JAY-Z recently increased his net worth by 40 percent to $1.4 billion after joining Square’s board of directors and selling a majority TIDAL stake to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, but the man himself says celebrity status alone isn’t enough to run an empire worth billions.
During an interview with South China Morning Post, the Hip Hop mogul was humble about his success and gave credit to Dorsey and Philippe Schaus, the CEO of LVMH who bought a 50 percent stake in his Armand de Brignac champagne.
“I’m very fortunate,” he said. “Jack Dorsey, who created Twitter, Square and Cash App, and Philippe [Schaus] and the guys who created LVMH – you couldn’t ask for better partners; they’re the top of the top. [Things] usually align like that when people do really great things. You could get into partnerships and people short-change the business for different reasons. These guys don’t cut corners, they try to get it right. It’s about respect.”
Hov’s champagne — also known as Ace of Spades — was founded in 2006 and sold over 500,000 bottles in 2019.
“We ran this brand from the office with eight or nine people, a really small, scrappy group,” Jay explained. “We became very successful and we’ve always looked at LVMH as the pinnacle of what we represent, a group that creates things based on their love of luxury, of getting the details perfectly correct. If I’m going to be in a partnership, especially with a brand that’s so successful, it has to enhance the brand, it can’t hinder it.”
He continued, “This isn’t a celebrity brand, it’s a luxury brand. It’s a brand to be taken seriously and it’s not a rapper’s brand. [There was an element of] fighting against that, the weight of your own celebrity. While celebrity is not all bad, in that it can bring a new customer to something they otherwise [wouldn’t have experienced], it has to be – like everything else in the world – balanced.”
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Speaking on Hip Hop and champagne’s colliding worlds, Hov compared the crossover to the genre’s relationship with graffiti.
“Just like with Hip Hop and graffiti, for example, we took it outside the art galleries, and people were upset, but we were expressing ourselves,” he said. “We’ve seen it time and time again, that when two worlds respect each other and what each individual or group brings to the table, it can be a beautiful thing.
“There are things that we’ve done that are not typically by the books. And you can look at that in two ways – you can look down on it, or you can say, ‘Wait, that’s interesting.’”
Elsewhere, Jay and Dorsey’s plans also include establishing a Bitcoin development fund worth around $23 million.
Why doesn’t he ever speak on the CEO of Roc Nation, Desiree being a DEA Informant?
Because it’s irrelevant. If you want find out her story, go ask her ya self.
No morals, probably fuck ya mama too right
For a million dollars so you can cry about it later? Absolutely ?
Morals? What are talking about. She decided to commit a crime and turn state’s evidence….what da fuck does that have to do with working for Jay-z and this business deal? Nothing. Simple simon mfer focus on the wrong thing. You want keep an eye out for rats and that street shit cool, stay broke and in the streets because that’s where it matters.
Because nobody cares about unimportant nonsense like that.
Too busy racking up millions, we let the poor people discuss that.
Odd he’s doing an interview with China who’s committing genocide right now
What’s even worse is America has local terrorism and we sweep under the rug and have the audacity to look at other countries.
I believe the reference was to art(developed in hip hop) being taken out of galleries, and being something different than the norm at the time
Read differently, maybe I’m off
i don’t believe i have ever drunk champagne before. you would think however jay-z would want to do something for the average man rather than cater to more wealthier people of a higher class. what else is he doing? stepping on some toes not making an honest dollar of it all by ripping off other people? yeah you see that is the thing to do when you are jay-z or almost every other artist in popular music. lie, cheat and steal your way through life. the debut acts know what they have to do to be successful when they sign up big time to the record companies and that is do what you are told.
Evan, a few specifically important points:
If you read the article then you know Jay Z said he wanted a luxury brand. His brands for the common man are many and include his music and clothing interests. How you equate that with stepping on toes and ripping people off isn’t only unfair, it also doesn’t make sense. At all. The fact the he’s working alongside multi-national conglomerates worth billions of dollars and is even serving on the board should tell you everything you need to know about the level of business acumen Jay Z possesses. He is a consulate businessman- you don’t end up worth $1.4b by cheating and stealing as you out it. He was a debut act and chose to blaze his own path because “do what you’re told” wasn’t food enough for him. He was handsomely rewarded for his effort. Maybe you should hustle as hard as you hate and you could he like him…
i have a chip on my shoulder for the mass-media and that includes jay-z and others associated with him. i might not make sense to you, and it may not equate, but how they conduct business is true as i described no one understands like i do no one knows it more than me. so more power to him but i ain’t all that thrilled.
i was just saying that he should have done more for every day people, that’s all. i don’t think you understand what i said.
You said he should do something for the common man, you have a single vision about Jay z. If you look at his philanthropy and how he has donated million’s for charity then you will see he is doing something for the common man or woman or child. So that old adage, you can’t see the forest because of the trees applies here. IJS
How do you guys get comfortable with hating on people’s success? What does his business expansion have to do with dping things for the common man. How do you feel so comfortable judging people that you only know through the media?
You are already a looser. You have soo much hate in you!
Evan you sound like a hater
Good role model !!!
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle and enter the Kingdom of Heaven than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven Jay-Z sold his soul The Only Heaven he will ever know as this Earth this is the only hell that we’re going to know is this Earth
You sound like a broke Christian. Jay did what people do everyday…hustle. He buys businesses, brings up the value and then offloads them for profit. Business 101. ou and others like you believe that he’s some demon because he is wealthy, the ideology of broke Christians.
That you poor , and you don’t believe in another that is wealthy is a cause that will make you burn in hell , take into consideration the story of the rich man and the poor Lazarus, the rich man has , the poor man was not after his wealth, all he created for his self which is not of God was to pick the crumbles on his table , the wealthy man refused rather sent his dogs to lick his sores , if am the rich man , why humiliating him rather I will give him a better food just like I will want to eat , even in the poor man vision was to eat the crumble and not burden the rich man with his needs , but this was not so , rather he chose to humiliate him, not having money you cannot possesse heaven ,