Jay-Z The Billionaire Rapper

It's now official: Jay-Z Named World's First Billionaire Rapper

His famous wife reported about $ 335m, made from music and endorsement , and the couple had over $1bn for several years.

Jay-Z is officially the first hip hop billionaire, Forbes said, after building an empire based on music, property, fashion and investment.

The US magazine has estimated that the rapper's wealth now "conservatively totals" 1 billion dollars (£800 million pounds).

Forbes says that the husband of  Beyonce was successful because he built brands rather than just endorsed them.

In his rankings, Forbes rejected claims that the rapper and producer Dr Dre had achieved billionaire status.

Jay-Z, born Shawn Carter, grew up in one of the most famous areas of New York.

He achieved fame in 1996 with his debut album Reasonable Doubt. His 2001 album The Blueprint was recently added in the month of March to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress because it was considered "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

Forbes said he estimated Jay-Z's wealth by adding various assets and then "subtracting a healthy amount to account for a superstar lifestyle".

Among the 49-year-old's activities are:

⦁ A $ 75 million music catalog

Stakes for Armand de Brignac champagne and D'Usse cognac, worth amount $ 410m in total

⦁ A stake in Uber is worth about $ 70 million

Property in fashionable parts of New York and Los Angeles

⦁ A $100m stake in the Tidal music streaming service

⦁ An art collection worth about $ 50 million

His popular musician wife is worth about 335 million dollars, mostly with music and sponsors, and the couple has had a net worth of over 1 billion dollars for several years.

Jay-Z, who once beaten "I'm not a businessman, I'm a businessman", is one of the few entertainers to become billionaires, according to Forbes.

It is often assumed that Dr. Dre achieved billionaire status in 2014 after selling his Beats headphone business to Apple. But last year Forbes put his personal wealth  around 770 million dollars.

Kasseem "Swizz Beatz" Dean, the producer behind some of Jay-Z's greatest hits, told Forbes that the rapper's success is "bigger than hip-hop".

Jay-Z appears on the cover of the latest Forbes magazine next to another - richer - billionaire, Warren Buffet.

It shows that the legendary investor, 40 years older than him, noticed something special about the rapper a few years ago, telling Forbes in 2010: "Jay is teaching in a much bigger classroom than he ever teaches. For a young man growing up, he's the guy to learn from. "