In One Fell Swoop, Jay-Z Impresses Critics, Fans, the U.N. and Wall Street

From the New York Times (link):

The accolades Jay-Z have recently poured forth from all sectors. His new album was critically acclaimed and sold more than any other last week, which tied him with Elvis at 10 chart-topping albums.
And the acclaim was extended in some unlikely places, such as the dark, rarefied set of the Charlie Rose show. Jay-Z and Mr. Rose traded compliments for the full hour, which culminated in Mr. Rose offering a heartfelt lesson about the meaning of life.
Even the United Nations recognized him for helping to improve water and sanitation across the world with an improbably informal shout-out from Secretary General Ban Ki Moon:
"My man Jay-Z has been a wonderful partner to the UN, and a champion of those in need around the world."
Financially, paychecks for his work as chief executive of Def Jam records, a recording artist and builder of a clothing company made him the richest man in hip-hop, according to Forbes.
Last year, he made 34 million in American dollars, but it was his use of stacks of euros in a recent music video that added to jitters credited to Gisele Bundchen and garnered the attention of Wall Street watchers everywhere.
“Jay-Z, the New Alan Greenspan,” the headlines cooed, but another piece of financial advice dispensed during a rap song seemed less likely to win a similar following. In “Laff at Em,” he divulges his portfolio, saying that he has 200 million in cash and 35 million in stock.
While that might seem far less diversified than investors working with similarly-sized pools of capital, he didn’t say whether it was in dollars or euros, a crucial difference in a year that has seen the euro gain 11 percent. In the unlikely case that he dumped all of his cash into euros at the beginning of the year, he would’ve almost quadrupled the gains made on the S & P 500, which is up 3 percent.