People divided as billionaire Jay-Z opens up on not giving money to his family 'for free'

Jay-Z has got people divided after making comments about not giving money to a cousin who had approached him asking for help.

The rapper, who is worth a staggering $2.5 billion, was being interviewed by Kevin Hart on his talk show Hart to Heart and spoke about the difficulties of relatives asking him for money when he goes home for the holidays.

Jay-Z explained that he wanted to go home to be with his family and as a sanctuary, and it made him uncomfortable when cousins approached him at family gatherings to ask him to help them out with a venture.

One such occasion saw a cousin ask the musician for $4,800, claiming that he could turn it into $2 million.

Jay-Z, who shares three children with wife Beyonce, explained how he had said no, and was frustrated by the response that he didn't 'believe in their dream'.

It's worth noting that having a net worth of a certain amount doesn't mean that you have that much cash on hand. It means the total value of all the assets that a person owns such as properties, trusts, and business shares.

So not all of that wealth would necessarily be immediately available.

But this is $2.5 billion we're talking about here, so it's safe to say that Jay-Z isn't exactly short a few bucks while he's out and about.

Hart to Heart/Peacock

And needless to say people were very divided in the comments.

One person drew attention to just how big a billion is compared to a million, saying: "Jay Z has 2.5 billion dollars, his cousin asked for 4800 and he said no. To put that into perspective, that’d be the equivalent of someone who made 50,000 a year being asked to give a dime."

And another wrote: "Other rappers make millions so they’re family can live happy, he made millions and still wants his cousin to struggle."

But others were less sympathetic to the cousin.

One wrote: "I get it’s an insignificant amount in the grand scheme, but just giving the money away don’t ever really help.

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"Jay-Z is a business man, I’m sure if his cousins plan was solid he would have been more than happy to invest, but sometimes ppl just be on that “bro trust me” sh*t."

Another said: "The problem is once you say yes that first time, they always think they can come back to you for more. And it also makes the people around them feel more comfortable asking as well. They become dependent and it’s a very slippery slope."

To finish, a fun fact about having enormous amounts of money in the bank - If you have $1 million in a savings account with a fairly standard interest rate like 4%, you get $40,000 in interest a year for doing precisely nothing. Must be nice.