Happy birthday Jay-Z, who turns 50 today. For his 40^th, Beyoncé bought him a £1.75m Bugatti, so the chances are his garage has swelled further this morning. He’s come a long way from the off-white Lexus from which he used to hustle drugs and his CDs in the mid-90s, and that profiled traffic stop described in “99 Problems”. Today he’s a billionaire mogul and has the prestige marques to match…

Lexus GS300 (1993)

“Cruising down 8^th Street, off-white Lexus” was how Jay-Z distributed his debut album, Reasonable Doubt, back in 1996, selling copies out of his car in Brooklyn. These were modest beginnings, but the GS300 was a sign of Shawn Corey Carter’s ambition. It wasn’t the music that paid for that ride, it was the narcotics the 27-year-old was hawking across the borough. “At some point, you have to have an exit strategy, because your window is very small,” he’s said about drug dealing. “You’re going to get locked up or you’re going to die.” It was some exit strategy. And once his rap career blew up he formed Roc-A-Fella Records and invested in legit businesses, quickly upgrading the Lex. Still, it starred in the video for Dead Presidents in 1996 and in 2006, on the ten-year anniversary of Reasonable Doubt, he drove onto the stage at Radio City Music Hall in a GS300.

Ferrari F430 Spider (2005)

Jay-Z loved this Ferrari so much he cast it in his 2006 video for “Show Me What You Got”, directed by F Gary Grey (he also drove a 348 Spider in the video for 1996’s “Ain’t No N****”). Set around the Monaco Grand Prix circuit, Jay hands the driving duties over to a hired hand, one Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale’s rap credentials are unknown, but he has won the Daytona 500 twice. The F430 is well suited to Monte Carlo’s twists and turns thanks to its sweet mid-engined handling and 483bhp V8 grunt. Ferrari has form on the Principality’s roads, winning the Monaco GP ten times since 1952.

Pagani Zonda F (2006)

Earnhardt Jr and Jay-Z weren’t alone on the F1 track when shooting “Show Me What You Got”. They shared the streets with the first lady of IndyCar, Danica Patrick, driving a drop-top manual Pagani Zonda. And, once again, its owner was Mr S Carter of Tribeca, NYC. The F in the Zonda’s nomenclature stands for Fangio, who won the Monaco GP twice during his storied career. The F was the biggest update Pagani had made to the supercar since it was launched in 1999, pushing the 7.3 litre AMG V12 up to 641bhp. Just 25 were built, making this one of the most valuable cars in Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s garage.

Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport (2010)

Miami Herald

The 253mph Bugatti Veyron is arguably the car that first coined the term “hypercar”. It’s powered by a breathtakingly over-engineered quad-turbo 8.0 W16 that churns out 1,190bhp. Jay’s £1.75m Veyron was a 40^th birthday present from his wife. Hova bought Queen B a 1959 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II Drophead for her 25^th, so maybe the Veyron was a thank you. It’s provided the rapper with plenty of material, like on “Heaven”: “He’s 6’2”, how the **** he fit in a new Bugatti? Aw, **** it, you got me.”

Maybach Exelero (2004)

Maybach’s not only provide acres of legroom and silky V12s, they scan really well in rap lyrics. The car is a recurring theme in Jay-Z’s songs, and he joined forces with Rick Ross on the track “Maybach Music”. “Realest shit I ever wrote, chillin’ in my Maybach; eight-track episodes, been doing this since way back”. At one point, the hip-hop mogul owned both the stretched 62S (also Kim Jong-Un’s preferred transport) and the shorter wheelbase 57S. He and Kanye West ended up butchering a 2004 Maybach 57 for their Grammy-winning music video “Otis”, customised to the max with the doors remounted as wings, the front grille stuck to the back, and an oversized fire-spitting exhaust.

Rolls-Royce Phantom VIII (2017)

Martyn Goddard

Maybachs are rather passé these days. Hip-hop royalty has returned to the Rolls-Royce Phantom following the release of the eighth itineration in 2017. This spectacularly well-crafted automobile features its own art gallery above the glove compartment, and uses a stereo camera to scan the road ahead and electronically prepare the suspension for any bumps. As Hove rhymes on “No Hook”: “Rolls-Royce keep my movements smooth while manoeuvring through all the manure and the sewer that I grew up in.”

Bentley Continental GT (2018)

In 1998, for the cover of his album Vol.2… Hard Knock Life, Jay-Z had photographer Jonathan Mannion shot him in front of Marcy Projects where he grew up posing with a new Bentley Azure convertible. He’d finally made it, and Bentley’s have remained dear to him ever since. Most recently, he got himself the current Continental GT and reminisced about the old days on the 4:44 track “Smile”: “Slammin’ Bentley doors like we invented doors, 20 years ago we drove Bentley Azures.” 

Dartz Prombron (2012)

Perfect for “Big Pimpin’”, the Dartz Prombron is an armoured SUV built in Latvia which first attracted controversy by being available upholstered with whale foreskins. At just under £1m it was priced to set the record for the world’s most expensive 4×4, in part due to the materials which include Mississippi alligator, white gold, diamonds and rubies, as well as bullet-proof windows, an exhaust made from tungsten, and Kevlar exterior coating which will withstand AK47 fire and a rocket attack. Given Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s wealth and profile, they’re not taking any risks with their security.