Rapper swag Zuck has gone too far

Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg celebrated his 40th birthday on May 14, 2024.

@zuck via Instagram

Silicon Valley, it’s time you noticed how one of your boys is looking more and more like a Rap God.Mark Zuckerberg showed up to his 40th birthday bash in what looked like an Eminem-inspired outfit.The billionaire has been wearing similar rapper-style outfits in recent public appearances.

Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems to really love channeling his inner Eminem — but how much rapper Zuck is too much rapper Zuck?

Zuckerberg celebrated his 40th birthday on Tuesday with friends and family. He was seen donning a rapper-style outfit, complete with a gold chain and an oversized T-shirt.

“Grateful for my first 40 years! Priscilla threw me a little party and recreated a bunch of places I lived in the early days,” Zuckerberg wrote in an Instagram post that included multiple photographs of the birthday bash organized by his wife, Priscilla Chan.

Besides the gold chain, the billionaire’s black shirt had the Latin phrase “Carthago delenda est” emblazoned on it.

The phrase is commonly associated with a Roman politician, Cato the Elder, who is said to have uttered it at the end of his speeches as a call to arms.

In fact, Zuckerberg himself quoted the phrase back in 2011 after Google launched its own social media platform, Google Plus. Zuckerberg declared a state of “lockdown” and rallied his employees against the rival social network.

“You know, one of my favorite Roman orators ended every speech with the phrase Carthago delenda est. ‘Carthage must be destroyed.’ For some reason, I think of that now,” Zuckerberg said then, per an excerpt from “Chaos Monkeys,” a book written by an ex-Facebook employee.

The Latin-inscribed shirt is also in line with Zuckerberg’s own intellectual interests.

Zuckerberg has a long-standing interest in the Roman Empire and studied Latin in high school. He also named all three of his daughters — Maxima, August, and Aurelia — after Roman emperors.

Zuckerberg wasn’t the only one trying to unleash his inner rapper. His spouse, Chan, showed up in a matching outfit — wearing a plain white t-shirt and a pair of gold chains.

“Here’s to the next 40!” Zuckerberg signed off at the end of his post.

This isn’t the first time Zuckerberg has put on a rapper-style outfit. He had a similar get-up on April 13, when he took his wife to a UFC 300 event.

Then, just a week later on April 18, Zuckerberg would make a similar fashion choice when he announced Meta’s latest AI products.

This time, Zuckerberg paired his chain necklace with a navy blue t-shirt.

Zuckerberg’s evolving fashion sense appears to be part of an emerging trend amongst business executives to be more flamboyant with their outfit choices.

While the late Apple founder Steve Jobs might have been happy with his black turtlenecks, tech titans like Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos are now busy experimenting with the “mob chic” aesthetic with their wives.

But Zuckerberg’s fashion glow-up isn’t just about touting his rapper swag and sensibilities. In recent years, the social media mogul has also demonstrated a newfound focus on his looks and dressing in what appears to be his bid to appear more relatable.

Besides getting adventurous with his clothing style, Zuckerberg got swole when he picked up mixed martial arts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When Zuckerberg traveled to Japan this year, he ditched his uniform of gray t-shirts and hoodies for a shearling brown jacket.

He would later trade that coat for Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s black leather jacket when the pair met in March.

“Jersey swap,” Zuckerberg said of his meeting with Huang in an Instagram post.

Representatives for Zuckerberg at Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.