Hip-Hop mogul Jay-Z is one of 15 entrepreneurs Forbes magazine has predicted will be worth a billion dollars by the year 2015.
Jay-Z was named amongst an elite group of tech moguls, hedge-funders, athletes and entertainers who all have a chance of breaking into the Forbes 400 this decade.
According to Forbes, Jay-Z has a total worth of $450 million, through his Roc Nation label, his catalog, which returns to him in 2014, Rocawear and a stake in the New Jersey Nets.
The rap star/mogul was listed alongside movers and shakers like Facebook's Sean Parker ($900 million), Marc Pincus (Zynga $850 million), producer Jerry Bruckheimer ($850 million), Jerry Seinfeld ($800 million) and others.
Others on the list include: Eric Lefkofsky of Groupon ($750 million), hedge fund manager William Ackman ($700 million), Dennis Gillings of Quintiles ($700 million), Ray R. Irani of Occidental Petroleum ($700 million), movie producer James Cameron ($650 million), Michael Jordan ($500 million), Tiger Woods ($500 million), Craig Newmark of Craigslist ($400 million), Tyler Perry ($350 million) and Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn ($340 million).
Jay-Z met up with Forbes' billionaire founder and CEO/Editor-in-Chief Steve Forbes and fellow billionaire investor Warren Buffett to discuss his success.
"That was the greatest trick in music that people ever pulled off, to convince artists that you can't be an artist and make money," Jay-Z told Forbes about his tremendous success as an artist and business man. I think the people that were making the millions said that. It was almost shameful, especially in rock 'n' roll.
"Here you got these millionaire guys who had to pretend as if they weren't successful at all or it would be like a detriment to their career. Hip-hop from the beginning has always been aspirational," Jay-Z continued. "It always broke that notion that an artist can't think about money as well. Just so long as you separate the two and you're not making music with business in mind. At some point it has to be real when they touch it, when they listen to it. Something has to resonate with them that's real. When you're in the studio you're an artist, you make music, and then after you finish, you market it to the world. I don't think anything is wrong with that. In fact, I know there's nothing wrong with that."
Warren Buffett, 80, echoed Jay-Z's comments during the inaugural Forbes 400 Summit, which took place earlier this month at a restaurant near Buffett's Berkshire-Hathaway offices in Ohama, Nebraska.
"Jay said it perfectly when he talked about how he's in there recording for himself, and the money comes afterwards," Buffett said. "I got to do what I love, and it doesn't get any luckier than that. I would be doing what I do now and I would've done it in the past if the payoff had been in seashells, or sharks' teeth, or anything else."
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Saturday, September 25th 2010 at 1:35AM
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