The first rapper billionaire: Jay Z just reached billionaire status, so I wanted to resurface this excellent profile on him from 2012. What happens when you go from rapping about the ultra-rich to becoming the ultra-rich? In one conversation with the reporter, he tells her that the Occupy Wall Street protesters should be more specific because not all people in the 1% are bad. “As I started getting life experiences, I realized my power was in conveying emotions that people felt.”