Jay-Z’s open secret to becoming hip-hop’s first billionaire

African-American rapper turned music mogul Shawn Corey Carter popularly known as Jay-Z has become the first hip-hop artist to become a billionaire.

News about the celebrated rapper’s latest achievement has been trending on social media after Forbes released a teaser of a full interview with the 49-year-old father of 3 and husband of equally celebrated musician Beyonce.

Jay-Z’s fortune comes after his smart move into the music business with the release of services such as Tidal and Roc Nation but the music industry isn’t all that Jay-Z has been investing his money in.

The 22 Grammy-award-winner owes his 1 billion dollar peak to other ventures such as real estate, art and shares in global brands such as Uber and thanks to a break down by Forbes, fellow musicians as well as individuals who hope to become billionaires can pick a few lessons.

1.Ownership of Music Masters

Sean Carter is way ahead of his time and the proof is in the purchasing of his music masters that helped launch his career and made him the sole determiner of his music earning him more millions. Purchased in 2004, he made a separate deal with EMI which helped him gain his publishing rights with 1 billion streams annually, that is a lot of millions flowing into the bank without him even lifting a finger.

2. Music Services – Tidal

Jay-Z made a great move after his purchase and relaunch of Tidal. In 2015, the rapper purchased the dying Scandinavian streaming service’s parent company for close to $60 million dollars. After redesigning and relaunching of the streaming service, it is now worth over a $100 million.

3. Art

Jay-Z has proven that an investment in fine art is a long term one that would without a doubt yield profit with age. According to Forbes, the rapper currently boasts of $70 million worth of art pieces collected over ten years that he keeps in his home. The carefully selected art pieces in a few years could sell for three times the amount.

4. Real Estate

Jay-Z’s home house collection is worth $50 million dollars. Since 2004, the rapper has been buying houses together with his millionaire wife and probably waiting for a great time to resell or lease out the houses which would definitely fetch him a couple more million dollars with ease.

5. Roc Nation

After establishing the wide-ranging entertainment company over 10 years ago and signing global sensations such as Rihanna, Jay-Zs Roc Nation has made him $75 million dollars. The smart move was making it also a sports agency representing top-notch sports people like Kevin Durant.

6. Drinks

Probably one of his smartest moves ever, Jay-Z branched into luxury drink investment after his joint venture with beverage giant Bacardi which moves several cases a year grew rapidly as high as 80% a year. His move “Ace of Spades” gold bottles champagne has also amounted to a total of 410 million dollars.

7. Business investments

By investing in global companies like Uber, Jay-Z is worth $220 million dollars in cash and investments alone. According to Forbes, the rapper 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.