Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. 
 
 Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. 
 
 fails 15 Celebrity Businesses That Failed Miserably f p @ Chaz Fletcher 26k views 15 items Follow Embed List Rules The types of failed business should be as varied as possible. Otherwise, the list would be nothing but restaurants and clothing lines. 
 
 F ailed celebrity businesses are shockingly common. Despite the media painting them as bastions of perfection, celebrities are as likely to fail at a new business venture as any of us. While plenty are successful, such as George Foreman's line of grills, many celebrity businesses go nowhere fast. 
 
 
 
 Hulk Hogan tried to open up a pasta joint, which failed miserably. Paris Hilton launched a clothing line where half the clothing featured her face. That also failed fast. Curt Schilling ran a video game company, whose failure was surprisingly not because he didn't make any baseball games. The list goes on and on, with each failed celebrity business re-teaching the lesson that just because people are famous for one thing, they're not automatically going to be any good at something else. 
 
 
 
 Below are 15 of the biggest failed celebrity businesses ever, the kind whose failure will haunt the celebrity forever. At least until they count the money they made from being successful at their day job. Big bank accounts tend to dull the pain, though we can still laugh at their failures. And the best part is, since a famous person never seems to learn their lesson, there are bound to be more failed celebrity businesses down the line for us to mock. The fun never ends! 
 
 Pastamania (Hulk Hogan) 
 
 Photo: uploaded by Chaz Fletcher In 1995, famous professional wrestler Hulk Hogan decided to branch out into the Italian food business, founding Hulk Hogan's Pastamania. The restaurant didn't even last a year, as sub-par food (Mmm, Hulkaroos), and the fact that only the most die-hard Hogan fan would even bother making the trip to Minnesota to sample the stuff, sealed its fate. In 1995, famous professional wrestler Hulk Hogan decided to branch out into the Italian food business, founding Hulk Hogan's Pastamania. The restaurant didn't even last a year, as sub-par food (Mmm, Hulkaroos), and the fact that only the most die-hard Hogan fan would even bother making the trip to Minnesota to sample the stuff, sealed its fate. 16 Celebrity Drug Overdoses We Should Have Seen Coming The Best Baby Names For Twins 
 
 XFL (Vince McMahon) 
 
 Photo: Freebase/Fair use Vince McMahon, owner of the World Wrestling Federation, felt that football was getting too soft. Therefore, he started up the Xtreme Football League, a rough-and-tumble version of the game that promoted no rules and no mercy. Unfortunately, there was also no talent, as the players simply were not very good at football. Add in the head-scratching decision to incorporate wrestling-style storylines into the games (which the coaches wanted absolutely no part of), it's little wonder that the league only lasted one season. Vince McMahon, owner of the World Wrestling Federation, felt that football was getting too soft. Therefore, he started up the Xtreme Football League, a rough-and-tumble version of the game that promoted no rules and no mercy. Unfortunately, there was also no talent, as the players simply were not very good at football. Add in the head-scratching decision to incorporate wrestling-style storylines into the games (which the coaches wanted absolutely no part of), it's little wonder that the league only lasted one season. ||||| Image copyright Getty Images 
 
 Rock star Gene Simmons says that when it comes to making money he is like a great white shark. 
 
 And that despite being worth more than $300m (£200m), he will never stop wanting to make more. 
 
 The bassist and co-vocalist of stadium-filling, costume-wearing and face-painted US band Kiss, says: "Life is business, and I approach life the way sharks approach life - they must keep moving or else they will drown. 
 
 "I'll never stop hunting more money, I'll never have enough." 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Simmons says he has never drunk alcohol or taken drugs 
 
 With Kiss now in South America on the latest stage of a two-year sell-out world tour, Simmons, 65, took time out to speak to the BBC about his long career in the music industry, and his host of other business interests. 
 
 Although famous for sticking out his very long tongue, and past womanising - he claims to have slept with 4,800 women - what is much less well known is that Simmons has always been the financial brains of the band. He is its de facto chief executive. 
 
 Ever since the four-piece band formed in New York in 1973, it has been Simmons who has kept his eyes on the finances. And it was his incredibly lucrative idea for the band to sell as much merchandise as possible. 
 
 For while Kiss have sold 100 million records around the world, the band has actually made more money from selling licensed products. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The band is currently on the South American leg of a two-year world tour 
 
 Over the group's 42-year history, it has authorised more than 5,000 different items of merchandise, everything from rock band staples such as T-shirts and hats, to comic books, pinball machines, credit cards, and even condoms and coffins. 
 
 Not forgetting jewellery, ashtrays, lunchboxes, Halloween costumes, baseballs and beach towels. And a golf course and coffee shop. 
 
 It is a business empire which under Simmons' stewardship just keeps on growing. 
 
 This has led to the band's critics - and there have been many over the years - accusing the group of being too commercially-focused, of cheapening itself at the expense of its music. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Kiss have authorised more than 5,000 different merchandise items 
 
 The calm and quietly spoken Simmons says he has no respect for such people. 
 
 He says (after a liberal amount of swear words have been edited out): "All our lives Kiss has been hounded by people who haven't achieved anything. And we buried them long ago. 
 
 "I call selling merchandise 'the Kiss business', and every band sells T-shirts, every band sells merchandise. They just don't do as good a job of it as us." 
 
 Lifetime teetotaller 
 
 The son of a mother who survived the Holocaust, Simmons was born in the Israeli city of Haifa in 1949. His birth name was Chaim Witz. 
 
 Describing his family as "dirt poor", he first showed his entrepreneurial spirit as a seven year old, when he and a friend started to pick wild fruit which they then sold on roadsides. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Kiss have sold 100 million records despite never having been a hit with music critics 
 
 He says it was his first lesson in the importance of working hard and making money. 
 
 The family then emigrated to the US a year later, and growing up in New York, Simmons was inspired to start a band after watching the Beatles on television. 
 
 In 1973 Kiss was formed, with Simmons on bass, Paul Stanley and Ace Frehley on guitars, and Peter Criss on drums. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Kiss recently moved into the coffee business 
 
 With Simmons and Stanley sharing the vocals, each band member painted his face with a different design, and took on a stage name. 
 
 Simmons' name was "The Demon", and on a white background he drew black flames around his eyes. Not forgetting putting on platform boots and body armour. 
 
 Fuelled by catchy hard rock songs, and the outlandish make-up and outfits giving the band a major promotional push, within a few years Kiss was enjoying soaring sales and sell-out tours. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Kiss even sell birth control products, with four different types of condoms 
 
 The music critics were often hostile, with many accusing the group of being all image over substance, but Kiss built up a massive fan base around the world. 
 
 Yet despite living a multi-million dollar lifestyle for four decades, Simmons says he has never drunk alcohol, taken drugs, or even smoked a cigarette. 
 
 "As a young man at parties, I'd look around and see all the other men completely drunk, behaving like idiots, and unable to talk to the beautiful girls," he says. 
 
 "What a complete waste of humanity... booze or drugs have never done anything for me, but I fully uphold people's right to have a completely loser life." 
 
 Workaholic 
 
 Although original members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss are no longer in the group, Kiss continues to tour the world with Stanley as the musical leader and Simmons as the businessman. 
 
 He describes his stewardship of the current world tour as like "driving a truck". 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Simmons lives in Los Angeles with former Playboy model Shannon Tweed 
 
 "I'm driving and I keep an eye on everything," says Simmons. "But open the hood and I don't have a clue what is going on with the engine. 
 
 "Thankfully I hire people who can do all that for me. Paul and I always have a great team with us... and every night we put on one hell of a show. We are deadly serious when up on stage." 
 
 In addition to looking after Kiss, Simmons' other business interests now include everything from a restaurant chain, to an American football team, reality TV shows, a new horror movie production company, book and magazine publishing, public speaking, and language translation services. 
 
 He says he is able to find the time for everything because he loves working, and is never hungover. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Simmons says that whether on or off stage he is always working 
 
 "Think about how much time most people waste doing nothing - weekends, nothing, holidays, nothing, Christmas, nothing. That all adds up. 
 
 "Me I'm always working. When I'm on tour, I'm constantly on my computer working." 
 
 When at home, Simmons lives in Los Angeles with his long-term partner Shannon Tweed, an actress and former Playboy playmate, with whom he has two children. 
 
 He says: "I'm like [billionaire investor] Warren Buffett - he gets up every day and goes to work even though he doesn't need the money. 
 
 "I live to make more money. People who say that money is the root of all evil are morons, a lack of money is the root of all evil." ||||| Jessica Simpson left fans scratching their heads recently because of a bizarre interview that she gave to Extra. Jerking her head back and forth the blonde mom-of-two made some goofy comments about her kids, fashion and life in general. Now, after declaring that her daughter's dad "is her boyfriend," we take a look at some of Miss Simpson's best moments. 
 
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 A "Is this chicken, what I have, or is this fish? I know it's tuna but it says 'Chicken by the Sea'. Is that stupid?" Back when Simpson was married to Nick Lachey and they were the stars of the MTV show Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica, she got a little confused between chicken and tuna. 
 
 S And she hadn't quite grasped the concept of buffalo wings either. When her sister-in-law offered her one over dinner she declined saying, "Sorry, I don't eat buffalo." 
 
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 A When sharing her pearls of wisdom on the difference between dumb and ditzy, the blonde once said, " Dumb is just not knowing . 'Ditzy' is having the courage to ask!" 
 
 A On age: "Twenty-three is old. It’s almost 25, which is like almost mid-20s." 
 
 S During an episode of Newlyweds Simpson was also perplexed by the word "platypus" saying, "Platypus? I thought it was pronounced platymapus. Has it always been pronounced platypus?" 
 
 S Ever the fashionista, in one episode she said, "Is that weird, taking my Louis Vuitton bag camping?" 
 
 As a heavily pregnant mom-to-be Simpson told Jimmy Kimmel in 2012, “Whenever my water breaks it’ll be like a fire hydrant!" 
 
 A Speaking of pregnancy, she once told Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, "We weren’t trying, but we were definitely practicing – and not safely practicing." 
 
 A In a 2010 interview with Ellen DeGeneres, Simpson explained why she doesn't brush her teeth daily. She said, "Because my teeth are so white and I don't like them to feel too slippery but I do use Listerine and I do floss everyday." She added, "My lips just slide all over the place…I can't catch up with my mouth. I need coating." 
 
 A In 2008, she told People, "To be my man, you have to put up with a lot. I toot under the sheets, I spend a lot of money and I can belch the ABCs." 
 
 S Always the lady, she told Extra in 2007, "I’m not good on sugar. Or dairy – you’ll hear it come out of all ends." 
 
 A Speaking to People about fashion and singing, Simpson said in March 2015, "Music? I just wanted to take a break on it. It is in my heart and in my soul , but so is putting on a really great dress." 
 
 I While pregnant with her second child, Ace, in 2012 she tweeted a selfie of her bare belly, writing, "Bumpin’ and Proud!" 
 
 In March 2013, Simpson tried but failed to keep the sex of her unborn baby under wraps, telling Jimmy Kimmel, "The crazy thing is, I never knew that a wiener could actually make me nauseous." Then added, "Well, I guess I just told the world that I'm having a boy!... That was not planned. I just did it so crude, too." 
 
 W "I do pass gas a lot. I guarantee it smells like roses," she said at a gig in August 2008. 
 
 W In January 2011, she tweeted, "Saying my prayers before bedtime…Thank you Lord for blessing me with a Man that has the perfect Tush…laying my hands upon it with peace :)" 
 
 W When in doubt, do what Simpson does — resort to Twitter. She tweeted in August 2009, "Love it when the lyric of a song asks me a question. Is 'asks' even a word? It not, sorry 4 my lazyiness [sic] with grammar." ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| "With education comes refinement," Jay-Z observes late one Friday afternoon. He's lounging on a couch in a studio at the Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment complex on the far west side of Manhattan and speaking between nibbles of a takeout salad in a plastic container and sips from a bottle of water. In his everyday speech, as in his raps, Jay-Z is inclined toward aphorisms, the compressed expression of complicated ideas, delivered with rhetorical flair. It's hard-earned wisdom, graced by a poet's touch. He is relaxing after a typically jam-packed day that included a photo shoot, an interview, and a meeting about his potential involvement in a forthcoming video game. He celebrated his birthday the night before with the staff of his Rocawear clothing line, so a mild fatigue has set in. Slender and six feet three inches tall, Jay-Z is an imposing figure, even in relative repose. He's wearing distressed jeans that hang loosely from the middle of his hips, black sneakers, and a long-sleeved black T-shirt that has replaced the pristine short-sleeved white one he wore before changing for his photo shoot. The look is studiously casual . . . until you glance at his left wrist and notice a diamond watch so thick it could pass for a weight band. The winter sky is growing gray in the bank of windows behind him as the sun sets over the Hudson River. Jay-Z returns to the narrative of what, in the 19th century, would have been called his sentimental education, the education of his emotional life. That journey to refinement began in the rugged Marcy Projects in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant district, and now continues in arenas and boardrooms, in posh homes and VIP hideaways, around the world. Jay-Z feels comfortable in all of these realms. "I've never looked at myself and said that I need to be a certain way to be around a certain sort of people," he explains. "I've always wanted to stay true to myself, and I've managed to do that. People have to accept that. I collect art, and I drink wine . . . things that I like that I had never been exposed to. But I never said, 'I'm going to buy art to impress this crowd.' That's just ridiculous to me. I don't live my life like that, because how could you be happy with yourself?" Staying true to yourself might stand as a succinct summary of Jay-Z's philosophy of success. The notion goes back to Shakespeare's "To thine own self be true," and further back than that to the Greeks. But for Jay-Z, it has an urgently contemporary meaning. Even, or perhaps, especially, in recessionary times, amid the thousands of entertainment and lifestyle choices consumers have available to them, what separates winners from losers is a commitment to a single proposition: You are the product. If people believe in you, they will believe in what you create. Jay-Z understands this and is down with it. 
 
 By selling more than 40 million albums (as of April 2009) and building a business empire that extends far beyond music into clothing, fragrances, the New Jersey Nets, sports bars, liquor, and hotels (to name just a few of his seemingly innumerable investments), Jay-Z has transformed himself into one of the most potent brands in the world. But that brand retains its power only if people remain convinced that the product they are purchasing somehow genuinely reflects Jay-Z and his tastes. As he famously put it in one of his raps, "I'm not a businessman/I'm a business, man." "My brands are an extension of me," he says. "They're close to me. It's not like running GM, where there's no emotional attachment." The reference is apt, given the government's ongoing potential bailout of two major automobile companies. Jay-Z notes that resonance with a pause and a chuckle. "My thing is related to who I am as a person," he says. "The clothes are an extension of me. The music is an extension of me. All my businesses are part of the culture, so I have to stay true to whatever I'm feeling at the time, whatever direction I'm heading in. And hopefully, everyone follows." In conversation, Jay-Z's speech is slower, calmer, and more deliberate than in the propulsive, deep-voiced, and often incendiary raps that have made him a titan in the world of hip-hop, a man whose sales and staying power have elevated him above all but a handful of potential rivals. He's an engaged and animated speaker, quick to touch you in a friendly way to emphasize a point. But as laid-back and accessible as he seems, he also exudes a calm air of confidence. He doesn't need to be aggressive or impose his will in a ham-fisted manner. Half a dozen people are floating around the studio, ready to read any sign of need or impatience on his part. He's cooperative and congenial in the way that only someone who knows he can immediately put an end to any experience that moves in an unpleasant direction can be. "Jay-Hova," he has called himself, echoing the name of the mighty, vengeful God of the Hebrew Bible. He has anointed himself the "God MC." But he has also rapped that he "never prayed to God/I prayed to Gotti." Perhaps there is a distinction to be drawn between Jay-Z, the battle MC who to this day engages in raw exchanges with younger rappers looking to take him down, and Shawn Corey Carter, the far-sighted businessman who cofounded his own label, Roc-A-Fella Records, in 1996; who served as president and CEO of Def Jam Records from 2005 to early 2008 and helped launch the careers of Kanye West, Young Jeezy, and Rihanna; who sold his Rocawear clothing line in 2007 for $204 million, while retaining a major stake in the company; and who, following a path blazed by Madonna and U2, forged a $150 million deal in 2008 with the concert-promotion firm Live Nation. In 2009, Forbes ranked Jay-Z No. 32 on its "Celebrity 100" list of the ultrafamous and ultrapowerful. The magazine estimated his annual income at $82 million, and other sources have reported his net worth at $350 million. If that doesn't seem enviable enough, in 2008 Jay-Z married Beyonce Knowles, one of the world's most desirable women. It is part of his attitude of ultimate cool that he never publicly talks about her. Jay-Z moves in exclusive circles of all types. Musicians, actors, designers, politicians, captains of industry, and athletes all want to get next to him. He has developed an easygoing manner that enables him to cross these cultural boundaries in ways that make him seem accessible but still dignified, always aware of who he is. "I'm a mirror," he says. "If you're cool with me, I'm cool with you, and the exchange starts. What you see is what you reflect. If you don't like what you see, then you've done something. If I'm standoffish, that's because you are." Occasionally, stereotypes rear their heads and uncomfortable situations arise. "It's hilarious a lot of times," he says. "You have a conversation with someone, and he's like, 'You speak so well!' I'm like, 'What do you mean? Do you understand that's an insult?'" Growing up, however, Shawn Carter was far from the likeliest candidate for this sort of mind-boggling success. He was always recognized as bright--even today, the first word anyone who meets Jay-Z invariably uses to describe him is smart--and in the sixth grade, he tested at 12th-grade levels. But the Marcy Projects in Brooklyn were overrun by drugs and violence in the '80s. His father left the family when Carter was 11, and his mother had to raise him, his older brother, and his two older sisters. When he was 12, Carter shot his brother for stealing his jewelry. (They have since reconciled.) Carter attended high school with fellow Brooklynites the Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes, but dropped out to deal drugs in a region that extended from Brooklyn to Maryland and Virginia--as he details in his music--and to dabble in the still-nascent hip-hop game. Along with the dealers who ran the neighborhood around the Marcy Projects, Jay-Z remembers identifying sports figures as his first models of success. "Growing up where I grew up, we looked to athletes," he recalls. "They were our first heroes. They came from the same places we came from. I mean, you can't watch TV and see someone who is successful that you can really relate to. That person isn't real, he doesn't exist. But athletes traveled the world, had these big houses, and gave their families a better life. We were like, 'Wow, that's really cool.' These guys get paid millions of dollars to play the game they love." 
 
 Around the same time that he began to identify with athletes, Carter experienced another revelation: hip-hop. He began writing nonstop in notebooks, keeping his mother and siblings awake at night as he pounded the kitchen table to create beats. He hooked up with local rapper Jaz-O, who brought him to England when he toured there. Carter recorded with Jaz-O and also with Big Daddy Kane. But despite the acknowledgment of his skills (and his growing anxiety that either violence or the law would eventually catch up with him on the streets), Carter was reluctant to give up dealing. He was rolling in a Lexus and making more money, as far as he could tell, than most rappers. Still, he decided to take the plunge, but no record company was willing to offer him a contract. So with two partners, Carter formed Roc-A-Fella Records, and, in 1996, released his debut album, Reasonable Doubt, which established him as a major figure on the hip-hop scene. It was a heady moment, but Jay-Z barely realized it at the time. "I was naive," he recalls. "I made that album to impress my friends, so they would say, 'Oh, wow, look what you did!' It was my first album on the label that we owned. I was like, 'Okay, what happens now?'" What happened was that Jay-Z left drug dealing behind and began to build his empire, moving steadily from "grams to Grammys" as he puts it in one song. But the process wasn't easy. The treachery of life on the streets, where he faced bullets at close range, turned out to be nothing compared with what he would encounter in the upper echelons of the music business. "I come from a world that's completely different from the music industry, and it wasn't recognizable to me at all," he says. "I come from a place where you had to keep your word, where people would stick with you no matter what. That's impossible in the music business, where if you're not hot, people are not talking to you. I just tried to be a man of my word." The choice of Roc-A-Fella as his label's name would prove telling. On one hand, it's standard hip-hop braggadocio to establish a connection between a fledgling rapper and one of the richest and most powerful families in American history. But it also suggested the means through which Jay-Z would eventually establish his own business empire. The Rockefeller family and other 19th-century industrialists established a monopolistic hold on all aspects of the goods they produced. If you owned the mines that produced coal, for example, you also bought the railroads that transported it, the refineries that prepared it for market, and the utilities that provided its end product to the general population. As Jay-Z's career has progressed in the past dozen years, he has sought to establish a similar hold on the lifestyle market for which his music provides the soundtrack, and in which he stands as the ideal model to emulate. Rather than providing anything as tangible as coal or oil, Jay-Z, through his myriad branded investments, manufactures a way of being that makes it at least theoretically possible to never leave the world of his products. You can enjoy his music while sporting Rocawear clothing (estimated as doing $700 million a year in business), wearing one of his fragrances, and sipping his Ace of Spades champagne. You can attend his concert and end the night at one of his 40/40 nightclubs. His videos, DVDs, and CD booklets provide free exposure for all of his products, all of which, in turn, enhance every other aspect of the Jay-Z brand. The question then becomes how, with all this marketing and glossy brand extension, does Jay-Z maintain the credibility in the hip-hop world that made him such a marketable star in the first place? "We are excited to partner with an industry giant such as Elizabeth Arden," Jay-Z declared in the press release announcing his fragrance line, which made its debut last year. No matter how deeply you've absorbed the potency of Jay-Z's mainstream reach, that sentence still makes you do a double take. This is the man who took the film American Gangster as the inspiration for his most recent album? Jigga what? But Jay-Z believes deeply in the aspirational power of hip-hop, the notion that the music's truest fans want to see their heroes succeed and want to emulate them. He draws a sharp distinction between hip-hop and rock 'n' roll, whose stars have often expressed disdain for business and success. "I noticed that difference early on, like if you were successful in rock 'n' roll, that was a really bad thing," Jay-Z says with a laugh. "You almost had to hide it. You had these guys selling 200 million records with dirty T-shirts on. I was like, 'Come on, man. Come on. We know you're successful.' "Hip-hop is more about attaining wealth," he continues. "People respect success. They respect big. They don't even have to like your music. If you're big enough, people are drawn to you." Consequently, any discussion of credibility, or keeping it real, elicits a response of disbelief from him. "That's an insecure emotion," he explains. "You make your first album, you make some money, and you feel like you still have to show face, like 'I still go to the projects.' I'm like, why? Your job is to inspire people from your neighborhood to get out. You grew up there. What makes you think it's so cool?" Of course, Jay-Z has not been immune to those insecurities himself. In 1999, he was arrested for stabbing a record executive in a New York club, and in 2001, he was charged with possession of a loaded handgun. Against his lawyer's advice, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge in the stabbing case and was sentenced to three years' probation. The gun charge was dropped. 
 
 It's generally thought that those brushes with potential incarceration cured Jay-Z of the need to prove that he could still live the thug life. He has rapped about both of those arrests ("Put that knife in ya/Take a little bit of life from ya/Am I frightenin' ya?"), but has shown no further inclination to transform his words into deeds that would put an end to the extraordinary life he has created for himself. In fact, quite the opposite. He has been baited relentlessly by other rappers--Nas, to cite just one example, taunted "Gay-Z" for his "dick-suckin' lips"--and has responded in kind, but only in song. In real life, he has taken steps to ease those rivalries and ensure that tragedies such as the killings of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. never happen again. That's because too much is at stake now, far more than money or bling. Now in his fifth decade, Jay-Z is old enough to think about the cultural impact that hip-hop has already had, and the critical role he has played in it. "Hip-hop has done so much for racial relations, and I don't think it's given the proper credit," he says. "It has changed America immensely. I'm going to make a very bold statement: Hip-hop has done more than any leader, politician, or anyone to improve race relations. "I'll explain why I say that," he continues. "Racism is taught in the home. We agree on that? Well, it's very hard to teach racism to a teenager who's listening to rap music and who idolizes, say, Snoop Dogg. It's hard to say, 'That guy is less than you.' The kid is like, 'I like that guy, he's cool. How is he less than me?' That's why this generation is the least racist generation ever. You see it all the time. Go to any club. People are intermingling, hanging out, having fun, enjoying the same music. Hip-hop is not just in the Bronx anymore. It's worldwide. Everywhere you go, people are listening to hip-hop and partying together. Hip-hop has done that." He pauses, as if marveling at the idea, and then repeats it for emphasis: "Hip-hop has done that." Something else that hip-hop has done, in Jay-Z's view, is help to elect Barack Obama. "Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther King could walk, and Martin walked so Obama could run," Jay-Z told a concert audience in the crucial swing state of Ohio shortly before the November election. "Obama is running so we all can fly, so let's fly." He recorded a get-out-the-vote message for robo calls to African-American voters during the primaries. Perhaps even more extraordinarily, after a particularly heated primary debate, Obama brushed off Hillary Clinton's attacks with a gesture of wiping lint off the shoulders of his suit, and hip observers recognized an unmistakable reference to Jay-Z's song, "Dirt Off Your Shoulder." 
 
 Jay-Z's eyes widen as he recalls that moment. "I felt like, man, what time are we living in, where a presidential nominee is making reference to a rapper?" he says. "What a beautiful place we've come to. Growing up, politics never trickled down to the areas we come from. But people from Obama's camp, and Obama himself, reached out to me and asked for my help on the campaign. We've sat and had dinner, and we've spoken on the phone. He's a very sharp guy. Very charming. Very cool. "It's surreal," continues Jay-Z. "I couldn't imagine anything like that could happen. I didn't vote until I was an older adult. I didn't think I would ever vote, because it didn't matter who was in office. The situation never changed where we lived. Our voices weren't heard." Jay-Z walks idly around the studio as crew members break down the set for his photo shoot. He's rapping along with a hip-hop track that's blasting in the room. When the sound system abruptly shuts off, Jay-Z continues rapping and moving to the music, like Wile E. Coyote in the moment before he looks down and realizes that he has run off the cliff. Jay-Z catches himself, looks around the room in mock surprise, and laughs. It's the sort of self-deprecating gesture he's good at, acknowledging that all eyes are on him, but humorously taking the edge off whatever intimidation factor his presence might have. That's a quality he brings into the boardroom as well. He's far from just a figurehead or a media front man. He takes his businesses as seriously as his artistry, and he goes at both with the same level of determination. He's clear about his own views, willing to listen to others, eager to keep everybody loose and motivated, and far more interested in long-term strategy than short-term gain. Even in the current economic environment, which is challenging to say the least, he's insistent on executing his game plan rather than making changes that might not ultimately be right for his brands. "He's smart as hell," says Neil Cole, chairman and CEO of the Iconix Brand Group, the company that bought Rocawear two years ago for more than $200 million. "He understands himself as a brand, and it's incredibly well thought out. We meet every week, and there's nothing impulsive about him. He's very consistent, and he won't settle. If something's not right, he's not going to do it for more money. He'll wait to get it right. He has a wonderful taste level about where he wants to take the brand. . .and himself." Michael Rapino, the president and CEO of Live Nation, echoes Cole's assessment of Jay-Z. "In meeting with superstars about potential deals, there are some who spit out 'How much can I get?' and the meeting is over, because you know you're starting out on the wrong basis," he says. "When we sat down with Jay-Z, 'How much money are you going to pay me?' came up in maybe the seventh conversation. The first conversation was, 'Can we change the business together?' ||||| There's big business in booze – and celebs know that too! We're breaking down which stars are mixing it up with their very own alcohol brands. 
 
 1. In early 2014, Justin Timberlake developed a brand of Sauza Tequila called "901" – the name is inspired by his hometown area code in Memphis and "the time of night things start to get interesting." Hey-yo! 
 
 2. George Clooney's in the tequila business too! He helped develop "Casamigos" tequila with close friends Rande Gerber and Mike Meldman after an inspired trip to Mexico. In fact, the viral ad has George waking up next to Rande's wife, supermodel Cindy Crawford, inspired by a real-life mix up! 
 
 3. Fergie has her own line of flavored low-calorie vodkas "Voli Vodka." So you can enjoy a cocktail guilt-free at the end of the day! The line comes in six flavors: Original Lyte, lemon, orange vanilla, pear vanilla, raspberry cocoa and espresso vanilla. 
 
 4. Sean "Diddy" Combs famously partnered with Cîroc. The entrepreneur could very well be a future billionaire should the popular vodka brand ever sell. The spirit's value is estimated to be worth $1 billion. 
 
 5. Is there anything Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie can't do? Brangie's 2012 wine was the only rosé on Wine Spectator Magazine’s list of 100 best wines, effectively crowning it the best rosé in the world! Their brand of wine is called "Miraval" – if that sounds 
 
 familiar, yes! That's the same location the couple wed in August. 
 
 
 
 NEWS: Brad and Angelina Wed in France 
 
 6. Drew Barrymore is also in the wine business, inspired by her travels through Italy to develop "Barrymore Wines" – her very own brand of Pinot Grigot! Where my girl, Drew? 
 
 7. Bethenny Frankel went from reality TV star to millionaire mogul when she developed and sold her famous line of "Skinnygirl Cocktails," which she ultimately sold for multi-millions in 2011. And now she's doing what she does best by expanding the brand into low calorie snacks. 
 
 8. Country music star Kenny Chesney launched his own premium rum line called "Blue Chair Bay." The beverage was prominently featured in Chesney's No Shoes Nation Tour and has boosted the singer's already triumphant status in the country world. 
 
 9. Even Hanson has dabbled in the biz! The now grown-up '90s boy band created their very own brand of beer, cleverly named… "Mmmhops!" Get it?
– Being rich doesn't always accompany being famous, especially when living a rock star lifestyle, but a handful of A-list musicians have managed to turn their celebrity into successful business ventures: Jessica Simpson: You wouldn't expect a pop singer/reality star who didn't know the difference between chicken and tuna to morph into a fashion mogul, but that's the case of Jessica Simpson. She recently sold a 50% stake in her empire of clothing, shoes, and bags that's said to be worth more than $1 billion. Jay Z: The music mogul once rapped: "I’m not a businessman / I’m a business, man!" The rapper now can count clothing, sports bars, liquor, fragrances, a basketball team, and a music streaming service among his many ventures. Gwen Stefani: The No Doubt vocalist once sang of being "just a girl," but in addition to her solo career and gig on The Voice, she has managed to create a fashion company reportedly worth more than $90 million. Justin Timberlake: The former boy band singer has his hand in many businesses including a clothing line, record label, restaurant, basketball team, and most recently, his own brand of tequila. Gene Simmons: The KISS singer and bassist is reportedly worth more than $300 million, thanks to his role as the band's finance manager and his idea to license tons of merchandise. "Life is business, and I approach life the way sharks approach life—they must keep moving or else they will drown," he recently said in an interview. Click to read about 15 celebrity businesses that went belly up.