Jay-Z has reached yet another business milestone.
According to a new report from Forbes, the music legend is now worth a jaw-dropping $2.5 billion following the sale of his D’USSÉ alcohol brand.
This makes him the 1,203rd richest person in the world and one of the 14 Black billionaires.
As reported by TMZ, earlier this year he sold his 50% stake of his D’USSÉ cognac back to its parent company Bacardi for a reported $750 million. Even after the sale, he still owns a sizable portion of the company according to the outlet.
“Even in a year without a tour or album release, Jay-Z mints millions from his Armand de Brignac champagne and D’Usse cognac,” the outlet said. “The Brooklyn-born rapper was crowned hip-hop’s first billionaire by Forbes in 2019, thanks to a sprawling and diversified empire.”
As previously reported by ESSENCE, he became hip-hop’s first billionaire a few years ago thanks to his dealings with D’Ussé and Armand de Brignac; his streaming service, Tidal; art collections; real estate, record label, cash investments; and music catalog. Not to mention his Marcy Venture Partners—named after the housing project in which he grew up— raised an $85 million raised an $85 million fund in 2019.
“It’s bigger than hip-hop,” producer Swizz Beatz told Forbes about his friend when Jay was initially named as a billionaire. “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.”