The Jay-Z

Shawn Corey Carter, better known by his hip-hop alias Jay-Z, turns 40 in December. In rap terms, the big Four-O is an unheard of milestone. After all, this is a genre where most careers expire in one's 20s, and that's if they manage to avoid getting shot first.

Then again, not every artist -- let alone rapper -- has notched up a staggering record of 10 number one US albums. Amazingly, this puts Jay-Z ahead of Elvis Presley. This weekend's release of his 11th album, The Blueprint 3, should see him catch up with the Beatles.

Part of his enormous appeal and unprecedented success is that Jay-Z is the rap star it's okay for rock and indie fans to like. This was underlined in spectacular style by a show-stealing headline performance at last year's Glastonbury festival.

The booking was one of the most controversial in the event's history. "I'm sorry but Jay-Z? No chance," complained Noel Gallagher.

At Glastonbury, Jay-Z ingeniously turned Gallagher's whining on its head to set the stage for his show. A video intro spliced soundbites and samples of world leaders and personalities as if they were all talking about the Glasto furore. Taking to the stage playing a cheeky cover of Oasis's 'Wonderwall', his set literally exploded into life with his blistering rap/rock crossover signature tune, '99 Problems'. Jay-Z came, saw, and comprehensively conquered.

Noel Gallagher mightn't be a fan, but Oprah Winfrey, Bono, and even US President Barack Obama dig Jay-Z. Obama even imitated his shoulder-brushing move from his song 'Dirt Off Your Shoulder' in a heated 2008 exchange with Hillary Clinton. Being referenced by the president is a long, long, way from his tough upbringing in the Marcy Project in Brooklyn.

His proteges are Kanye West, Rihanna and Ne-Yo, three of the biggest names in modern rap and pop. "In the music business most people have one artist under their name that they live off of for the rest of their life," he recently reflected. "I took an artist a year: Kanye, Ne-Yo and Rihanna. That's way past my quota."

Jay also runs a fashion label (Rocawear), owns sports bars, hotels and the New Jersey Nets basketball team. Rather than seeing it as diversification, he views all this as part and parcel of music and its lifestyle.

Like 50 Cent, Jay-Z is candid about his previous career as a drug dealer.