Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Russell Simmons, Damon Dash.

What do these four men have in common? They are all African-American, self-made business moguls who each have a net worth of well over $200MM (almost $500MM in Russell Simmons’ case). Each has used the fame and money they made in the world of hip-hop and parlayed it into huge business empires that include record labels, clothing companies, restaurants, film subsidiaries, beverage brands, and magazines to name a few.

As a result of their success, they each have tremendous influence in the hip-hop community and, as a result, tremendous influence over a large percentage of America’s youth, especially African-American youth. Because of the image that is portrayed by the music, music videos, and other media in the hip-hop world, a lot of kids might conclude that the two best ways to become rich and successful is by becoming either a sports star or a recording artist.

How cool would it be if Jay-Z announced that he was going to use his money to start investing in technology. Let’s say for starters, a fund called Roc-A-Tech that focused on investments in consumer-oriented technology ventures started by young African-American engineers. How cool would that be? The reason why I said “consumer-oriented” is because these ventures would leverage the fame of Jay-Z and friends in the company’s marketing efforts. That’s a huge advantage in itself. If done right, it would be a win for everyone. The fund would further add to Jay-Z’s wealth. But more importantly, he would send a powerful message to the hip-hop community: Science is cool. Entrepreneurship is cool. Use it to get where I am.

I can’t think of any group of four individuals who, through their personal image and business-activities, have more influence on such a large, diverse chunk of America’s youth. They certainly have the money and pull to do it. And they definitely have demonstrated the entrepreneurial spirit to do it as well. Besides, how many Sand Hill venture capitalists can say that they went from being a struggling drug dealer in NYC housing projects to having a net worth of $320MM in less than 15 years?