Beyoncé Is Now a Billionaire, According to Forbes

Beyoncé is shown in promotional imagery for “Cowboy Carter,” the country-influenced album and tour era that helped propel her to billionaire status, according to Forbes. She now joins her husband, Jay-Z, as one of the few musicians to independently reach a 10-figure fortune through music ownership, touring and long-term control of their work. (Courtesy Photo: Blair Caldwell/Parkwood Entertainment)

For years, the question around Beyoncé wasn’t whether she had already crossed the billionaire line — it was when the accounting would finally catch up to the reality.

On Monday, Forbes made it official, estimating Beyoncé’s net worth at $1 billion, a milestone reached not through a single windfall, but through a methodical, decades-long consolidation of power, ownership and cultural relevance.

According to Forbes, Beyoncé becomes just the fifth musician to amass a 10-figure fortune, joining her husband Jay-Z, Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Bruce Springsteen. But the distinction matters less for the number itself than for how she got there — by treating music not as a product to be licensed away, but as infrastructure to be owned.

The final push came through a bold, unlikely pivot. In 2024, Beyoncé released “Cowboy Carter,” a genre-bending country album that challenged industry gatekeeping while opening a new commercial frontier. What followed was the most successful concert tour in the genre’s history, a global run that reasserted her dominance as a live performer while expanding her audience beyond traditional pop boundaries.

For almost any artist, the 2023 “Renaissance World Tour” — which grossed nearly $600 million — would have marked a career peak. Instead, Beyoncé used it as a prelude. The “Cowboy Carter Tour” in 2025 leaned into spectacle and scarcity, staging a limited run of stadium mini-residencies that turned each stop into a destination event. The tour grossed more than $400 million in ticket sales, with an additional $50 million in merchandise, according to Forbes estimates, and delivered unusually high margins because Beyoncé’s company, Parkwood Entertainment, handled production in-house.

THE CARTERS: TWO PATHS TO A BILLION

Beyoncé

• Net worth: $1 billion (Forbes)
• Primary driver: Music ownership + touring
• Structure: Parkwood Entertainment (fully integrated)
• Core assets:
  • Full control of catalog
  • Stadium tours with in-house production
  • Film, visual albums, live-event IP
• Signature strategy: Vertical integration
• Wealth model: Artist as infrastructure

Jay-Z

• Net worth: $2.5 billion (Forbes estimate)
• Primary driver: Diversified investments
• Structure: Roc Nation + private equity stakes
• Core assets:
  • Music catalog
  • Spirits (Armand de Brignac, D’USSÉ stake history)
  • Early tech investments (including Uber)
• Signature strategy: Portfolio diversification
• Wealth model: Artist as investor

Why it matters: Together, Beyoncé and Jay-Z are the only married couple in music history to independently reach billionaire status — not through celebrity alone, but through ownership, leverage and long-term control in an industry that has historically denied Black artists all three.

Source: Forbes

That control traces back to a pivotal decision in 2010, when Beyoncé founded Parkwood and brought nearly every aspect of her career under one roof. The company manages her music, tours, films and visual projects, absorbing upfront costs in exchange for long-term ownership and backend participation.

“When I decided to manage myself, it was important that I didn’t go to some big management company,” Beyoncé said in a 2013 interview. “I felt like I wanted to follow the footsteps of Madonna and be a powerhouse and have my own empire.”

In an industry that has historically profited from Black creativity while denying Black artists ownership, Beyoncé’s billion-dollar valuation represents not just commercial success, but a rare reversal of that equation.

From the surprise release of “Beyoncé” in 2013 to the HBO-backed visual album “Lemonade” in 2016, she repeatedly reframed albums as events rather than inventory. Her 2018 Coachella performance — later released as “Homecoming” — drew hundreds of thousands of concurrent viewers and culminated in a Netflix documentary reportedly valued at $60 million.

More recently, Beyoncé expanded into adjacent industries with mixed but strategic results, including a hair care brand (Cécred), a premium whiskey label (SirDavis), and Ivy Park, her apparel partnership that was discontinued in 2024. Forbes notes that while these ventures contributed to her wealth, the core of her fortune still comes from music — specifically ownership of her catalog and the unmatched earning power of her tours.

In 2025 alone, Forbes estimates Beyoncé earned $148 million before taxes, making her the third-highest-paid musician in the world. That success came despite album-equivalent sales that lagged behind several streaming-era peers, underscoring a modern reality: touring now accounts for the vast majority of top-tier artists’ income.

Across entertainment, few enterprises are more lucrative than a stadium-filling musician in the post-pandemic era. Beyoncé has been at the forefront of that shift, scaling productions once considered unsustainable and then rewriting the economics to make them viable.

In recent written interviews, she has said “Renaissance” and “Cowboy Carter” represent the first two parts of a planned genre trilogy. She has also signaled that future touring will be more selective, structured around her children’s schedules.

“No amount of money is worth my peace,” she told GQ earlier this year.

The billionaire designation does not close Beyoncé’s story. It confirms what her career has already demonstrated: that she is not simply one of the most influential artists of her era, but one of its most disciplined architects.

Don Bryant, Memphis Songwriter Whose Work Bridged Soul and Hip-Hop, Dies at 83

Don Bryant poses for a press photograph during the promotion of his 2017 comeback album “Don’t Give Up on Love.” The Memphis soul singer and songwriter, whose work included co-writing Ann Peebles’ classic “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” died Dec. 26 after a series of health issues. He was 83. (Matt White, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Don Bryant, a Memphis soul singer and songwriter whose work helped define the sound of Hi Records and whose songs continue to echo through modern R&B and hip-hop, has died. Bryant, the husband and chief collaborator of Ann Peebles, died Dec. 26 after a series of health issues, according to posts shared on his official social media accounts. He was 83.

“Don loved sharing his music and songs with all of you and it gave him such great joy to perform and record new music,” his family wrote. “He was so appreciative of everyone who was part of his musical journey and who supported him along the way.”

Bryant’s legacy is inseparable from one of the most enduring recordings in Southern soul: “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” the 1973 Peebles hit he co-wrote with her and Bernard “Bernie” Miller. Built on spare instrumentation and emotional restraint, the song became a masterclass in atmosphere — intimate, tense and unflinching. Decades later, it took on a second life when its opening rhythm was sampled for Missy Elliott’s debut solo single, “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” extending Bryant’s Memphis-born sensibility into the DNA of modern hip-hop.

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Born in Memphis and raised in the church, Bryant learned early that soul music was as much about discipline as expression. His father sang in a gospel group, and rehearsals often took place in the family home. Bryant later recalled listening closely, absorbing harmony and phrasing, then attempting to recreate the sound with his brothers — an informal education that shaped both his voice and his pen.

By the late 1950s, Bryant was already writing songs, some of which were recorded by the Five Royales and bandleader Willie Mitchell. As a teenager, he sang with various vocal groups and began performing regularly, eventually drawing the attention of influential Memphis radio figures who encouraged his move from gospel into secular music.

That determination carried him into Hi Records’ orbit during the 1960s. Bryant recorded as a solo artist, releasing the 1969 album “Precious Soul” and singles that blended country, blues and deep soul without sacrificing grit. 

As Hi’s roster expanded, he shifted behind the scenes, becoming a staff songwriter whose catalog would grow to more than 150 credited songs. Writing for artists including Solomon Burke, Albert King and Etta James, Bryant developed a reputation for adaptability and precision. 

He later explained that studying an artist’s phrasing and delivery helped him tailor material to their voice. “When I was writing for an individual I could always come up with something that would fit them,” Bryant said in an interview with Blues Blast Magazine.

The defining partnership of Bryant’s life began in the early 1970s, when he met Peebles, a young singer newly signed to Hi. “That’s when I wrote ‘99 Pounds’ — that’s the one I wrote especially for Ann when she first came in,” Bryant recalled in later interviews. “To tell you the truth, I fell in love with Ann then, when I heard her sing.” The two married in 1974 and remained partners for the next four decades, creatively and personally.

Bryant wrote or co-wrote many of Peebles’ signature songs, helping her deliver a body of work that balanced sensuality with resolve and vulnerability with strength. His writing favored economy over excess — songs built around mood, tension and emotional truth rather than ornamentation. That restraint is precisely what allowed records like “I Can’t Stand the Rain” to age so well, surviving reinterpretation across genres without losing their core.

For years, Bryant placed his own recording ambitions aside, focusing on Peebles’ career while continuing to sing in church and release gospel recordings. When Peebles suffered a stroke in 2012, her touring life came to a halt. With her encouragement, Bryant returned to secular music late in life, recording “Don’t Give Up on Love” in 2017 — his first non-gospel album in nearly five decades. The record was widely praised not as a novelty comeback, but as the work of an artist who had simply been waiting for the right moment to speak again.

He followed with “You Make Me Feel,” released in 2020, which earned him his first Grammy nomination in the Best Traditional Blues Album category. The recognition arrived when Bryant was 78, a rare acknowledgment of a career that had quietly shaped American music for more than half a century.

Clipse’s 'Let God Sort ’Em Out' Lands on Major 2025 Best-Albums Lists

The album cover for “Let God Sort Em Out,” Clipse’s first full-length release since 2009, produced entirely by Pharrell Williams and cited among 2025’s most critically praised albums.

In a year crowded with releases chasing novelty, "Let God Sort Em Out" arrived doing something rarer: reminding hip-hop what endurance sounds like.

Sixteen years after their last full album, Virginia Beach brothers Pusha T and Malice returned as Clipse with a project that didn’t posture as a comeback or plead for relevance. Instead, it spoke with the confidence of artists who never left the conversation — only waited for the right moment to reenter it on their own terms.

Released in July and produced entirely by Pharrell Williams, "Let God Sort Em Out" quickly emerged as one of the year’s most critically respected rap albums, earning placement on multiple year-end best-of lists and drawing praise across outlets that rarely agree on hip-hop’s direction. Rolling Stone included the album among its Best Hip-Hop Albums of 2025, while the Associated Press cited the project’s lyrical precision and restraint as a standout in a year heavy on excess.

The recognition mattered — but not because Clipse needed validation. It mattered because the album landed at a moment when lyricism, structure and patience felt endangered. Rather than chasing trends, the brothers leaned into what time had sharpened: Pusha T’s surgical economy, Malice’s spiritual clarity and a chemistry that still snaps with the tension of lived experience.

The album does not attempt to rewrite Clipse’s past. It extends it. Tracks like “Ace Trumpets” and others across the record balance menace with reflection, street memory with consequence. Where earlier Clipse albums thrived on claustrophobic minimalism, "Let God Sort Em Out" breathes — not softer, but wiser. Pharrell’s production stretches without diluting, allowing space for confession, warning and triumph to coexist.

SIDEBAR: Why “Let God Sort ’Em Out” Led 2025’s Critical Consensus

Clipse’s “Let God Sort ’Em Out” didn’t dominate the year through hype cycles or streaming stunts. Instead, it earned sustained recognition through critical consensus across both hip-hop–focused and mainstream publications.

Rolling Stone
Included in Rolling Stone’s Best Rap Albums of 2025 coverage, praising the album’s discipline, precision, and refusal to chase trends — qualities repeatedly cited as defining strengths.

Associated Press (AP)
Featured in AP’s Best Music of 2025 reporting, highlighting the project’s lyrical patience and clarity in contrast to a year marked by excess and immediacy.

The Guardian
Appeared in The Guardian’s Top Albums of 2025 Readers’ Poll (All Genres), one of the few hip-hop albums to cross into the outlet’s broader year-end recognition.

HotNewHipHop
Ranked among the site’s Best Hip-Hop Albums of 2025, described as a “measured, powerful return” that fused Clipse’s street legacy with earned maturity.

Metacritic
Metascore: 83, reflecting one of the strongest critical consensus scores for a rap release in 2025.

Editor’s note: While year-end rankings vary by methodology, “Let God Sort ’Em Out” stands out as one of 2025’s most consistently praised rap albums across reputable critics and publications.

Critics responded accordingly. HotNewHipHop called the album a “powerful Clipse comeback,” noting how it fused unfiltered street perspective with earned maturity. The Washington Post highlighted the project’s emotional range — its willingness to confront loss, faith and legacy without sacrificing edge. Across reviews, a consistent theme emerged: this wasn’t nostalgia. It was authority.

That authority extended beyond the music. In a GQ cover story released later in the year, Clipse framed their return as less about reclaiming space and more about redefining it. Pusha T rejected the idea of a creative ceiling, positioning longevity itself as a form of resistance in an industry addicted to erasure.

That ethos was underscored quietly, but symbolically,  recently (see above) when Pharrell gifted Pusha T a Rolls-Royce Spectre Black Badge — a moment documented across music media and social platforms. The gesture wasn’t spectacle; it was acknowledgment. Of partnership. Of survival. Of a year when Clipse didn’t just reappear, they reminded people why they mattered in the first place.

"Let God Sort Em Out" now stands not only as one of 2025’s most respected rap albums, but as a case study in how veteran artists can reenter the culture without diluting themselves. No gimmicks. No apology tours. Just records built to last.

In a genre obsessed with what’s next, Clipse offered something more disruptive: proof that what’s true still carries weight.