Monday, September 27, 2010 5:41am ET by  
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Jay-Z - music's first Billionaire?

There's rich and there's really really rich and American magazine Forbes has long been documenting the haves and the have mores in its famed Forbes 400 list.

First requirement: You can't just want to be a billionaire, you actually have to be one. Bill Gates is on it of course, so too are investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett, Apple’s Steve Jobs and Nike's Phil Knight.

This year Forbes has compiled a new list, the almost-billionaires, and there's only one music icon on it: Jay-Z.

In the US, Jay-Z has revolutionised the world of live shows this summer, filling enormous stadiums with Eminem, though hip-hop artists have traditionally not been able to fill such venues.

Last year's huge hit 'Empire State of Mind' popped up on last week's episode of 'Glee' (cha-ching for Jay-Z), his Roc Nation label is a huge success and the rights to his own back catalogue will revert to him in 2014. Then there's the revenue from his equally successful clothing line Rocawear plus a share of the NBA basketball team New Jersey Nets. Bubbling under is the beauty line Carol's Daughter (Jay-Z is one of several celebrity backers). And let's not forget his immensely profitable wife, Beyonce.

Other names seen as possibles to join Jay-Z on the Forbes 400 in the near future include Jerry Seinfeld, hugely successful film and TV producer Jerry Bruckenheimer, Tiger Woods, basketball legend Michael Jordan and Sean Parker, the founder of Napster played by Justin Timberlake in Facebook movie, 'The Social Network'. Parker owns 4% of Facebook and is worth a staggering $920 million. It should come as no surprise that the Forbes 400 newbie with the fastest-climbing bank balance is Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Last year Zuckerberg earned $2 billion, this year $6.9 billion.