Category - Entertainment
Jay-Z's Net Worth Makes Him a Billionaire Even Without Beyoncé Ahead of the Grammys
Jay-Z famously said, “I'm not a businessman/I'm a business, man/Let me handle my business, damn,” on the remix of once-friend Kanye West’s “Diamonds From Sierra Leone.” But it’s fair to say the rapper and mogul is much, much more than simply a business now, though the “B” is still loud and clear in his net worth. Jay-Z is more like, well, an empire, man.
Here we break down everything we know about Jay-Z’s solo wealth, which only gets more gigantic when you include wife Beyoncé, with whom he is nominated for Album of the Year at Sunday night’s Grammy Awards, given his songwriting contributions to Cowboy Carter. And we touch on a few more things about the Black Album legend who’s been heavily in the news lately.
How Much Is Jay-Z’s Net Worth?
Among musicians or entertainment celebrities overall, Jay-Z’s net worth is intensely followed. So it’s no surprise that Forbes has a real-time net worth estimate for the rapper (real name: Shawn Carter). And it clocks in with not one but multiple billions: $2.5 billion, specifically, as of January 29, 2025.
How did he get to such “Empire State of Mind” heights? It was far from music alone. Read on for more info on his career.
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Where Did These Billions Come From?
Jay-Z is no newbie to the billionaire’s club. He actually became hip-hop’s first reported billionaire in 2019, according to Forbes. But he’s more than doubled his wealth. Much of that comes down to his wildly profitable businesses beyond music, particularly in the liquor space.
In 2021, the multinational conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE (aka LVMH) bought a 50 percent stake in Jay-Z’s Champagne brand Armand de Brignac, colloquially referred to as Ace of Spades. Beyond that, he sold a majority stake in his cognac brand D'Usse to Bacardi in February 2023. He has numerous other assets, from massive real estate properties to an art collection including original works by the late Jean-Michel Basquiat. And then there is, of course, the ongoing money coming from his extensive musical catalog.
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His Life and Career in Hip-Hop and More
Jay-Z is no stranger to fame. Though his wife Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (known to all as just Beyoncé), 43, takes up much of the spotlight these days, his career started well before hers.
Born on December 4, 1969, in Brooklyn, Mr. Carter was raised in the Marcy Houses public housing project in the borough’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Though he had a stint in crime, dealing drugs at a young age, his music career began in the late 1980s, and his executive career soon followed.
Jay-Z co-founded the label Roc-A-Fella Records in 1994, using the company to release his own first two albums, Reasonable Doubt (1996) and In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 (1997). In addition to critical acclaim for his richly layered lyrics, hits like “Can’t Knock the Hustle” and “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)” quickly made Jay-Z a commercial sensation.
He served as president and CEO of Def Jam Recordings from 2004 to 2007, and in 2008 founded the entertainment company Roc Nation, which continues to represent major talents in music and sports like Alicia Keys and LaMelo Ball.
Of course, there were also collaborations with artists like Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, and Kanye West, among others. And it would take a book to break down all of his business transactions, but suffice to say he’s not sweating over a paycheck.

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What Is Jay-Z Up to Now?
Jay-Z is still busy on the mogul front, and helped write parts of Beyoncé’s acclaimed 2024 album Cowboy Carter, a departure into country music territory that suits the Houston native. Those contributions have made him among the Grammy nominees for Cowboy Carter in the Album of the Year category, the most important prize of the awards that will be handed down at the ceremony on February 2, 2025.
Unfortunately, Jay-Z is also popping up in the news for his associations to Sean “Diddy” Combs, a former collaborator (Jay-Z featured on Combs's debut album No Way Out, while Diddy appeared on Jay-Z's In My Lifetime, Vol. 1.). In a court case in New York, Diddy has been accused of kidnapping, drugging, and coercing women into sexual activities.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit from a “Jane Doe” alleges that both Diddy and Jay-Z were responsible for raping the then-13-year-old girl at an MTV Video Music Awards afterparty in 2000. Jay-Z through lawyers is attempting to get the case dismissed in a filing on Wednesday, Business Insider reports. The filing also aims to sanction Tony Buzbee, the Texas lawyer who filed the original “Jane Doe” suit, arguing that the rape claim suffers from "substantial inaccuracies.”
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