Forbes Declares Jay-Z Hip-Hop’s First Billionaire!

…”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.”

Here’s how Forbes determined Jay-Z’s billionaire status: “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.”  You can read the full article and see the figures broken down by category here.

Oh, and if you’re thinking that Dr. Dre was hip-hop’s first billionaire after he sold Beats to Apple, Forbes wrote and article a few years ago explaining why he wasn’t.  You can check that out here.