Jay-Z And Beyoncé are now worth $1.255 Billion and counting

Entertainers can be prone to exaggeration, particularly when it comes to wealth. In 2012, Wiz Khalifa told Forbes he'd earn $100 million that year (he went on to make $9 million). Rick Ross titled his 2014 album Hood Billionaire (he is worth less than $100 million). And Donald Trump has been telling whoppers about his net worth to this publication since the early 1980s. But Beyoncé? She seems to be right on the money. 

"My great-great-grandchildren already rich," the songstress explains on "Boss," the third track on Everything Is Love, her new album with husband Jay-Z. "That's a lot of brown children on your Forbes list."

Beyoncé and Jay-Z's descendants will indeed be wealthy: The couple is already worth an estimated $1.255 billion as of this week's launch of another Forbes list, America's Richest Self-Made Women, with Beyoncé's clocking in at $355 million to Jay-Z's $900 million.

The two superstars have built their fortune in different ways. Beyoncé tends to move more records and can draw larger crowds on her own than her husband, allowing her to frequently flirt with the $100 million mark in terms of pretax annual earnings. Jay-Z has created his empire by starting his own companies or buying pieces of others: He paid $56 million to purchase streaming service Tidal two years ago; Sprint's subsequent investment valued the company at $600 million.

Music's first couple, of course, has synergy to rival the savviest corporate merger. Beyoncé, who also owns a chunk of Tidal, initially made her landmark album Lemonade available exclusively on the streaming service; Jay-Z did the same with last year's 4:44, and the duo repeated the strategy with Everything With Love earlier this summer to drive subscribers to the service.

Perhaps to further benefit their children, and great-great-grandchildren, the pair are hitting the road rather than spend the whole summer on vacation (though they did have some time to stop for a jet ski session, apparently). Their latest stadium tour, On The Run II, is projected to gross as much as $200 million--and perhaps more--over 48 dates.

"I don't have that ego where I have to be the only guy on the bill," Jay-Z presciently told Forbes in 2010. "I'm cool with going out with other artists. I've been doing it my entire career."

Between their nine-figure combined annual earnings and savvy asset accumulation, which includes real estate in East Hampton and Bel Air purchased last year, Beyoncé and Jay-Z's fortune should continue to grow. And there's every reason to believe their great-great-grandchildren will be rich--perhaps enough to follow their forebears onto one of our lists--especially if the aforementioned exaggerator-in-chief gets his way and abolishes the estate tax.

forbes.com