Regardless if you like Jay Z the rapper, you have to admire his business acumen and the global influence he yields in business and hip hop. As he has said in his verses, “I’m not a business man, i’m a business, man. Let me handle my business.”

Handling his business is definitely what he has been up to the last 20 plus years.

This past week was nothing different. Jay Z was exerting his vision, power and influence on the world and the stock market shook as a result.

Last month, Jay Z bought the controlling interest in a company called Aspiro for $54 million dollars. Many people didn’t notice or pay attention to the purchase until he launched a music streaming service owned by Aspiro last week called Tidal, a music streaming service ran with other celebrities involved as well.

The day the stock Tidal was announced, the shares of stock jumped a whopping 938%.

From Reuters:

In what appeared to reflect investors clamouring too late for a piece of Aspiro’s music streaming service Tidal, the shares were up 938 percent at 11 Swedish crowns just before trading was halted …

The event is likely to have spurred interest in Aspiro’s stock, lifting it to a level where buyers looked set to face losses of some 90 percent given the looming squeeze-out of the rump left after Jay-Z’s $54 million acquisition of the company. Those remaining shares will be bought at 1.05 crowns each.

The share rise happened so quickly, the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm exchange halted trading on the stock. They were worried there was some manipulation in the market and something might have been off. It is an important measure to take when stocks skyrocket like this.

Eventually, things normalized as the hype died down and the speculators were out of the stock. It pulled back and closed 63% lower on Wednesday than the high on Tuesday, but the statement had already been made.

Jay Z has global influence and people with big money are watching his every move. Clearly, he is a business.

SOUND OFF: What do you think of Jay Z’s global business influence outside of just hip hop and in the world of big money? Is he a business?

Source: Business Insider