ow many times did jay z the black album go platinum

I think it's like anything else: sure, you can find good, inexpensive cigars, but the things that are really good are the ones that cost. One of my first favorites was Dunhills, when I first started smoking them.

'But I like a bit of everything: Romeo y Julieta, Partagas. 'I like Montecristos-those are probably some of my favorites,' Jay-Z says, referring to Cuban versions of that brand. Though he can name the most expensive bottle of wine or shot of Cognac he's ever had, he can't name the most expensive cigar he's ever smoked.

He settles his lanky 6-foot-2 frame into a comfortable-looking straight-back chair and savors the cigar. On this day, Jay-Z, who has been a GQ Man of the Year, is in relaxed mode: a black sweater, white T-shirt, jeans and sneakers, along with Urkel-ish black-frame glasses. Perhaps most significantly, there's a black-and-white portrait of the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, arguably the first African American to conquer the serious art world with a hip-hop sensibility. The walls are dotted with photographs, which make their own statement about his place in the world and the pantheon in which he sees himself: a row of images by photographer Herb Ritts of supermodels Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford (all of whom are friends of Jay-Z) a famous picture of the Beatles and Muhammad Ali a photo of the Rat Pack-Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. A large flat-screen TV on one wall is tuned silently to CNN. There's a sitting area with couches and an elaborate coffee table, on which are piled art books on the work of Ed Ruscha and Damien Hirst. His office, with its 39th-floor views of Times Square and the East Side of Manhattan, is sprawling: bigger than most New York apartments and lavishly tasteful, with massive mahogany pieces dominating two walls and a large desk holding down one end of the room. 'If I'm in New York, I'm mainly here,' Jay-Z says. The clothing company occupies the better part of two floors of a mammoth office building in the Garment District. Call it the nerve center for a dynasty: his office at Rocawear, the urban clothing concern he cofounded in 1996 as an adjunct to his fledgling Roc-A-Fella Records. This room, however, is impressive enough. The true castle, the one he shares with his queen, singer Beyoncé Knowles, is a massive penthouse in Tribeca. After all, this is the king in his castle-or at least the business version of it.

Yes, Manhattan has strict no-smoking laws. Then he exhales a cloud of smoke with an air of satisfaction-right there in his New York City office. He trims the end and fires it up with a palm-sized blowtorch lighter covered in black reptile skin of some sort. Shawn Carter-best known to the world at large as Jay-Z, rap megastar and reigning monarch of hip-hop-extracts a Zino Platinum Crown Series Rocket from its sci-fi-sleek metal tube.

Ow many times did jay z the black album go platinum