tab)">The Forbes Five: Hip-Hop’s Wealthiest Artists 2018</a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What’s Jay-Z Worth?</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">To calculate his net worth, we looked at the artist’s stakes in companies like Armand de Brignac champagne—applying our customary discount to private firms—then added up his income, subtracting a healthy amount to account for a superstar lifestyle. We checked our numbers with a roster of outside experts to ensure these estimates were fair and conservative. Turns out, Jay-Z really is a business, man.</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf199a2cd1f12000a2b1a80/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Armand de Brignac</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$310 million</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19739cd1f12000a2b1a37/960x0.jpg?cropX1=1&amp;cropX2=2635&amp;cropY1=53&amp;cropY2=2195" alt="Armand-de-Brignac-bottles"/></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Jay-Z has used his music to shill the $300 gold bottles of the &#8220;Ace of Spades&#8221; champagne since launching the brand with the 2006 video “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS4U-HAHwps" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Show Me What You Got</a>.&#8221; More recently, his verse on Meek Mill’s “<a href="https://genius.com/Meek-mill-whats-free-lyrics" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">What’s Free</a>&#8221; put a half-billion-dollar value on the wine, which seems like a bit too bubbly a number.</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19a06cd1f12000a2b1a86/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Cash &amp; investments</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$220 million</h3>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">A vast investing portfolio includes a stake in Uber worth an estimated $70 million. He&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/07/the-inside-story-of-the-rise-and-rise-of-uber/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;purchased his piece for $2 million back in 2013—and then wired founder Travis Kalanick another $5 million in an attempt to increase his holdings, but was rebuffed.</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19a269736330008aab875/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">D’Ussé</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$100 million</h3>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Jay-Z’s cognac, a joint venture with beverage giant Bacardi, moves almost 200,000 cases and has grown nearly 80% annually. “Jay-Z resonates with consumers who are attracted to the ultra-premium lifestyle,&#8221; says Eric Schmidt, Beverage Marketing Corp.’s Director of Alcohol Research.</h3>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Tidal</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$100 million</h3>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">In 2015, Jay-Z&nbsp;<a href="http://mb.cision.com/Main/1052/9718782/340280.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">submitted</a>&nbsp;a bid to purchase the Scandinavian streaming service’s parent company for just shy of $60 million. He relaunched Tidal later that year with a roster of celebrity investors including his wife, Beyoncé, and other music luminaries, from Kanye West to Calvin Harris.</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19a3c9736330008aab87b/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Roc Nation</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$75 million</h3>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">This wide-ranging entertainment company started over a decade ago as part of a joint venture with concert giant Live Nation. Roc Nation represents some of the top stars in the entertainment through its sports agency (Kevin Durant, Todd Gurley) as well as its record label and artist-management arms (Rihanna, J. Cole).</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19a539736330008aab87e/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Music catalog</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$75 million</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19aaccd1f12000a2b1a9d/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-albums"/></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Before the beginning of his stint as Def Jam’s chief in 2004, Jay-Z&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2010/09/22/jay-zs-50-million-music-box/#1ff867a750de" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">negotiated</a>the eventual return of his master recordings from the aforementioned label that helped launch his career; in a separate deal with EMI, he clawed back his publishing rights. Wise move: his hits now clock close to 1 billion streams annually.</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19ad0cd1f12000a2b1aa0/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Art collection</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$70 million</h3>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">In the song &#8220;<a href="https://genius.com/Jay-z-picasso-baby-lyrics" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Picasso Baby,</a>&#8221; Jay-Z boasted about a “Basquiat in my kitchen corner.&#8221; He probably wasn&#8217;t kidding. For over a decade, he’s been scooping up masterpieces like Basquiat&#8217;s “Mecca,” purchased in 2013 for a&nbsp;<a href="https://nypost.com/2013/11/20/jay-z-buys-basquiat-painting-for-4-5m/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;$4.5 million. &#8220;He&#8217;s rapped about it all in detail,&#8221; says Fab 5 Freddy, a contemporary and friend of the late painter. &#8220;Jay-Z helped educate millions of hip-hop fans mentioning Jean-Michel.&#8221;</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf19ae8cd1f12000a2b1aa3/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Jay-z-rule"/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Real estate</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">$50 million</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf15020142c500008f46713/960x0.jpg?cropX1=392&amp;cropX2=2524&amp;cropY1=40&amp;cropY2=1848" alt="This is the incredible $88 million mansion Jay Z and Beyonce purchased in August 2017, the home has 8 bed, 11 bath and is 30,000 square feet"/><figcaption>CJT/ MEGA/ NEWSCOM</figcaption></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">After welcoming twins in 2017, Jay-Z and Beyoncé bought a pair of homes to match: a $26 million East Hampton mansion and a $88 million Bel Air estate. Jay-Z also owns a Tribeca penthouse, snagged for $6.85 million in 2004.</h3>



&#8211;Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg;Forbes Staff

gettyimages-911232700-594×594

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

Nelson Mandela’s centenary brought together headline-grabbing A-listers and pledges of over $7 billion towards pressing global issues. Though for some, it didn’t end well.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



It was exactly 10 years ago when Australian humanitarian
Hugh Evans, along with his friend Simon Moss, launched the Global Poverty
Project, committing to end extreme poverty by 2030.



That dream launched Global Citizen, and with that, an
eponymous festival in 2012.



“Over 5.65 million actions led to 58 commitments and
announcements worth $7,096,996,725, set to affect the lives of 137,368,628
people,” summed up the Global Citizen Festival, held in December 2018 for the
first time in South Africa, hosted at the FNB Stadium, in the historic township
of Soweto, in celebration of Nelson Mandela’s centenary.



On a hot Sunday afternoon that also saw looming rain clouds,
thousands wearing straw hats and shades, trooped into the stadium, some
arriving as early as 5AM for what was billed a mega concert. 



Presidents, delegates, CEOs, activists, musicians and more
gathered for the Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100.



Among them, a galaxy of international and local celebrities
such as Beyoncé, Trevor Noah, Oprah Winfrey, Naomi Campbell, Usher, Danai
Gurira, Bonang Matheba, Nomzamo Mbatha, Tyler Perry, Pharrell Williams, Bob
Geldof, Ed Sheeran, and dignitaries such as South African President Cyril
Ramaphosa, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Amina J. Mohammed,
Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway, President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana,
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, former South African First Lady Graca Machel
and many more were all gathered for the one-day spectacle. 



The Daily Show anchor and host of the event, Noah said:
“This is 2010 all over again,” referring to the euphoria in South Africa when
the country hosted the FIFA World Cup that year.



“Everybody is here in Mzansi to celebrate the work of Nelson
Mandela,” he added.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="407" height="544" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Global6.png" alt="" class="wp-image-39091" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Global6.png 407w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Global6-300x401.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Global6-224x300.png 224w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 407px) 100vw, 407px" /><figcaption>Trevor Noah at the Neslon Mandela Global Citizen Festival. Picture: Supplied</figcaption></figure></div>



More than 75,000 people were in attendance at the stadium.



On stage, dignitaries committed actions taken to end extreme
poverty, achieve gender equality, and ensure food security, education and
global health.



“Everyone is a global citizen and how you want to take
action in helping others using your voice, reaching out to a representative and
holding rallies, coming together, uniting to make a change is wonderful.
Everybody has a voice now today,” model and activist Campbell who was on stage
told FORBES AFRICA on the sidelines.



&nbsp;“To have a 20-year
with the great man, President Nelson Mandela, is something I will treasure for the rest of my life and it’s an honor to be here and see everyone come together, and to see the young generation understand what this man Mandela stood for, what he sacrificed and what he wanted to achieve. And we are still trying to achieve what he wanted to, which is to eradicate poverty by 2030,” added Campbell. 



Nigerian musician Femi Kuti, son of the legendary Fela Kuti,
who performed and got the crowds dancing, told FORBES AFRICA some of the issues
he holds close to his heart are equality, poverty and the importance of
accountability by all leaders worldwide. 



“Every citizen must take responsibility for tackling these
problems,” he said. 



“My father is a really good example of this, Bob Marley is a
good example of this. If musicians did not talk about such issues, we would
probably be naïve.”



One of Nigeria’s best-selling musicians, D’banj, agreed.



He performed his hit song, Oliver Twist, wearing his
hallmark dark shades, a pair of metallic gold pants and jacket.



“Before I went on stage, I was so glad that this is Africa,
I have performed everywhere in the world but this is my home, and my people are
here,” he told FORBES AFRICA.



&nbsp;“Getting out here and
seeing my generation, the next generation, the millennials, and everyone coming
out, I am just so humbled. I can just say that, from here, the future is going
to be bright because the message of us stars coming together will leave a
mark.” 



The Nigerian artiste is not new to the Global Citizen scene.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="923" height="613" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Global2.png" alt="" class="wp-image-39092" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Global2.png 923w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Global2-300x199.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Global2-600x398.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Global2-768x510.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 923px) 100vw, 923px" /><figcaption> Beyoncé performs at the Neslon Mandela Global Citizen Festival. Picture: Supplied</figcaption></figure>



In 2015, he performed alongside Usher, Mary J Blige and
Will.i.am at the Global Citizen Earth Day in Washington D.C in the United
States.



“Global Citizen coming to Africa meant a lot for me… Because
after we leave here, we are going to leave a mark that is going to awaken them
and everybody is going to want to challenge our leaders to give us the right
change,” he said. 



Back on stage, the host Noah addressed the crowds about why
Africa should indeed be celebrated.



“When it comes to resources, Africa is the richest place on
earth,” he said.



“We have more booty than any other continent on the planet.
Men and women&#8230; The point is, Africa has a lot of natural wealth. But what’s
crazy is that even with all this wealth, 40% of all children across the continent
are stunted due to lack of access to food. Tonight, we are calling on African
leaders to commit three percent of their countries’ budgets to nutrition by
2020.”



All through the concert, the United Nations’ Sustainable
Development Goals were unraveled. 



The now former president of the World Bank, Dr Jim Yong Kim,
said it was important to contribute to issues related to health because, “the
crisis is much bigger”. As a result, the World Bank Group invested an
additional $1 million to health and education. 



Other celebrities and global leaders not present made their
own pledges through pre-recorded videos screened at the event.



Businessman and philanthropist Richard Branson pledged a
$105 million joint commitment to end the world’s leading cause of preventable
blindness. Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, announced an investment of
$4 billion made at the G7 Summit towards education for vulnerable women and
girls globally.



Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Angela
Merkel, pledged €63 million ($72.2 million) to Global Citizen over the next
three years.



From a South African perspective, the Motsepe Foundation, a
hosting and presenting partner of Global Citizen, committed more than $104.4
million towards education, economic inclusion and equality of women and girls,
as well as the current debate on land reform in South Africa. Entrepreneurs
Patrice Motsepe and his wife Precious received a rapturous applause when they
appeared on stage. 



President Ramaphosa committed R2 billion ($144 million) for
youth in South Africa, and announced the government’s intention to spend R60
billion ($4.3 billion) to provide free access to schools for poor children in
South Africa.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="928" height="609" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Global3.png" alt="" class="wp-image-39093" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Global3.png 928w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Global3-300x197.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Global3-600x394.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Global3-768x504.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 928px) 100vw, 928px" /><figcaption> Beyoncé and Jay-Z at the Neslon Mandela Global Citizen Festival. Picture: Supplied </figcaption></figure>



But with all the pledges announced, the biggest question
remained, what next? 



The Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland, who
was in attendance, weighed in on this.



“What I’d really like to see is we coming up with an
integrated action plan so that it is not just raising the money but we
absolutely identify how is this money going to be utilized and how we can work
together better to support one another and to make sure that it is more likely
that these issues will be delivered,” she told FORBES AFRICA.



“What I hope will come out of this is concrete action which
will make a difference to the lives of the people who are so desperately
thirsting for change.”



At the end of the day, what the 75,000-plus in the stadium
had really come for was the culminating act by Beyoncé, one of the world’s
highest-paid musicians listed on FORBES. 



In one of the outfits on stage, Beyoncé wore a sequined body
suit, thigh-high boots, and a dramatic cape that paid tribute to Africa’s 54
countries. It was designed by Mary Katrantzou, who said in an Instagram post:
“Her coat has the 54 countries of Africa mapped out and on each country there
is a different embroidery representing its diversity.” Beyoncé also wore a
colorful beaded mini-dress with an elaborate back-piece, which according to her
mother Tina Lawson, featured “one hundred thousand African beads”.



Some of the other designers the artiste wore during the
visit included South African designers Enhle Mbali Maphumulo of Manual Rossa
Apparel, Rich Mnisi, MmusoMaxwell, Senegalese designer Adama Ndiaye’s label
Adama Paris, Sarah Diouf’s line Tongoro Studio and Ivorian label Yhebe Design.



Beyoncé and her husband Jay-Z brought Africa to its feet to
their tunes for the first time. It was a breath-taking, epic production which
saw them perform hit songs like Halo, Perfect, Bonnie &amp; Clyde, Formation
and Forever Young.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="853" height="596" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Global5.png" alt="" class="wp-image-39094" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Global5.png 853w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Global5-300x210.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Global5-600x419.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Global5-768x537.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 853px) 100vw, 853px" /><figcaption> Naomi Campbell at the Neslon Mandela Global Citizen Festival. Picture: Supplied </figcaption></figure>



But despite the success of the Global Citizen Festival, it
was a chaotic end to a beautiful night for some.



While heads of state and celebrities were escorted back from
the concert venue, some festival-goers were left stranded in gridlocked traffic
at midnight to face attacks by criminals.



Many took to social media to explain how they were mugged at
gunpoint and were victims to violence. 



One of the attendees, 23-year-old Kayleen Morgan, who
witnessed the attacks, told us: “What was upsetting was for something like this
to happen at an event organized on such a huge scale. People’s experiences were
not taken seriously&#8230;” 



A month after these unfortunate incidents, some suspects
have been arrested and investigations continue. 



It was a night Beyoncé stole, and a night some
audience-goers will never forget, for being stolen from.

Global4

2010 all over again: a musical extravaganza to honor Nelson Mandela

Last June, when Jay-Z and Beyoncé welcomed twins to their family, they did what many couples do in the wake of a new arrival&#8211;move to a bigger home&#8211;on quite an epic scale. Over the next few months, they shelled out $26 million for an East Hampton mansion and scooped up an $88 million Bel Air estate, adding 21,000 square feet per newborn. That&#8217;s the sort of thing you can do when one partner is a pop demigod and the other is the richest rapper on the planet.
Jay-Z upped his net worth from $810 million to $900 million over the past year, seizing hip-hop&#8217;s cash crown for the first time since Forbes started counting back in 2011. The Brooklyn-born mogul&#8217;s jump is due mostly to the rising value of his interests in Armand de Brignac champagne and D&#8217;Ussé cognac, on top of nine-figure ownership stakes in his Roc Nation empire and Tidal streaming service.
&#8220;We always complain about, &#8216;We don&#8217;t own this, we don&#8217;t own that.&#8217; … Here he is, this man who owns that,&#8221; superproducer Swizz Beatz told me in an interview for my book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Diddy-Jay-Z-Hip-Hops-Multibillion-Dollar/dp/0316316539/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Diddy-Jay-Z-Hip-Hops-Multibillion-Dollar/dp/0316316539/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8">3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z and Hip-Hop&#8217;s Multibillion-Dollar Rise</a>. &#8220;The sky is not the limit: it&#8217;s just a view.&#8221;
Jay-Z, Diddy and Dre are not only the wealthiest hip-hop acts on the planet, but the richest American musicians of any genre. Longtime Forbes Five champ Diddy ranks No. 2 this year despite increasing his fortune slightly in the past 12 months; tepid trends in the vodka and cable TV sectors have affected his interests in Ciroc and Revolt, but heady growth at DeLeón tequila, his joint venture with beverage giant Diageo&#8211;and massive annual earnings totals in recent years&#8211;have kept his net worth trending in the right direction.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2017/12/05/kendrick-lamar-conscious-capitalist/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Kendrick Lamar: The Conscious Capitalist</a>
Dre ranks third with $770 million, creeping upward thanks to the market trends boosting his nine-figure windfall from Apple&#8217;s $3 billion buyout of Beats in 2014. The superproducer is also in line to receive a slug of Apple stock this summer worth well over $100 million; depending on the tech giant&#8217;s share price at the time, he could leapfrog Diddy and Jay-Z when that happens.
After the top three, there&#8217;s a long drop before the fourth and fifth names on the list: Drake and Eminem, tied at an even $100 million apiece. The youngest impresario of the bunch, 31-year-old Drake has earned more than $250 million since 2010, before taxes and spending; an equity stake in Virginia Black whiskey and pricey estates in Toronto, Canada, and Hidden Hills, California, pad his holdings. His inclusion on the Forbes Five represents yet another career goal achieved.
&#8220;If I&#8217;m not on your list this year, I&#8217;d be gravely disappointed,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2013/02/14/drake-making-the-forbes-list-is-my-objective-every-year/#a5e3a5b26c57" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Forbes back in 2013. &#8220;That&#8217;s pretty much my objective every year … other than making good music.&#8221;
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2017/10/13/dj-khaled-rolls-hip-hops-boldest-star-shows-off-major-keys/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: How DJ Khaled Rolls: Hip-Hop&#8217;s Boldest Star Shows Off His Major Keys</a>
Eminem isn&#8217;t known as a businessman like some of the other names on this list, but he&#8217;s still the best-selling rapper of all time and moved more albums in the U.S. during the 2000s than any act in any genre. Fresh off new album Revival, he makes his Forbes Five debut as former listmember Birdman&#8211;Drake&#8217;s Cash Money Records boss&#8211;slips below the $100 million mark in the wake of some <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/jose-lambiet/article190619084.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/jose-lambiet/article190619084.html">apparent</a> liquidity issues.
To compile the Forbes Five rankings, we follow the same procedures used to calculate our <a href="https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">list of the world&#8217;s billionaires</a> (our annual update arrives Tuesday): valuing major assets, poring over financial documents, and speaking with analysts, attorneys, managers, other industry players and, in some cases, the moguls themselves.
So who will be the first hip-hop star to reach the billion-dollar mark? Trends in the spirits world could continue to play a key role for Jay-Z and Diddy. After the furious rise of vodka in the first part of this decade, fueled largely by flavored variants like those of Ciroc, the market has shifted towards cognac, whiskey and tequila.
&#8220;D&#8217;Ussé fits right in there,&#8221; says Eric Schmidt, Director of Alcohol Research at Beverage Marketing Corporation. &#8220;I think DeLeón is poised for growth … it could one day be the next Patrón, but it&#8217;s a long road.&#8221;
Jay-Z, meanwhile, shouldn&#8217;t be slacking off anytime soon: though he and Beyoncé bought their East Hampton abode outright, according to public records, their $88 million Bel Air mansion comes with a $52.8 million mortgage. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg</a>, FORBES STAFF

The Forbes Five: Hip-Hop’s Wealthiest Artists 2018

FORBES AFRICA is slightly early for the interview and photoshoot at the SA Culinary Club in Bryanston, Johannesburg. The owner tells us the chef is running a bit late and, also, that he didn’t take him seriously when he walked in one day wearing shorts asking to cook for them.
He finally arrives in jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers looking young and far from the fat chef one would expect. He is short and slim and has cooked for everyone, from Jay-Z to the president of Nigeria.
As we begin our conversation, he jokes that every article on him starts in Soweto; a vibrant township south of Johannesburg where he was born and bred. He grew up in different parts of South Africa, going to different schools, but in his early teenage years he knew he loved the kitchen.
Chef Wandile Mabaso, South Africa’s French cuisine ambassador, cooked his first meal for his family at the age of 14. His father didn’t understand, nor approve, of him being a chef because at the time it wasn’t a job for black people. The misnomer faded and Mabaso started traveling; exploring and making money cooking.
“After high school I went to a hotel school; did a hotel degree. I found myself a job on a small private cruise ship in the Mediterranean. So I spent a lot of time in Italy, around Scandinavia, Barcelona, Monaco,” he recalls.
It was Mabaso’s first time outside of South Africa and he didn’t know what to expect, but he was in his early 20s and very excited. On his return, Mabaso furthered his studies and went for a culinary degree where he was offered a job in the United States while studying. He didn’t look back and went straight to Miami, where he spent 18 months and from there headed to New York, where he was trained in classical French cuisine. He has worked for many famous French chefs and was mentored by the world-famous Chef Olivier Reginensi.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2016/10/01/man-knows-billionaires-eat-lunch/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Man Who Knows What Billionaires Eat For Lunch</a>
Mabaso was more eager and passionate than the rest of the class when cooking; trying new things was his ideology. He stood out and was handpicked over the other chefs who were more shy, unsure or scared.
“I worked at Daniel, I worked at Le Bernardin, which are all two-star, three-star Michelin restaurants, at least top 20 in the world. I worked in a whole lot of high-end places in Manhattan, probably all these restaurants are at least in the top 50 in the world,” he says.
<div id="attachment_34938" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34938" class=" wp-image-34938" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Chef-Wandile-Mabaso-1-e1515483290853-300x200.jpg" alt="Chef Wandile Mabaso Beyonce Paris" width="500" height="333" />Chef Wandile Mabaso (Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla)</div>
When he cooks, it’s professional; it’s rare for him to cook the same dish again. His training made him creative.
He has cooked for Jay-Z, Beyoncé, presidents and NBA stars in Paris.
“People are fascinated by cooking for celebrities, for me it means nothing, in a sense we’re all people, whether you a celebrity or a guy helping park cars. Chances are people like Beyoncé just like fried chicken and the average guy has a better palate than Jay-Z. It doesn’t mean cooking for Jay-Z is the ultimate person to cook for. I’m not about showing off,” says Mabaso with a straight face.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/08/04/pots-pans-passion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Pots, Pans And Passion</a>
There’s a culture of collecting knives among chefs in New York. Before Mabaso left the Big Apple for Paris, he was gifted with a Misono knife (handcrafted Japanese chef&#8217;s knives), by Chef Reginensi, engraved with his name. The knife is worth $420.52 and he treasures it.
In 2017, Mabaso was in partnership with <a href="https://carrolboyes.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Carrol Boyes</a>; a renowned cutlery and crockery artist and designer. He served all his food on Carrol Boyes plates on a sold-out tour he took across South Africa.
“I would have a class where I would invite junior chefs or students and show cooking techniques. From there I’d choose one, two or three kids to come work with me for the dinner. At the end we put out a bursary where I choose two from the whole tour to go work in Paris at a three-star Michelin restaurant,” he says.
The tour ended in Cape Town and two learners will be undergoing French speaking lessons for three months with the French Institute of South Africa and the French Embassy before leaving, and will be funded by Mabaso and other chefs in France.
Next, Mabaso will be collaborating with a South African artist on a cutlery and crockery range. The artist will work on the plate and Mabaso will serve on it in 2018.
“It’s art and food combined.”
Mabaso was out of the country for nine years and missed traditional South African food. Tripe is one of his favorite childhood memories and he says he prefers street food over haute cuisine. He doesn’t like Johannesburg’s central business district because there is “no sanitation, no cleanliness and you can’t cook like that,” he says.
“The best I have experienced is a falafel in Paris, it’s just this place man. They sell shawarmas for 10 euros but there’s always a line, sometimes about 800 meters long, every day, and it&#8217;s Algerian guys doing it in Paris.”
Mabaso started in Soweto, traveled and cooked for VIPs globally. Now he’s back in South Africa, sharing his skills with younger chefs, and hopes to have long queues outside his restaurant one day.

The Chef Who Cooked For Beyoncé In Paris

The Last Jedi grossed a staggering $450 million at the worldwide box office its opening weekend, but George Lucas won’t be cashing in—he sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 for $4.1 billion in cash and stock after decades of lofty annual hauls from the Star Wars franchise he created. Yet the force is still strong with his bank account: Lucas’ fortune now stands at $5.5 billion, making him America’s wealthiest celebrity.
Billion-dollar exits and money-spewing assets are part of the territory in the upper reaches of our list. Steven Spielberg (No. 2, $3.6 billion) has been a director for half a century, but saved one of his biggest highlights for last year with the $3.8 billion sale of DreamWorks Animation, the studio he cofounded. Oprah Winfrey (No. 3, $2.8 billion) continues to build her fortune through the OWN network but banked the bulk of her bucks from her years as a talk show host.
&#8220;What I learned in all of those thousands of interviews is that there is a common denominator in our human experience,&#8221; she once <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/moiraforbes/2012/09/18/oprah-winfrey-talks-philanthropy-failure-and-what-every-guest-including-beyonce-asks-her/#1b314e486bc0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> FORBES. &#8220;Everybody wants to know: &#8216;Did you hear me, and did what I say matter?'&#8221;
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/10/16/oprah-keeping-promise-made-mandela/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Oprah Keeping The Promise Made To Mandela</a>
All in all, America’s 10 wealthiest celebrities boast a combined fortune of $18 billion, up 7.8% from last year’s $16.7 billion. To compile our list, we looked at each candidate’s entire empire. We valued private company stakes by speaking with an array of experts and by considering public competitors; for publicly-traded companies, we used stock prices as of December 15, 2017.
For entertainers without private companies, we based our estimates on net lifetime earnings after taxes. Real estate, art and other assets were also factored in where applicable. Eligibility was limited to American citizens who’ve gotten rich off their fame, rather than become famous for their wealth (sorry, <a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2017/12/07/donald-trumps-real-estate-business-losing-one-important-tenants/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>).
This list includes a much more diverse range of names than other wealth rankings like our flagship Forbes 400: though just one of America’s 10 wealthiest celebrities is a woman, six of the figures are people of color. The list members’ areas of expertise range from Hollywood to sports to magic, and all have found ways of monetizing their respective corners of the entertainment business.
Michael Jordan (No. 4, $1.4 billion) earned $94 million on the court during his career, but has made $1.4 billion elsewhere, most notably Nike, which generates some $3 billion annually from his Jordan brand; the superstar’s 90% stake in the Charlotte Hornets has grown fourfold in value since 2010. David Copperfield rounds out the top five with a fortune of $875 million, accumulated by playing upwards of 600 shows in Las Vegas annually; his collection of more than 650,000 magical artifacts is the world’s largest.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sport/2017/12/14/25-highest-paid-athletes-time/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The 25 Highest-Paid Athletes Of All Time</a>
Hip-hop is especially well-represented thanks to Diddy (No. 6, $820 million), Jay-Z (No. 7, $810 million) and Dr. Dre ($740 million), all of whom are among the youngest names on the list. Though all three got their start as artists, their empires now revolve around non-musical ventures like Diddy’s Revolt cable channel, Jay-Z’s Armand de Brignac champagne and Dr. Dre’s Beats headphones, sold to Apple for $3 billion in 2014 (for more, check out my upcoming book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Diddy-Jay-Z-Hip-Hops-Multibillion-Dollar/dp/0316316539/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">3 Kings</a>).
&#8220;They said we couldn&#8217;t start businesses outside of hip-hop,&#8221; Kendrick Lamar <a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2017/12/05/kendrick-lamar-conscious-capitalist/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> FORBES earlier this year. &#8220;These are the three individuals that showed us [how].&#8221;
<h3>The 10 Richest Celebrities In America</h3>
<ol>
<li>George Lucas ($5.5 billion)</li>
<li>Steven Spielberg ($3.6 billion)</li>
<li>Oprah Winfrey ($2.8 billion)</li>
<li>Michael Jordan ($1.4 billion)</li>
<li>David Copperfield ($875 million)</li>
<li>Diddy ($820 million)</li>
<li>Jay-Z ($810 million)</li>
<li>Tiger Woods ($750 million)</li>
<li>Dr. Dre ($740 million)</li>
<li>James Patterson ($730 million)</li>
</ol>
&#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg</a>, FORBES STAFF

America’s Wealthiest Celebrities 2017: The Top 10 By Net Worth

As DJ Khaled careers through the midday traffic clogging New York&#8217;s Columbus Circle &#8211; one hand on the wheel of a black Rolls-Royce Dawn convertible, the other raising an iPhone to stream his exploits via Snapchat &#8211; he lays out the aggressively optimistic, blustery, motivational, tautological and oddly compelling philosophy that guides his vehicular preferences and his life in general.
&#8220;You can want a Hyundai, if that&#8217;s what you want. Me, I want a Rolls-Royce,&#8221; he explains. &#8220;I want the drop-top Dawn. I want a Wraith with stars on the roof. I want Phantoms with footrests to massage my toes. That&#8217;s what I want, and that&#8217;s because we the best.&#8221;
As the car pulls up to a stoplight, Khaled looks back at his phone. &#8220;Forbes magazine wants to talk to Billy,&#8221; he enthuses, using his latest self-assigned nickname, meant to signal his billionaire ambitions and music-chart prowess. &#8220;Billboard Billy!&#8221;
I gently note that the light has turned green.
&#8220;I was ready, my brother, I was ready,&#8221; he says, lowering his phone. &#8220;So where we going?&#8221;
He already knows, of course. We&#8217;re off to go car shopping at the Porsche and Bugatti dealerships a little farther downtown. Khaled&#8217;s career, meanwhile, is going the opposite direction: all the way up. His last two albums, Major Key, in 2016, and this year&#8217;s Grateful, have both gone to No. 1, thanks to collaborations with Drake, Rihanna and Justin Bieber. He also owns several businesses named after his We the Best catchphrase, including a record label, a publishing company and a headphone line. He collects six-figure nightly fees for DJ gigs and millions more from deals with Mentos, Champ Sports, Apple and other brands -arranged by himself and Jay-Z, who signed on as his manager last year after seeing Khaled become a social media superstar with more than 15 million followers across Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter.
&#8220;What we are seeing from Khaled now is really who he is; the cameras are just capturing his natural state,&#8221; Jay-Z wrote in a section of Khaled&#8217;s new bestselling book, The Keys. &#8220;That&#8217;s why the world is so drawn to him.&#8221;
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With that success comes scads of cash &#8211; $24 million over the past 12 months alone &#8211; more than enough to nurture his Rolls-Royce habit. Khaled&#8217;s collection, spread across homes in Los Angeles and Miami, includes a 2017 convertible Dawn like the one he&#8217;s piloting today (&#8220;I always want to feel like I&#8217;m at home&#8221;), a 2017 Arabian-blue Wraith coupe (&#8220;It&#8217;s my everyday car&#8221;), a 2016 metallic-black Ghost sedan (&#8220;I sit in the back seat&#8230; that&#8217;s when I&#8217;m my business&#8221;) and the recently unveiled $430,000 Phantom VIII, which claims to have the &#8220;most silent&#8221; interior of any car in the world (&#8220;I&#8217;m gonna be one of the first to get it,&#8221; Khaled says proudly).
&#8220;What I love about Rolls-Royce is, you look at me, it&#8217;s like you&#8217;re looking at a Rolls-Royce,&#8221; says the bearded, barrel-chested 41-year-old Khaled. &#8220;It&#8217;s just powerful; it&#8217;s smooth; it&#8217;s iconic.&#8221;
It&#8217;s that sort of unbridled self-assurance that has fueled his steady rise and enabled his late-blooming trajectory. Born Khaled Mohamed Khaled in 1975 to Palestinian immigrants in New Orleans, he grew up in Florida, where he started DJ&#8217;ing and selling mixtapes as a teenager. Employing the fake-it-till-you-make-it ethos often celebrated in the hip-hop world, he made a down payment on a new $30,000 red BMW M3 in 1991, tricking it out with a state-of-the-art speaker system.
One day, Khaled was cruising around Miami when he started to smell smoke. He pulled over and got out of the car, thinking one of his amps might have blown. It was a good thing he did: The car soon caught on fire, he says as we weave through midtown in the Dawn. (&#8220;DJ Khaled, we the best, baby!&#8221; screams a passerby. &#8220;That&#8217;s right, we the best!&#8221; he replies, barely interrupting the flow of his story.) &#8220;The car blew up,&#8221; he continues. &#8220;No lie. Like a movie.&#8221;
For his next car purchase, Khaled scaled back considerably, buying a used Honda Civic for about $12,000. By 1995, he was gaining traction as a DJ and producer, opening for legends like Notorious B.I.G. and Nas, and he soon got himself back into an M3 &#8211; this time a blue one. &#8220;Even if I couldn&#8217;t make the payment, I just had the mentality &#8211; I gotta be in that whip,&#8221; he says. &#8220;Image is everything.&#8221;
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For Khaled, that meant retiring cringeworthy aliases like Terror Squadian and Arab Attack and settling on his current nom de DJ. After hosting radio shows in Miami in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he released his first solo record, Listennn &#8230; the Album, in 2006, featuring appearances by stars such as Lil Wayne, Kanye West and John Legend. The album underscored Khaled&#8217;s primary talent &#8211; not singing, rapping or even producing, but bringing together an ensemble cast of popular performers &#8211; and went to No. 12 on the charts.
Khaled celebrated by buying a Bentley coupe and then almost immediately upgraded to a baby blue Rolls-Royce Phantom, which cost him $400,000. He supported his new hobby by churning out platinum singles such as the 2010 earworm &#8220;All I Do Is Win,&#8221; which featured T-Pain, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris and Rick Ross.
&#8220;My Phantom was the hottest Phantom in the game,&#8221; he says. &#8220;After that, I didn&#8217;t stop. I&#8217;ve been Rolls-Royce ever since.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_33854" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-33854" class=" wp-image-33854" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/DJ-Khaled-and-son-e1507883409850-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" />DJ Khaled sits in the back seat of one of his three Rolls Royces with his son Asahd. (Photo by Ethan Pines for Forbes)</div>
Khaled says the reason he loves the brand is that he feels equally comfortable driving or being driven in a Rolls; he usually has a driver operate his Ghost and pilots the Wraith himself. And, yes, there are stars on the ceiling; contrary to popular belief, it&#8217;s a standard option, not a custom request.
While some ultraluxury brands have alienated hip-hop&#8217;s new elite (in 2006, one of the executives behind Cristal champagne famously told The Economist, &#8220;What can we do? We can&#8217;t forbid people from buying it,&#8221; prompting a Jay-Z boycott), Rolls-Royce has wisely embraced its popularity among rap stars. The company sometimes provides Khaled with vehicles when he&#8217;s traveling for high-profile events, and Rolls has been rewarded with product placement in his videos and social media feeds.
&#8220;He&#8217;s an enthusiastic, evangelical Rolls-Royce owner,&#8221; says Gerry Spahn, head of communications for the Americas at Rolls-Royce, &#8220;and we&#8217;re thrilled that he wants to be associated with the best of the best.&#8221;
If Khaled&#8217;s automotive preference isn&#8217;t clear from the composition of his collection (his only luxury cars without a Flying Lady on the hood: a Cadillac Escalade and a Range Rover), he makes it clear as we pull up to the Bugatti dealership. He refuses to go inside, despite the fact that we&#8217;d planned test-drives ahead of time. (&#8220;I&#8217;d rather be in a Rolls.&#8221;) After some prodding, he agrees to visit the Porsche showroom next door.
Upon entering, I ask Khaled what he thinks of the mahogany Cayenne E-Hybrid SUV on display. &#8220;What&#8217;s that?&#8221; he inquires. I point to the vehicle next to him and explain that its motor is powered by both gasoline and electricity. His response: &#8220;I don&#8217;t know nothing about it.&#8221; We stroll through the showroom, shifting gazes from a gleaming Panamera 4 sedan to a lean Macan GTS SUV to a menacing 911 GT3 that goes from 0-60 in 3.2 seconds. But he doesn&#8217;t even want to go for a test-drive.
&#8220;I&#8217;m a big boy,&#8221; he says. &#8220;That interior got to be fit for a big boy, you know what I&#8217;m saying? &#8230; Maybe you should buy me one, and I&#8217;ll tell you how I like it after that.&#8221;
The only car Khaled really wants is the one he&#8217;s already ordered: the new Phantom, redesigned for only the eighth time since its debut in 1925. The mansion-on-wheels comes with a 7.5-liter, 563-hp, V12 twin-turbo engine, Eames-chair-inspired seats and even a dashboard &#8220;gallery&#8221; designed to accommodate slivers of bespoke artwork.
For DJ Khaled, though, it&#8217;s not just the physical appointments that inspire his loyalty to Rolls-Royce. The company impressed him, he explains, by sending him a free Rolls-branded child seat when his son, Asahd, was born last winter.
&#8220;When he turns 16,&#8221; Khaled says, &#8220;I&#8217;m getting him a Rolls-Royce out the gate.&#8221; &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg</a>, FORBES STAFF

How DJ Khaled Rolls: Hip-Hop’s Boldest Star Shows Off His Major Keys

Sean “Diddy” Combs got his first job at age 12 delivering newspapers, nestling each delivery inside the screen door of every home instead of tossing it in the front yard. These days, he brings that same attention to detail with products like Ciroc vodka, DeLeon tequila and Aquahydrate water, involving himself in every aspect of the product down to the font of each logo.
“I’ve always understood that if I give the customers my best and service them differently, whether music, clothing or vodka, I’ll get a return on my hard work,” he recently <a href="https://www.forbes.com/100-greatest-business-minds/person/sean-combs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explained</a> to Forbes. Earnings from those brands &#8211; plus proceeds from his Bad Boy Reunion Tour and selling a chunk of his Sean John clothing line for an estimated $70 million &#8211; puts Diddy atop the hip-hop heap once again with total pretax earnings of $130 million in the 12 months to June.
Drake, the world’s most-streamed artist over the past two years takes the No. 2 spot with $94 million. Despite his gaudy recorded music numbers, the Canadian emcee made the bulk of his bucks on the road during his wildly successful Boy Meets World Tour. He also earns millions for shilling Apple, Sprite and Nike. Jay-Z ranks third with earnings of $42 million, and there’s more on the way: this summer he signed a new pact with touring giant Live Nation that will pay him $200 million through the coming decade.
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Hip-hop’s top 20 acts earned a grand total of $619.5 million last year, up 38% from last year’s $448.5 million total. Even without Diddy’s $70 million windfall, overall earnings are up 22.5%, thanks in large part to hip-hop’s dominance in the burgeoning world of streaming: over the first half of 2017, it&#8217;s the most popular genre in terms of consumption, <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/7964815/hip-hop-power-list-2017" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accounting</a> for a quarter of all digital spins.
Our list reflects this new reality, particularly though the presence of newcomers like Chance the Rapper (No. 5, $33 million) and Lil Yachty (No. 20, $11 million). Though 24-year-old Chance has never sold a physical album, instead distributing his music freely via streaming services, he smartly uses musical ubiquity to cash in on festival gigs and arena dates, as well as deals with brands like Apple and Kit Kat. The 20-year-old Yachty, meanwhile, rode gaudy streaming numbers and 100 live dates to his debut as a Cash King.
Other big names include Kendrick Lamar (No. 6, $30 million), whose new album Damn. came out in April and soared to the top of the charts; the critics&#8217; darling now grosses more than $1 million per tour stop. On the more pop-oriented end of the spectrum is DJ Khaled (No. 9, $24 million), boosted by six-figure DJ gigs and millions in earnings from deals with Champ Sports, Apple, Mentos and others.
“People probably thought I was crazy to just spend my last penny to invest in myself,” Khaled <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2017/09/27/how-dj-khaled-rolls-hip-hops-boldest-star-shows-off-his-major-keys/#2638b34732ee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tells Forbes</a>. “Now it&#8217;s paying off … one thing I learned is some investments might take years to kick in, and they are kicking in.”
<a href="https://www.forbes.com/hip-hop-cash-kings/#49c52a8b5bce" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full Coverage: The World&#8217;s Highest-Paid Hip-Hop Acts 2017</a>
Other notable names on the list include Cash Money Records founder Bryan “Birdman” Williams (No. 12, $20 million), who gets a boost from having three acts in the Top 20: the aforementioned Drake; Nicki Minaj (No. 16, $16 million), the only female rapper on the list; and Lil Wayne (No. 17, $15.5 million).
To create our list, we add up pretax income from touring, record sales, streaming, publishing, merchandise sales, endorsements and other business ventures. Fees for managers, agents and lawyers are not deducted. Earnings are calculated from June 2016 to June 2017 and based on data from Nielsen SoundScan, Pollstar, Songkick, Bandsintown and the RIAA, as well as interviews with inside sources and a handful of the artists themselves.
Meanwhile, the next generation of hip-hop stars &#8211; younger even than Lil Yachty &#8211; is already on the move. Khaled&#8217;s son, Asahd, turns one this fall but already has 1.5 million Instagram followers, closing in on his dad&#8217;s 7.7 million. Says Khaled: &#8220;My son got a Rolls-Royce already&#8230; a Rolls-Royce car seat.&#8221; &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg</a>, FORBES STAFF

Tag: Jay-Z

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