Shawn "Jay Z" Carter

By: BlackEntrepreneurProfile.com

Born: December 4, 1969, Brooklyn, NY

Company: Roc Nation

Position: CEO

Industry: Media, Entertainment, Publishing, Fashion

Country: United States

Shawn Corey Carter aka Jay-Z has gone from a street hustler to a world famous entertainer and businessman. With a net worth estimated at $450 million.

Jay-Z is founder of Roc Nation, created out of a $150 million, 10-year, profit-sharing deal with concert giant Live Nation. He was previously CEO of Def Jam/Roc-a-fella records fro 2005 to 2007. He was a co-founders of the Roc-A-Fella empire, which includes Roc-A-Fella Records, Roc-La-Familia, Roc-A-Fella Films and Rocawear. He is also a part owner of the New Jersey Nets, paying a reported $4.5 million for his share. He is a co-own of The 40/40 Club, an upscale sports bar with locations in New York City, Atlantic City and Las Vegas. He also has ownership stakes in a Greenwich Village bistro, the Spotted Pig; creative and operational control of the Rocawear clothing line which he bought from his founding partners then sold in 2007 for $204 million; and the Carol's Daughter a beauty line he co-owns.

Jay is the youngest of four kids brought up by a single mother, in Brooklyn's notorious Marcy projects. "When I left the block, everyone was saying I was crazy, I was doing well for myself on the streets, and cats around me were like, These rappers are ho's. They just record, tour, and get separated from their families, while some white person takes all their money. I was determined to do it differently," he said in a New York Metro interview.

Jay Z topped the Forbes magazine first-ever list of hip-hop Cash Kings, the top money makers in hip-hop with an estimated $34 million in 2006 earning. In 2010 Forbes put him on the cover of it's 400 "Richest People in America" issue, even though at $450 million he was only "on his way" to cracking the list where a $1 billion network minimum was required. Microsoft put up about $1 million for the marketing of his first book, "Decoded," to be published Nov. 16, 2010.