With a net worth of US$1 billion, the American rapper Jay-Z – husband of American superstar singer Beyoncé – is one of the wealthiest musicians in the world. He has earned millions of dollars from sell-out tours and chart-topping albums over the course of his nearly 30-year career. Vegan revolution: Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus and Will.I.am agree on one thing Yet music is far from his only moneymaking venture. Over the years, Jay-Z, 49 – whose real name is Shawn Carter – has turned his success in the hip-hop world into a fortune as an entrepreneur. I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man Jay-Z, rapper His ventures include entertainment labels, a clothing line, upmarket alcohol brands and the music-streaming service, Tidal. Check out how Jay-Z has earned – and expanded – his 10-digit fortune. Did Jay-Z buy Beyoncé the most outrageous love gift ever? Jay-Z may be a wealthy man today, but he came from humble beginnings. The burden of poverty isn't just that you don't always have the things you need. It's the feeling of being embarrassed every day of your life Jay-Z, who had a poor upbringing He grew up living in the Marcy Houses public housing estate, which offers subsidised rental accommodation for low-income families, in Brooklyn, New York. “The burden of poverty isn't just that you don't always have the things you need,” Jay-Z said in 2010. “It's the feeling of being embarrassed every day of your life, and you'd do anything to lift that burden.” Drugs and violence surrounded Jay-Z during his turbulent youth. The rapper has referred to his years as a drug dealer in numerous songs and interviews. Jay-Z turned to a career in hip-hop as a teenager. In 1989, at the age of 19, he appeared on MTV's Yo! MTV Raps … … and by 1990 he was rapping on songs by his mentor, Jaz-O. Unable to find a major record-label deal, Jay-Z founded Roc-A-Fella Records in 1995 with friends Damon Dash and Kareem Burke. Jay-Z's debut album “Reasonable Doubt” a year later turned the rapper into a rising star. Beyoncé to sing at wedding of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s daughter Jay-Z released several chart-topping albums in the late 1990s and early 2000s, which turned him into an international superstar and earned him millions of dollars. Yet music is far from Jay-Z's only source of income. In 1999, he co-founded the clothing retailer, Rocawear, which was sold in 2007 for US$204 million. View this post on Instagram Sure to stand out. A post shared by Rocawear (@rocawear) on May 23, 2019 at 12:40pm PDT <!--//--><![CDATA[// ><!-- //--><!]]> Jay-Z dipped his feet in the world of sports business, too, in 2003 when he bought a small percentage of the New Jersey Nets – the American professional basketball team that is now know as the Brooklyn Nets. He had an outsize influence on the NBA team and pushed to revamp its branding on its move from New Jersey to Brooklyn in 2012. He sold his investment in the team the next year. In 2015, Jay-Z bought the company behind Tidal, a music-streaming service, for US$56 million. Today, Tidal is worth about US$600 million. Jay-Z rakes in even more money from Armand de Brignac, the brand of Champagne he bought in 2014. He's also the partial owner of D'Usse, a cognac made by Bacardi. Jay-Z's entertainment label, Roc Nation, is owned by Live Nation. It launched a sports-management division called Roc Nation Sports in 2013. Which superyacht at Monaco Yacht Show did Beyoncé charter? He's also an investor in JetSmarter, a start-up that allows people to rent private aircraft in the same way they would a car with Uber or Lyft. Jay-Z is also the owner of the 40/40 Club, an upmarket sports bar and nightclub in Manhattan. Jay-Z’s success has transformed him into becoming a brand himself. His lyrics often allude to his brand, such as in 2005, when he rapped, “I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man.” “My brands are an extension of me,” Jay-Z said in 2010. “The clothes are an extension of me. The music is an extension of me.” All my businesses are part of the culture, so I have to stay true to whatever I'm feeling at the time, whatever direction I'm heading in. And hopefully, everyone follows.” Meanwhile, his relationship with Beyoncé Knowles, known simply as Beyoncé, has cemented the couple at the centre of the music world. The pair began dating in the early 2000s and married in 2008. A decade later, the couple have a combined net worth of more than US$1.3 billion, with no signs of slowing down. In 2017, Jay-Z signed a US$200 million, 10-year deal with concert conglomerate Live Nation Entertainment. Last year, he and Beyoncé played 48 shows on their “On the Run II” tour, which earned them a reported US$5 million per show. They have had three children together and they are not afraid to spoil them. For daughter Blue Ivy's first birthday, they reportedly gave her a diamond-encrusted Barbie doll worth US$80,000, and in 2016 they spent US$11,000 on her dress, which she wore to the MTV Video Music Awards. What does birthday-girl Beyoncé buy with US$355 million fortune? They reportedly spent more than US$80,000 on matching gold cots for their twins, Rumi and Sir, born in 2017. Reports in 2012 said the couple rented a US$400,000-a-month, 11-acre (4.4-hectare) home in the Hamptons, Long Island, in the state of New York, equipped with a cinema, bowling alley, walk-in fridge, eight-car garage and a 60-foot (18-metre) heated swimming pool with an underwater stereo system. In 2017, they bought two homes: a US$26 million house in the Hamptons and an US$88 million house in Los Angeles. Despite his forays into the business world, Jay-Z has not finished with his own music career. In 2017 he released his 13th studio album, “4:44”, to widespread acclaim. From Beyoncé to Gigi Hadid, hot celebs find the coolest places to chill In one memorable lyric from the album, Jay-Z laments wasting money on cars earlier in his career instead of investing in real estate in his native Brooklyn, where property values are skyrocketing. “I bought every V12 engine, wish I could take it back to the beginnin’, I could have bought a place in Dumbo before it was Dumbo for like 2 million,” he raps. “That same building today is worth 25 million. Guess how I'm feelin’? Dumbo.” In the same song, he brags about another successful investment: he has bought numerous works of art that have increased in value, such as the US$4.5 million painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat he bought in 2013, pictured below. Want more stories like this? Sign up here . Follow STYLE on Facebook , Instagram and Twitter This article originally appeared on Business Insider .