Billionaire rapper Jay-Z recently ignited another passionate discussion following his appearance on Kevin Hart’s podcast “Hart to Heart.” The duo discussed a wide range of issues, including the rapper’s wealth.
He explained why he was not just giving opportunities to everyone, including his family members. According to Jay-Z, he turned down a request from a cousin to lend him $4,800 for a business that could make a profit of $2 million.
He made it clear to his cousin that making a business profit doesn’t work like he had projected. He also made it clear to him that money isn’t free and no one is giving out opportunities on a silver platter. He concluded that his cousin’s business plan was too good to be true.
“You have cousins, you gotta go home for Thanksgiving, and people are talking to you like Kevin Hart, and you’re going home for solace,” Jay-Z explained to Hart.
“You want family, you’re going home for peace of mind, and you got your cousins in your grandma’s living room saying, ‘Yo, man, I got this play. If you just give me $4,800, I could make you $2 million.’ You like, ‘It don’t work like that.’ And you gotta explain to him, ‘Life isn’t like that. Money isn’t free, and no one’s giving out opportunities.’ If it sounds too good to be true, it is.”
It would be recalled that Jay-Z was recently at the center of a trending social media question: Would you rather have $500,000 or lunch with Jay-Z? Since at least 2017, different versions of the “lunch with Jay-Z or $500K” meme have gone viral on social media. He told CBS Mornings, “You’ve gotta take the money.”
His response astonished the interviewer, Gayle King, who pointed out that people would pay to have lunch with him to gain the wisdom that made him a billionaire. The “Forever Young” singer remarked that a simpler way to learn from him is to buy his albums.
“You’ve got all that in the music for $10.99. That’s a bad deal. I wouldn’t tell you to cut a bad deal,” he insisted. He continued, “It’s all there. If you piece it together and listen to the music for the words, well, what it is, it’s all there. Everything that I said was going to happen happened. Everything I said I wanted to do, I’ve done.”
Billboard disclosed that an exclusive tour of the Brooklyn Public Library’s “Book of HOV” exhibit will be included in Jay-Z’s upcoming two-part interview with King. The exhibit is a vast archival undertaking that chronicles the vast expanse of his career, from his lengthy catalog of Grammy awards to his historic business deals in sports, music, alcohol, film, and public service.
According to the BBC, Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, had an amazing climb from peddling drugs on the street at the age of 13 to selling over 140 million records. He then expanded his success into a large business empire that included assets in record labels, sports teams, clothing brands, and alcohol. It’s turned him into a billionaire.
Forbes estimates that he is currently worth $2.5 billion.
