Rap mogul Jay-Z is one of the most famous celebrities New York has ever produced.
The Brooklyn native is well known for the love he has for his borough and even hit big with Alicia Keys on the duet “Empire State of Mind,” an ode to the city, taken from his classic album The Blueprint 3.
However, Jay is no longer a resident of the “Empire State” aka New York.
Jay-Z is an official resident of California. He has no plans of moving from the state, where he resides with his superstar wife Beyonce and their three children, Blue Ivy, Sir, and Rumi.
“I intend to keep my primary residence in Los Angeles, California, and do not intend to move my primary residence to another state. I pay California state taxes. In light of these facts, I consider myself to be domiciled in Los Angeles, California,” Jay-Z confirmed.
Jay-Z, born Sean Carter, made the declaration in his ongoing lawsuit with photographer Jonathan Mannion.
Mannion, who shot the cover for Jay-Z’s epic 1996 debut album Reasonable Doubt, is being sued by the rap star for using his name image, and likeness without permission.
Jay-Z says he asked Mannion to stop selling his image on prints, shirts turntable mats, and other merchandise, but the photographer demanded tens of millions of dollars to stop.
Mannion claims that the First Amendment protects his rights to sell the photography since he owns the copyrights to the images.
As for his living situation, Jay-Z still maintains a footprint in the state of New York.
In September of 2017, Jay-Z and Beyonce dropped a whopping $26 million on a seven-bedroom seven and a half bathroom home in East Hampton, New York.
The same year, the couple bought a mansion in Bel Air, California for an astounding $88 million. The Bel-Air estate is Jay-Z’s primary residence.
They also own a mansion in New Orleans, which recently caught on fire, and a 25,000 square-foot mansion in Houston.
Jay-Z also owns the largest cannabis company in the state he now calls home, with the launch of The Parent Company, which owns his cannabis brand, Monogram.
In May of 2021, The Parent Company revealed they were ramping up to produce 900,000 pounds of “high-quality, low-cost, California-grown cannabis” for use across the company’s portfolio of products.
And his Roc Nation business has offices in Los Angeles, New York, and London.
