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The world's richest people aren't just getting richer, they're also ever more surprising. Yesterday, Forbes published its annual rich list and announced that there is a new category — the billionaire rapper.

Jay-Z, 49-year-old husband of pop star Beyonce, grew up in a grim, violence-ravaged housing project in Brooklyn. Shawn Carter — to give him his real name — shot his brother when he was 12 and was dealing crack cocaine by the age of 13. He seemed destined for a life of crime and prison. Instead, he is now feted by U.S. presidents and business moguls.

His commercial empire spans not only music but champagne and cognac, and a large stake in the taxi service Uber.

Jay-Z, 49-year-old husband of pop star Beyonce, grew up in a grim, violence-ravaged housing project in Brooklyn (pictured together at the Met Gala in 2015)

But arguably his biggest success is in convincing his army of fans — and the businesses that shower him with money for the chance to use his name — that he's still got 'street cred'.

Cocooned in a world of extraordinary luxury and, some would say, obscenely lavish spending, he and his wife are as unashamedly capitalist as any Wall Street tycoon. And yet those who rail against the greed of the super-rich curiously never criticise Jay-Z and Beyonce, whose combined wealth Forbes puts at $1.4 billion (£1.1billion). 

Here's how the rapper rose from drug dealer to billionaire . . .

'Few make it out of my neighbouhood alive'

The child of a broken home, Jay-Z and his three siblings were raised in poverty by their mother in the downtrodden Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood of Brooklyn. 

According to his mother, Gloria, Shawn (pictured below as a child), used to wake up his siblings at night banging out drum patterns on the kitchen table. 

Music, he says, helped him survive after his father, who had turned to drugs and left the family, was fatally stabbed when Jay-Z was 11. 

According to his mother, Gloria, Shawn (pictured above as a child), used to wake up his siblings at night banging out drum patterns on the kitchen table

He says he was 'torn apart' and, aged 12, he shot his 16-year-old brother in the shoulder for stealing a ring. 

'I thought my life was over,' he says. 'I thought I'd go to jail for ever.' His brother didn't press charges. Jay-Z insists he never shot anyone else but says 'guns were everywhere'.

He added: 'There are very few people from my neighbourhood that make it out. Forget about being successful, I mean make it out alive.'

He stabbed a man in a nightclub

Some billionaires try to gloss over any unsavoury past but Jay-Z has managed to mythologise his. The cocky bad boy king of rap relishes in his ugly past and still talks it up in his lyrics.

He says he was dealing crack cocaine from the age of 13. 

He told Oprah Winfrey: 'It was normal. And at some point you become addicted to the feeling. The uncertainty and adrenaline and danger of that lifestyle.'

Some billionaires try to gloss over any unsavoury past but Jay-Z has managed to mythologise his. The cocky bad boy king of rap relishes in his ugly past and still talks it up in his lyrics

He was shot at three times but was unscathed. 'It's like there was some rogue angel watching over us,' he said.

The drug dealing taught him about making money, he claims. 'I mean, I know about budgets,' he once bragged.

Jay-Z credits a school teacher, Miss Lowden, for encouraging his love of music when he was 11. He remembers visiting her home with his class and being particularly impressed by the ice machine on her fridge

Carter's criminal past isn't just limited to teenage drug deals however. In December 1999, he stabbed a record producer in a New York nightclub in a row over alleged bootlegging. He was sentenced to three years probation.

Teacher turned Jay-Z onto music

Jay-Z credits a school teacher, Miss Lowden, for encouraging his love of music when he was 11. He remembers visiting her home with his class and being particularly impressed by the ice machine on her fridge.

'I saw a whole different world that day, and my imagination grew from there,' he says. 'I wanted that. I aspired to have that.' The ever entrepreneurial Jay-Z started selling CDs of his music out of his car, and set up his own record label to get his first album released in 1996 after the major companies turned him down. He was 26.

One of the best-selling artists of all time, with more than 100 million record sales, he has notched up 14 No 1 albums (more even than Elvis) and 22 Grammy awards. Forbes estimates his music catalogue accounts for £60 million of his fortune.

Champagne at £160k a bottle

But his most valuable business asset — far more lucrative than his music — is the Armand de Brignac champagne house he bought in 2014

Aware his name carries enormous commercial weight, the entrepreneurial rapper has his fingers in many, many pies. 

He's produced films and video games, co-founded a basketball team, designed watches, and launched his own ranges of cigars and fragrances.

Fond of saying he's 'not a businessman but a business, man', analysts praise Jay-Z's strategy to own companies rather than just licence his name. In 1999, he launched a clothing range, Rocawear, which he sold for £160 million in 2007.

But his most valuable business asset — far more lucrative than his music — is the Armand de Brignac champagne house he bought in 2014. Its distinctive gold-coloured bottles  with an Ace of Spades logo is tailor-made for flashy rappers (Jay-Z first featured a bottle in a 2006 music video). An ordinary bottle retails for £235 but a giant, 30-litre bottle can sell for more than £160,000.

Forbes says Jay-Z's stake in the champagne house is worth £245 million.

It estimates his D'Ussé cognac — a joint venture with drinks giant Bacardi — is worth £80 million.

Forbes puts the same price tag on his music streaming service, Tidal. Other gems in the Jay-Z empire include Roc Nation, his wide-ranging entertainment company, (worth £59 millon, says Forbes) and an art collection valued at £55 million. The canny performer raps about his assets, such as paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat, ramping up their value.

His £173 million portfolio includes a £1.5 million stake in Uber in 2013 that is now worth £55 million.

Spent £390,000 on a nursery

Long gone (except in his songs) are his miserable days in a Brooklyn rathole. 

After having twins in 2017, a son, Sir, and daughter, Rumi — siblings for their eldest daughter, Blue Ivy, seven — Jay-Z and Beyonce bought matching new homes. 

The LA home is vast — eight-bedrooms, four-swimming pools and bullet-proof glass throughout — and was built by the same company that revamped Claridge's hotel in London. The couple reportedly spent £390,000 on a lavish nursery which included a £40,000 sound system

These were a £20 million beachside mansion outside New York in The Hamptons and a £70 million hilltop estate in Bel Air, Los Angeles (below left). Jay-Z already owns a penthouse in Manhattan's expensive Tribeca neighbourhood which will be worth far more than the £5.5 million he paid for it in 2004.

The LA home is vast — eight-bedrooms, four-swimming pools and bullet-proof glass throughout — and was built by the same company that revamped Claridge's hotel in London. The couple reportedly spent £390,000 on a lavish nursery which included a £40,000 sound system.

£13,000 on 3kg of truffles

Anything he touches tends to turn to gold. Cristal champagne, Hennessy cognac and even the Mercedes Maybach are among 'luxury brands' that have seen sales soar after the rapper patronised them.

Anything he touches tends to turn to gold. Cristal champagne, Hennessy cognac and even the Mercedes Maybach (pictured) are among 'luxury brands' that have seen sales soar after the rapper patronised them 

White truffle traders in Italy were ecstatic when Jay-Z took a few friends there, shelling out £13,000 on three kilos of them.

Trademark bid on baby's name

Almost the first thing Jay-Z and Beyonce did after the birth of daughter Blue Ivy in 2012 was to try to trademark her name.

 In their application, their list of intended use of the name included video games, plastic flags, baby bathtubs, books, movies and jewellery.

The couple already have a gym clothing range called Ivy Park, and there are reportedly plans for a Blue Ivy cosmetics range.

Almost the first thing Jay-Z and Beyonce did after the birth of daughter Blue Ivy in 2012 was to try to trademark her name (Jay-Z and Beyonce pictured together last year)

Obama says he's a role model

Barack Obama is among many who have lavished praise on Jay-Z and his wife as great role models for young African-Americans. (The blasé rapper once revealed President Obama repeatedly invited him to the White House but he was too busy).

Barack Obama is among many who have lavished praise on Jay-Z and his wife as great role models for young African-Americans

However, Jay-Z's reputation as one half of showbusiness's most treasured couple, and a dutiful family man, took a knock in 2014 when a video emerged of Beyonce's sister, Solange, attacking him in a lift — reportedly over his infidelity. Two years later, Beyonce referenced his cheating in a song.

He later admitted he had been unfaithful. Claiming he didn't have the 'emotional tools' required for a marriage, he said he was working to get them through therapy and his wife's support.

The rappers are raking it in

Jay-Z may be the richest but he's hardly the only multi-millionaire rapper.

 Forbes estimates at least seven are worth more than £158 million, including Kanye West — Trump-supporting husband of reality star Kim Kardashian, Dr Dre (whose Beats range of headphones and speakers was bought by Apple for £2.4 billion) and Sean 'P Diddy' Combs, snapping at Jay-Z's heels with a fortune estimated at £675 million.