Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally asJAY-Z (formerly stylized as Jay-Z, Jay Zand Jaÿ-Z), is an American rapper and businessman. He is one of the best-selling musicians of all time, having sold more than 100 million records, while receiving 21Grammy Awards for his music. MTVranked him the "Greatest MC of all time" in 2006. Rolling Stone ranked three of his albums—Reasonable Doubt (1996), The Blueprint (2001), and The Black Album (2003)—among The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2017, Forbes estimated his net worth at $810 million, making him the second-richest hip hop artist in the U.S.
Jay-Z owns the New York 40/40 Club sports bar, and is the co-creator of the clothing lineRocawear. He is the former president ofDef Jam Recordings, co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records, and the founder of the entertainment company Roc Nation. He also founded the sports agency Roc Nation Sportsand is a certified NBA and MLB sports agent. As an artist, he holds the record for most number one albums by a solo artist on theBillboard 200 with 13. He has also had four number ones on the Billboard Hot 100, one ("Empire State of Mind") as lead artist. In 2009, he was ranked the tenth-most successful artist of the 2000s by Billboard as well as the fifth top solo male artist and fourth top rapper behind Eminem, Nelly, and50 Cent. He was also ranked the 88th-greatest artist of all time by Rolling Stone.
Jay-Z married singer/actress Beyoncé in 2008. As a couple, they have an estimated combined net worth of $1.16 billion.
EARLY LIFE
Shawn Carter was born in Brooklyn, New Yorkand was raised in Marcy Houses, a housing project in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesantneighborhood. After their father, Adnis Reeves, abandoned the family, Shawn and his three siblings were raised by their mother, Gloria Carter. Reeves would later meet and reconcile with Jay-Z before dying in 2003. Jay-Z claims in his lyrics that in 1982 at age 12, he shot his older brother in the shoulder for stealing his jewelry. Along with future rapper AZ, Carter attended Eli Whitney High School in Brooklyn until it was closed down. He then attended the nearbyGeorge Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School with future rappersThe Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes, followed by a stint at Trenton Central High School in Trenton, New Jersey, though he did not graduate. According to his interviews and lyrics, during this period he sold crack cocaine and was shot at three times.
According to his mother, Carter used to wake up his siblings at night banging out drum patterns on the kitchen table. She bought him a boom box for his birthday, sparking his interest in music. He began freestyling and writing lyrics. Known as "Jazzy" around the neighborhood, Carter later adopted the showbiz/stage name "Jay-Z" in homage to his mentor Jaz-O. (He would drop the hyphen in 2013, and add it back in 2017.)
Jay-Z can be briefly heard on several of Jaz-O's early recordings in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including "The Originators" and "Hawaiian Sophie." Jay-Z became embroiled in several battles with rapper LL Cool J in the early 1990s. He first became known to a wide audience on the posse cut"Show and Prove" on the 1994 Big Daddy Kane album Daddy's Home. Jay-Z has been referred to as Big Daddy Kane's hype manduring this period, although Kane explains that he didn't fill the traditional hype man role, and was instead "basically ma[king] cameo appearances on stage. When I would leave the stage to go change outfits, I would bring out Jay-Z and Positive K and let them freestyle until I came back to the stage."The young Jay-Z appeared on a popular song by Big L, "Da Graveyard", and on Mic Geronimo's "Time to Build", which also featured early appearances by DMX and Ja Rule in 1995. His first official rap single was called "In My Lifetime", for which he released a music video. An unreleased music video was also produced for the B-side "I Can't Get with That."...
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Source: Wikipedia
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