EMPIRE STATE OF MIND

Jay-Z's story is compelling not just because of his celebrity, but because it is a blueprint for success in any setting a classic rags-to-riches American dream. Zack O'Malley Greenburg covered hip-hop and finance as a staff reporter for Forbes magazine for years. His book is a "motivational punch for anyone who is trying to improve their situation, land a job, or advance their career" (Huffington Post).

Jay-Z is one of the most recognizable names in entertainment. He's been called one of the greatest rappers of all time, but music may end up as just a small part of a brilliant business career. His combination of intelligence, instinct, pragmatism and swaggering confidence have earned him a chain of nightclubs, a stake in the New Jersey Nets, and a 10-year, $150 million deal with concert promoter Live Nation. Amazingly, he honed his business philosophy not at a fancy B-school, but on the streets of Brooklyn as a crack dealer in the 1980s.

Empire State of Mind is the story behind Jay-Z's rise to the top, as told by the people who lived it with him the childhood friend who got him into the drug trade, the DJ who convinced him to stop dealing and focus on music; the Harlem entrepreneur who co-founded Roc-A-Fella Records with him; the hip hop trailblazer who documented Jay-Z's first basketball team, and other hip hop and business innovators. Jay-Z and his wife, Beyoncé, are both very private, so a lot of the information gathered should be new to readers. Forbes estimates that Jay-Z pulled in $35 million last year the most of any hip-hop artist and yet it marked a 57% pay-cut from the previous year's $82 million. Jay-Z sometimes cites Warren Buffett as a role model; fittingly, the rapper's diversified holdings already include a chain of nightclubs and a stake in the New Jersey Nets. A master dealmaker, he flipped his Rocawear clothing line for $200 million in 2007; last year he secured a 10-year, $150 million deal with concert promoter Live Nation at the top of the market. Jay-Z's story is compelling not just because of his celebrity, but because it is a blueprint for success in any setting a classic rags-to-riches American dream. Zack O'Malley Greenburg covered hip-hop and finance as a staff reporter for Forbes magazine for nearly three years. His stories took him from the back rooms of New York's Apollo Theatre to the jungles of Sierra Leone. Now a contributing writer at Forbes, he has also written for The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, and Dan's Papers, among others. He lives in New York City.