Though FORBES first reported this last week, you don’t have to take our word for it–the rapper explained the situation in his own words on a new song called “Open Letter,” released via SoundCloud earlier today.

Would’ve brought the Nets to Brooklyn for free
Except I made millions off it, you [expletive] dweeb
I still own the building, I’m still keeping my seat.”

Note the last line. Jay-Z is exaggerating here–he doesn’t own the billion-dollar Barclays Center outright, but holds one-fifth of one percent of the building in question, according to the Times. That’s an incredibly important piece of information, and most have missed it amid the recent frenzy around the planned sale of his Nets stake (and his anniversary trip to Cuba with wife Beyonce).

Get the book Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went From Street Corner to Corner Office

Jay-Z is selling his piece of Brooklyn’s first team since the Dodgers left town for one main reason: he’s launching Roc Nation Sports to represent professional athletes as an agent, starting with Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano. If he wants to work in basketball, he must divest. Whether inking players to deals with NBA teams or with big brands, owning a stake in the Nets would put him on the wrong side of the league’s laws.

“The likelihood is that other teams would consider even non-basketball related matters as potential violations of the salary cap,” explained Marc Ganis, president of the consultancy Sportscorp, Ltd., to me last week. If Jay-Z retained his stake, it would give the Nets “a means to circumvent both the cap and the restrictions on contact with other teams at certain periods of time.”

So that’s why Jay-Z is selling his piece of the team. It’s a tiny chunk, to be sure–just one-fifteenth of one percent–worth about $350,000 by our estimates, roughly the sticker price for one of his trademark Maybachs.

In typical Jay-Z fashion, though, he’s found a way to keep profiting on the team anyway: through his ownership in the arena itself, as he said in “Open Letter.” That means he’ll share in the stadium’s success not just for Nets games, but for concerts and other events held there.

The cleverness goes deeper. Through his involvement with the Nets, Jay-Z managed to get an outpost of his 40/40 Club installed at the Barclays Center, along with a store that sells Rocawear clothing (Jay-Z founded the line and sold it for $204 million five years ago, but the deal kept him on board as a creative consultant and offered him generous stock awards for hitting sales targets).

The arena also features placements for Hublot watches and Armand de Brignac “Ace of Spades” champagne, two products to which he has financial ties, as detailed in my Jay-Z biography Empire State of Mind.

The Nets looks to be in terrific shape this year, clinching their first playoff spot in five years, and have a talented core of players who should keep them in contention for years to come. That’ll keep the crowds coming to the Barclays Center, and the cash flowing into Jay-Z’s coffers–regardless of whether or not he owns a stake in the team itself.

Originally published on Forbes.com

Jay-Z continues to expand his Empire State of Mind.

The publishing arm of Warner Music Group recently announced deals with Jay-Z to administer the copyrights of both his own songs and those on the music publishing roster of his company, Roc Nation.

Warner/Chappell will immediately begin administering Jay-Z’s catalog stretching back to 2008; by the end of 2013, it will handle the bulk of his early career hits as well. The publisher will also now administer copyrights for Roc Nation’s stable of songwriters, including Philip Lawrence (co-writer of Bruno Mars’ “Grenade” and “Locked Out of Heaven”) and S1 (co-writer of Kanye West’s “Power” and Beyoncé’s “Best Thing I Never Had”).

This post originally appeared on Forbes.com — read it here.

Part of the reason that Jay-Z chose Warner/Chappell was his connection to publishing executive Jon Platt, who left EMI Music Publishing for Warner last year. The duo first worked together in 1996, the year Jay-Z released his debut album, Reasonable Doubt.

“The real meaning of success is being in the position to work with an individual you consider a friend,” Jay-Z said in a statement. “Jon Platt is such a person. He’s a man of extraordinary character as well as a remarkably talented executive with an ear for music and an eye for talent. It’s great to watch him grow to be one the best in the business.”

Added Platt: “I couldn’t be happier to continue my relationships with Jay and Roc Nation and build on our partnerships at Warner/Chappell. We have the global expertise and resources to deliver new opportunities for their amazing catalogs, while helping them reach new heights of success around the world.”

Platt became more familiar with Jay-Z’s songwriting skills at EMI, which was home to his copyrights until now. As I wrote in 2010, the rapper’s previous agreement had long been set to expire this year, giving him plenty of time to plot his next step.

But there’s another set of rights headed Jay-Z’s way quite soon. As I wrote in my book Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went From Street Corner to Corner Office, the rapper negotiated the return of the master recordings to all the music he made while at Def Jam as part of an agreement to become president of the label in 2004.

The catch: he’d have to wait 10 years. Ironically, the opportunity to own his masters was what convinced him to take the Def Jam gig over a similar job at Warner Music Group. Now, his career has come full circle.

By the end of 2014, he’ll be in full control of both his master recordings and publishing rights—meaning that every time someone buys one of his albums, streams one of his hits online or licenses his song for a movie, he’ll get a considerably larger piece of the pie. Not bad for someone who already made $38 million last year.

For Warner/Chappell, Jay-Z’s deals seem to have been part of an even bigger package: Beyoncé subsequently brought her publishing to the company as well.

For more on the business of music, check out my Jay-Z biography Empire State of Mind and my upcoming book on Michael Jackson. You can also follow me on Twitter.

More: Check out Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went From Street Corner to Corner Office

Jay-Z’s got plenty of company in Obama’s corner. Fellow rappers ranging from Young Jeezy to Common have voiced their support for the president, as have rockers like Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen–who also joined the president in Ohio–and country artists including Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw. There’s even an organization called DJs for Obama, which includes names like Steve Aoki and DJ Cassidy.

“Many of them believe he understands them,” says Marlon Hill, a Miami entertainment attorney who helped organize DJs for Obama. “He has a very intimate understanding of their life’s pursuit of prosperity and opportunity in America and the struggles you may go through as a small business owner, and as a young person who’s just come out of school, looking to contribute to society. He’s lived that.”

Romney’s best-known musical supporter? Kid Rock.

So why haven’t more of these popular music purveyors sung the praises of the former governor of Massachusetts? A quick survey of music business insiders reveals a range of reasons as broad as the industry itself. Here are a few.

Read the full story at Forbes.com

This story is an updated version of a story I wrote recently for Forbes.com.

The drumbeat of the Barclays Center’s arrival in Brooklyn has been growing louder over the past few months–and it blasted full volume as Jay-Z christened the rusty-chic arena with eight sold-out concerts.

Jay-Z, who famously grew up in the nearby Marcy housing projects, has been pounding as loud as anyone in his role as public face of the building and its main tenant, the Brooklyn Nets. He owns a tiny slice of the team, yet he’s been attaching himself to the entire arena with an eagerness that would make a remora blush.

There are the big-ticket items, like agreeing to perform eight concerts and helping to design the Nets’ new logo. But Jay-Z has also helped with the little things. He chose the cutlery for the building’s luxury suites. He selected one of the building’s signature watering holes. And he personally picked the champagne. Why would a business-savvy guy who can get $3 million to perform at a birthday party–and has a net worth of nearly $500 million–waste his time on such trivial matters?

The answer is simple: as he does with just about everything he touches, Jay-Z is set to profit at every turn from his involvement with the Barclays Center. Yes, he picked the cutlery, but he also gets free use of one of the arena’s $550,000-per-year luxury suites. Sure, he helped secure a bar-restaurant, but it’s an outpost of his own 40/40 Club. And as for the champagne, well, it’s the $300-per-bottle Armand de Brignac in which he holds a financial interest (a connection detailed in my Jay-Z biography, Empire State of Mind).

Then there’s Jay-Z’s much-trumpeted equity. He holds a small stake in the Nets, only one-fifteenth of one percent, according to the New York Times, but he owns a larger piece of the arena itself–one fifth of one percent. That may still seem trivial, but o.2% of a $1 billion building is $2 million, about ten times more than his piece of the team is worth, and almost certainly more profitable.

Then there are the concerts themselves, which should provide him with an even more handsome profit. The Barclays Center’s 18,000-seat capacity is about 30% larger than the average arena in which Jay-Z plays. With eight sellout shows, that’s 144,000 tickets sold. Even if the prices fall short of Jay-Z’s $119-per-show average, he should easily gross somewhere around $15 million for the shows, taking home at least $5 million for his troubles. It’s also possible that he was guaranteed an even larger sum in advance.

Jay-Z paid $1 million for his stake in the Nets back in 2005, long before the Barclays Center ever existed. Though accounts vary on how much of the team he actually received (celebrities often receive more than they paid for as an incentive to buy), it seems that some of his stake was converted into a piece of the Barclays Center when Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov bought a majority share of the team in 2009, perhaps with a sweetener added to keep him on board.

Assuming the numbers published recently by the New York Times are correct, Jay-Z’s equity in the team and the building add up to $2.2 million or so today, not counting all the aforementioned synergies. If Jay-Z had invested $1 million in an S&P 500 index fund in 2005, he’d have returned about 20%. His initial investment in the Nets, by contrast, has more than doubled, boosting his other brands along the way. If time is money, it’s clear Jay-Z’s was well-spent.

Read the original story here.

Standing in line for the restrooms at Jay-Z’s Made in America Festival last weekend, I noticed a two-level structure about 100 feet away, decked out with plush red chairs, clear views of the main stage and what appeared to be an open bar. Intrigued, I asked the yellow-shirted security guard nearby if journalists were permitted. No, she said, the area was reserved for VIPs—namely, Jay-Z, Beyoncé and their entourage; in fact, she said, they had just walked by the media tent an hour earlier. That was the only part of the day I wasn’t there (I was sitting on a gigantic plastic hammer interviewing The Hives).

This wasn’t the first time I’d narrowly missed Jay-Z since writingEmpire State of Mind (Penguin/Portfolio, 2011), an unauthorized biography of the rapper. On multiple occasions, I’ve found myself a dozen feet from him at concerts, separated only by a small barrier; I sat six seats down from him and Beyoncé at the Michael Jackson Immortal show in Vegas last December, but they arrived after the show started and left before it ended, taking with them my chance to hear his reaction to my book.

I figured it would happen eventually, and I wasn’t in any particular rush. After spending a year of my life researching the man, I felt I knew him as well as I could know someone I’d never met. But I was curious. More specifically, I wanted to introduce myself and observe what would happen, just to see, as a journalist, how he’d react—and give myself some perspective on the most significant professional project of my life thus far.

So on Sunday, when I walked out of the Porta-Potty into the muggy Philadelphia evening and saw Jay-Z standing with Beyoncé fifteen feet away, there was only one thing I could do (and it wasn’t belting the chorus to “Crazy in Love” in my best falsetto). It was to make that introduction and see what would happen.

I took a step forward, just as Jay-Z and his bodyguards turned in my direction. Beyoncé stayed behind, engrossed in some other conversation. As Jay-Z and I approached each other our eyes met, and his lingered for a split second before drifting away. Then, as I’d always planned, I offered a statement, not a question.

“Jay,” I said, as he strode past me, not turning his head, “I’m the guy who wrote the book about you.”

He kept walking, and for a moment, I thought he was pretending he hadn’t heard me. Then he tossed a glance over his shoulder and offered his thoughts.

“That book was horrible!” he said.

Then he laughed that high, rapidfire laugh that sometimes makes its way into the beginnings and ends of his tracks, and sauntered off around a corner.

So that was the moment. I’m not sure if he was trying to demoralize me, or joke with me, or if his comment was simply the only retort he could come up with in the moments spent walking away, pretending not to have heard my greeting. If his intent was the former, he certainly didn’t succeed—a heap of hip-hop tastemakers have praised my book, from Fab 5 Freddy to Dan Charnas, as have a slew of news outlets ranging from the Financial Times toBloomberg News.

But Jay-Z’s comment did something significant. It confirmed, as a few sources close to him had already told me, that he’d read the book—I didn’t even have to mention the title, or where I worked—and that something about it had hit him close to the core, close enough that he’d fire off a generic insult rather than walking along silently and keeping his trademark composure.

As far as I’m concerned, that means I’ve done my job as a journalist. I’m not in this business to make friends, nor am I interested in tearing people down needlessly. My book was by no means a case of the latter—in fact, some outlets accused me of being too kind to Jay-Z as I chronicled his impressive rise from street corner to corner office. But his reaction tells me that I managed to touch something essential about him, too close for his own comfort. And that’s more than enough for me.

Observing that reaction checked a box that I’d been meaning to check for the past three years of my life. Now, as Jay-Z and his frequent collaborator Swizz Beatz might say, I’m on to the next one: a business-focused biography of Michael Jackson.

Without a doubt, Jay-Z’s comment was the best negative review I’ve ever received. Still, I suspect I would have had an even more interesting story if I’d opened that Porta-Potty a few seconds earlier.

This post was originally published on Forbes.com. For more, check out Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went From Street Corner to Corner Office. You can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

It might have been the best piece of advice the rapper-producer ever received. In 2008 he teamed with Iovine and a handful of other partners to launch Beats By Dr. Dre, which now sells more than half of the country’s premium headphones ($100 and up). That’s music to the ears of Dr. Dre, who collected $100 million pretax when handset maker HTC paid $300 million for a 51% stake in the company last year.

With $110 million in pretax earnings, Dr. Dre is this year’s Hip-Hop Cash King—ousting last year’s champ, Jay-Z—despite the fact that his long-awaited album, Detox, remains on the shelf. He’s not the only one on the list who banks the bulk of his bucks outside the recording studio. Diddy ranks No. 2 with $45 million, thanks mostly to a share of profits from Diageo’s Ciroc vodka.

Jay-Z ranks third with $38 million, pulling in more than half his annual earnings from ventures including ownership stakes in cosmetics company Carol’s Daughter, the Brookyln Nets and a joint venture with battery maker Duracell.

“The reality of it is, you want to do something that you own,” says frequent Jay-Z collaborator Timbaland, who ranks No. 20 on the list with $6 million. “You want to own what you put your heart into. That’s how you make money.”

For more, read the rest of the story on Forbes.com; for even more buy the book Empire State of Mind.

Three years ago I found myself at home on a steamy summer day, contending with a head cold as I sifted through a virtual mountain of unread email. As my finger descended upon the delete key to banish yet another message, I re-read the subject line, “Book Project Opportunity.” The email turned out to be from an editor at Penguin, asking if I’d be interested in writing a book about Jay-Z.

Today, that book—Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went From Street Corner to Corner Office—comes out in paperback, complete with new chapters by yours truly and a fresh foreword by Steve Forbes, drawing on his impressions from an afternoon spent with Jay-Z and Warren Buffett in 2010. Jay-Z, of course, never granted me an interview for my book (more on that in “Why I Wrote An Unauthorized Biography of Jay-Z: Part I”), but the new foreword finally provides that element.

The reason I initially wrote the book was quite simple: I had always been an avid consumer of all things hip-hop, I’d gained some insight into the business of rap by putting together FORBES’ annual Hip-Hop Cash Kings packages, and I was lucky enough to have piqued the interest of an editor at Penguin. But for me, one of the most fascinating parts the journey was discovering additional reasons for having written the bookafter I’d already written and released it.

As soon as the hardcover edition made its debut last year, I started to receive some fascinating responses. One total stranger emailed me insisting I meet him, write about him, and observe as he became a millionaire. Another, who asserted that I was “helping drug-dealing lowlifes,” led off an email with the line, “Zack, you’re an idiot!”

The responses from other rappers have been much more positive. When I gave a copy to Birdman, he thanked me and then cryptically referred to Jay-Z as “a special cat.” Wiz Khalifa, on the other hand, simply said, “Thank you! Can you sign it for me?”

But the most satisfying part was the feedback I received from aspiring entrepreneurs in locales ranging from North Carolina to Nigeria. I received scores of emails thanking me for laying out Jay-Z’s entrepreneurial philosophy in an engaging and accessible manner. Said one reader:

Admittedly, my entrepreneurial pursuits and goals are certainly more modest than Jay-Z’s. I’m not looking to take over the world, but to build a successful company and do interesting work while continuing to devote time and energy aplenty to my wife and two young kids. Yet I know that many of the lessons to be drawn from your book’s analysis of Jay-Z and his global brand will be with me, and I intend to incorporate them in my own small ways into my own business.

Receiving feedback like that reminds me that although Jay-Z talks a lot about business, both in interviews and in his music, he’s often secretive when it comes to laying out his entrepreneurial philosophy or discussing particular details in depth.

Like the rest of my book, the new chapters in the Empire State of Mind paperback aim to do exactly that. Some highlights:

* The new foreword by Steve Forbes, drawing on his interviews with Jay-Z and Warren Buffett.
* An investigative chapter revealing Jay-Z’s financial relationship with a notable Swiss watchmaker.
* Full analysis of Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch The Throne and how it changed the business of hip-hop.
* New interviews with rappers, executives and entrepreneurs connected to Jay-Z.
* Updates on the birth of Blue Ivy Carter, Jay-Z’s net worth and more.

My hope is that the new chapters will provide additional insights for readers all over the world. And with any luck, the paperback edition will generate even more reasons for me to have written the book.

This post was originally published on Forbes.com

Check out the new paperback version of Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went From Street Corner to Corner Office, and follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

Their application lists a Delaware-based limited liability company called BGK Trademark Holdings—a likely nod to Beyonce’s initials—as the owner. The filing contains an exhaustive catalog of potential uses for the Blue Ivy name, including but not limited to fragrances, hair spray, baby strollers, baby bibs, diaper bags and, curiously, soccer balls (the full list can be found on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s website).

Needless to say, the practice of trademarking proper names isn’t all that common. In fact, it’s generally not allowed at all, except under unusual circumstances—and Blue Ivy would seem to qualify.

“The trademark statute prohibits the registration of a mark that is ‘primarily merely a surname,’” a USPTO spokesperson informed me in an email. “[But] there is no general prohibition against registering first names or full personal names, as long as they truly function as trademarks.”

In other words, if the Carters had named their daughter Jane, they probably wouldn’t have had a chance of getting a trademark approved. With Blue Ivy, they’ve got a chance, at least if they can prove that the name will be used as other trademarks might.

Thus far, the application hasn’t yet been officially approved. In February, the filing received an “Office Action,” meaning that the USPTO has asked the Carters’ lawyers at Reed Smith LLP to provide a satisfactory amount additional information within six months. If that doesn’t happen, the application could be rejected. The attorneys aren’t concerned.

“[This] happens with regard to a large majority of trademark applications,” Reed Smith’s Greg Shatan told me in an email. “Most of the Office Action we received consists of requests for additional information, which are essentially technical in nature. We are in the process of responding to them, and will submit all responses within the allotted time.”

Regardless of what eventually happens with the Blue Ivy filing, it won’t be the first time Jay-Z tried to trademark something related to the color. Nearly a decade ago, the hip-hop mogul found himself on the verge of finalizing a deal with Chrysler to create a Jay-Z branded Jeep Commander; the luxury SUV would have rolled off the lot with a sound system preloaded with all his songs and an interior swathed in butter-cream leather. But the key to the deal was the exterior color: a trademarked shade of Jay-Z Blue paint.

Read the rest of this article on Forbes.com

For the full story on Jay-Z Blue and the Jay-Z Jeep, check out the book Empire State Of Mind: How Jay-Z Went From Street Corner to Corner Office by Zack O’Malley Greenburg — the new paperback edition, complete with two new chapters and a foreword by Steve Forbes — is available in stores on June 26th.

* a brand-new foreword by Steve Forbes, drawing on his interviews with Jay-Z and Warren Buffett

* an investigative chapter revealing Jay-Z’s financial relationship with a notable Swiss watchmaker

* full analysis of Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch The Throne and how it changed the business of hip-hop

* new interviews with rappers, executives and entrepreneurs connected to Jay-Z

* updates on the birth of Blue Ivy Carter, Jay-Z’s net worth and more

Click here to order the book on Amazon.

To set up an interview with the author, please contact Jackie Burke at Penguin/Portfolio: Jacquelynn.Burke@us.penguingroup.com

Indeed, the original trio boasts a combined net worth well over a billion dollars, rendering their lyrical prognostications accurate. They’re joined by Dr. Dre, flush with cash from his Beats headphone line, and Cash Money Records cofounder Bryan “Birdman” Williams.

Jay-Z ranks second on the list with a fortune of $460 million. Unlike his fellow Forbes Five members, Jay-Z still churns out music and goes on tour—most recently with pal Kanye West—adding to his considerable war chest. He sold his Rocawear clothing label for $204 million in 2007 and signed 10-year $150 million deal with Live Nation in 2008, and also holds stakes in the New Jersey Nets, his 40/40 Club chain, ad firm Translation, cosmetics company Carol’s Daughter and other businesses.

Read the rest of my article on Forbes.com

Buy the book Empire State Of Mind: How Jay-Z Went From Street Corner to Corner Office by Zack O’Malley Greenburg.