JAY-Z

JAY-Z,  was born Shawn Corey Carter, on December 4, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York, here in the U.S..

 

He grew up in Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood, which was pretty rough at the time, where he was raised mainly by his mother, Gloria Carter, who says Shawn used to wake up the household at night, banging out drum patterns on the kitchen table.

 

His mother bought him his first boombox for his birthday, which set him off on his love of music.

 

Shawn’s father, Adnis Reeves bailed out on his family, including Shawn’s three siblings, at a young age but they rekindled their relationship right before Adnis passed away.

 

Shawn has said, through his lyrics, that when he was younger he had once shot his older drug addicted brother, Eric, in the shoulder for stealing his jewelry. 

 

While in the 6th grade, Jay tested at a 12th grade reading level.

 

Shawn went to Eli Whitney high school in Brooklyn, along with AZ, the longtime friend and co collaborator of Nas and The Firm, who has been revered as “one of the most underrated lyricists of our time.”

 

After the closing of his high school, Shawn attended the George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School. There, he would be amongst future Icons and Outlaws alumni Busta Rhymes and Biggie Smalls, the one and only Notorious B.I.G.

 

Shawn then attended Trenton Central High School, shortly, before dropping out.

 

He claims to have been selling crack at this time and was even shot at three times.

 

His firsthand experience with illicit drug dealing would form his lyrics when he began rapping under the stage name Jazzy, soon shortened to Jay-Z (a name that may also have been derived from the proximity of the J and Z subway lines to the Marcy Projects or possibly an Homage to his rapping mentor, Jaz-O).

 

He lived in London in 1989 for a short time. JAY recorded music with Monie Love and soaked in the culture, before moving back to the States. 

 

You can hear Jay on some of Jaz-O’s earlier recordings from the 80’s and 90’s, like “H.P. Gets Busy”, “Hawaiian Sofie” and “The Originators.”

 

In the early 90’s, Jay-Z found himself involved in rap battles with LL Cool J, who eventually had a falling out while they were both involved at Def Jam. They’ve resolved their differences since then.

 

Big Daddy Kane’s 1994 album, “Daddy’s Home”, introduced the world to Jay in the song “Show and Prove”, a posse cut that had multiple rappers doing verses on one track.

 

Big Daddy Kane has said in regards to Jay being referred to as his “hype man,” 

“When I would leave the stage to go change outfits, I would bring out Jay-Z and Positive K (“I Got A Man”) and let them freestyle until I came back to the stage.”  

 

Jay then found himself appearing on Big L’s “Da Graveyard” and alongside young versions of DMX and Ja Rule (Holla Holla) in 1995.

 

1995 also saw Jay’s first official single, “In My Lifetime” that had a music video as well as an unreleased video for the song’s B-Side, “I Can’t Get With that.”

 

What do you do when you want to get your music out but have no financial backing from a record label? You get out and hustle your album yourself. Jay Z would spend hours a day selling CD’s out of his car.

 

Tired of not getting where he wanted to be in the music world, Jay-Z and two friends, Damon Dash and Kareem Burke, founded their own company and independent record label, Roc-A-Fella Records, in 1995 to release his debut album, Reasonable Doubt (1996). It eventually sold more than a million copies in the United States, certifying it platinum and hes been revered as “one of the greatest rap albums ever” and, arguably, “Jay-Z’s best work.”

 

This album featured beats by renowned producers like DJ Premier and DJ Clark Kent and even had very early appearances from the Notorious B.I.G. and the queen, Mary J Blige.

 

Reasonable Doubt debuted at 23 on the Billboard 200 and charted for 18 weeks.

 

The four singles from this album were “Dead Presidents”, “Ain’t No N Word”, “Can’t Knock the Hustle”, and “Feelin It”. It would later make Rolling Stone’s Magazines “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”

 

A string of successful albums followed at a rate of at least one per year through 2003. Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life (1998) was not only one of the first of Jay-Z’s releases to top the Billboard 200 album chart but also won him his first Grammy Award, for best rap album. 

 

This record saw Jay relying more on “wordplay and flow” and featured beats by DJ Premier, Erick Sermon from future Icons, EPMD, Kid Capri and Swizz Beatz, who was a producer for DMX and the record label, Ruff Ryders as well as Timbaland.

 

Singles from this album included “Can I Get A..”, featuring Ja Rule and Amil, as well as several other head bobbin’ bangers. 

 

Vol. 2 would go on to sell over 5 million copies.

Remember how we said he won a grammy for this album? He actually boycotted the awards ceremony, contesting the failure to include DMX as a Grammy nominee.

 

1999 saw Jay working with Mariah Carey on the chart topping song, “Heartbreaker”, which would be his first chart topper in the US. Thanks Mariah!

 

The same year, Jay released “Vol 3… Life and Times of S. Carter”, selling over 3 million copies with singles like “Big Pimpin.”

 

The Year 2000 saw the release of yet another album, “The Dynasty: Roc La Familia”. Not originally intended to be a Jay Z album, it was initially recorded to be a compilation record for the Roc-A-Fella artist roster, but Def Jam released it as a Jay-Z joint.

 

However, this record introduced the world to up and coming producers, The Neptunes and a guy named Pherrel Williams, Bink, Just Blaze and some guy named Kanye West.

 

The album is considered “more soulful” and has gone twice platinum. That’s almost 9 million copies, total. Not too bad for a high school drop out.

 

In the midst of all this success, there were some fairly prominent feuds with other rappers.

 

In 2001, Prodigy from Mobb Deep had a problem with a line from Jay in his song “Money, Cash, Hoes” that he felt was talking smack about a dispute he had with Death Row Records, most notably, 2 Pac and Snoop Dogg.

 

I looked up the lyrics and the only line that I could find that seemed remotely close to a diss was:

 

“Us the villains, fuck your feelings

While y'all playa hate, we in the upper millions

What's the dealing? Huh, it's like New York's been soft

Ever since Snoop came through and crushed the buildings”

Later that year, at Summer Jam 2001, Jay performed the song “Takeover”, which attacked Prodigy with the lines:

 

“I don't care if you Mobb Deep, I hold triggers to crews

You little, I got money stacks bigger than you

When I was pushing weight, back in '88

You was a ballerina, I got the pictures, I seen ya

Then you dropped "Shook Ones, " switched your demeanor

Well, we don't believe you, you need more people

Roc-A-Fella, students of the game, we passed the class

'Cause nobody can read you dudes like we do

Don't let 'em gas you, like, "Jigga is ass and won't clap you"

Trust me on this one, I'll detach you

Mind from spirit, body from soul

They'll have to hold a mass, put your body in a hole

Oh no, you're not on my level, get your brakes tweaked

I sold what your whole album sold in my first week

You guys don't want it with Hov

Ask Nas, he don't want it with Hov, no!”

 

Jay then proceeded to reveal photos of Prodigy dressed up like Michael Jackson.

 

That last line then started beef with Nas that went back and forth until 2005.

 

The critically acclaimed The Blueprint (2001), Jay’s 6th album, featuring the triumphant hit “Izzo (H.O.V.A.),” solidified his status as one of the preeminent voices in hip-hop at the dawn of the 21st century. 

 

That album was released literally hours before the infamous 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

 

The Blueprint was written in only two days and hit double platinum status, selling 2.7 million albums by 2012.

 

This album was revered for its production and for being able to “balance mainstream and hardcore rap”.

 

As opposed to other Jay-Z releases, the Blueprint had only one guest rapper, a fella by the name “Eminem”, who assisted Jay on the track, “Renegade.”

 

Kanye West was back in the mix producing 4 songs on the album.

 

The Library of Congress chose “the Blueprint” for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2019 for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

 

A legendary singer can actually be heard singing in the song “Girls, Girls, Girls”, another single from “The Blueprint”. Michael Jackson. "He was on my song ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’, singing these background vocals and I didn’t even put his name on it,” Jay once revealed in an interview with NME.

 

Shortly after its release, Jay-Z pleaded guilty to assault relating to a 1999 nightclub stabbing of record producer Lance Rivera at the Kit Kat Club in New York City at an album release party for Q-Tip (Tribe Called Quest) and received three years’ probation, but the incident did little to derail his career. Apparently, the altercation happened due to Jay accusing Rivera of bootlegging his albums.

 

Always a busy man, Jay-Z dropped his 6th record, the double album, “The Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse”, in 2002. It sold over 3 million copies in JUST the U.S., selling more than his previous album, “The Blueprint”, and debuted on the Billboard 200 at number one! 

 

A reissued version, dubbed “The Blueprint 2.1”, was later released as a single disc album and had half of the songs that were on the double record, including the hits “Excuse Me Miss” and “03 Bonnie & Clyde”, which featured the queen B, Beyonce.

 

Lenny Kravitz, Faith Evans, Biggie and Kanye all had appearances on this album and actually had the songs “Stop”, “La La La”, “What They Gonna Do, Part 2”, and “Beware” on it; these were songs that were not on “The Blueprint 2.”

 

Also in 2002, Jay-Z released a collaborative album called “The Best Of Both Worlds” with a guy who’s been in the news quite often the past years, R. Kelly. The first single from this record was “Honey”, which sampled “Love You Inside Out” by the Bee Gees. None of the singles charted.

 

Ahead of the release of The Black Album (2003), however, Jay-Z announced his retirement as a performer. The “farewell recording” proved to be one of his most popular, with killer singles like “99 Problems' ' and “Dirt Off Your Shoulder (you can listen to our version at the end of the show and on the official Icons and Outlaws Spotify playlist. 

 

The Black Album was produced by Rick Rubin, and featured other hit makers like Eminem, Kanye, The Neptunes, DJ Quick and The Neptunes, attracting considerable attention. This album has sold over 3 million copies in the US.

Jay threw a “retirement party” on November 25th, 2003. However, unlike most of us that would rent out the back room at Outback Steakhouse and invite people from work and the few family members we can tolerate, this was a concert. A concert held at Madison Square Garden in New York. 

 

The footage taken at the “party” would wind up being the central focus of Jay-Z’s documentary, “Fade to Black”. All of the proceeds from the party went to charity,

 

Other performers that rocked the stage were his backing band, The Roots, Missy Elliot, Mary J. Blige, Beyonce, Ghostface Killa from Wu Tang, the speed rapper, Twista, and so many more. Both Tupac and Biggie’s mother’s, Afeni Shakur & Voletta Wallace even made a special appearance. 

 

As Jay-Z had claimed that he would “retire”, it was more of a retirement from making new studio albums. It didn’t stop him from touring, releasing a greatest hits record and making a second collaboration album with R. Kelly, named “Unfinished Business.” This time, the release debuted at number one in the US on the Billboard 200 and has been certified platinum.

2004 was another busy year as he assumed the presidency of Def Jam Recordings, making him one of the most highly placed African American executives in the recording industry at the time. This new role led to his Roc A Fella partners selling off their shares of Roc A Fella and Jay taking control of BOTH companies. Absolutely killing it!

 

As I mentioned, Jay-Z stayed extremely active in music. He collaborated with the rock group and future Icons and Outlaws featured artist, Linkin Park in 2004. This record was a remix EP dubbed “Collision Course” that featured mashups of songs from both artists. The only single from the record, “Numb/Encore '' wound up winning a Grammy for “Best Rap/Sung Collaboration”. Linkin Park performed the song live at the Grammys and featured the one and only Sir Paul McCartney of the Beatles, who sang verses from the iconic song “Yesterday. The EP went platinum in the US.

 

Speaking of Linkin Park, Jay-Z executive produced the debut album of Fort Minor, the side project from Mike Shinoda.

 

In 2005, Jay-Z headlined the Power 105.1 annual concert in New York called the “I Declare War” concert leading people to speculate who he was “declaring war on” as he’d had a history of calling out other artists. However, it was quite the opposite. The concert wound up being an end to the rivalry between Jay and Nas with the two sharing the stage and performing a blended version of Jay-Z’s “Dead Presidents” and Nas’s “The World Is Yours.” 

Jay appeared as a guest vocalist on the recordings of numerous other artists, including Kanye West, whose career he had helped foster, and Beyoncé, whom he had begun dating. (The two would be married in 2008.) Jay-Z also developed a large portfolio of business ventures and investments, including a film-production company, a clothing line, and a stake in the New Jersey Nets of the National Basketball Association, which he later helped relocate to his hometown of Brooklyn. 

 

He formally returned to recording in 2006 with his next album,Kingdom Come, which released the single, “Show Me What You Got”. This single was leaked a month earlier than it was supposed to and wound up being played in heavy radio rotation. This leak led to Def Jam prompting an FBI investigation into how it could have been leaked. I couldn’t find much more about the investigation.

 

Kingdom Come, Jay-Z’s ninth album, featured songs produced by Pharrell, Kanye, Just Blaze, Dr. Dre and, oddly enough, Coldplay’s Chris Martin. It sold over 680,000 copies in its first week and has gone double platinum. 

 

In 2007, Jay-Z released his tenth album, American Gangster on November 6th, which was inspired by the gangster movie of the same name, by Ridley Scott.  This record was considered a concept album with Jay depicting his life as a street hustler. The first single off of the album, “Blue Magic” starts off with what has been called a “dealer’s manifesto” and refers to political figures of the 1980’s like Reagan and Oliver North. 

 

He has his own color. In 2007, JAY-Z spent tens of thousands of dollars for the Pantone Color Institute to create a hue just for him. Described as a pearly blue with platinum dust, the color was first introduced on his own limited edition line of GM Yukon Denali later that year.

On January 1st, 2008 Jay stepped down as Def Jam president. He founded a new label, Roc Nation, in 2008, and it soon became a full-service entertainment conglomerate.

 

Jay-Z proved that he remained one of rap’s most-bankable acts when he embarked on a highly successful tour with Mary J. Blige in 2008. The following year he released The Blueprint 3, which bore the sound of some of his most frequent producers, including West and Timbaland. The album generated such hits as “Empire State of Mind,” a musical love letter to New York City adorned with soaring guest vocals by Alicia Keys, and the determined “Run This Town,” which featured West and Rihanna. Both songs won Grammy Awards, as did two other singles from the album. Watch the Throne (2011), an ambitious and highly regarded collaboration with West, proved to be similarly fruitful, with the singles “Otis,” “Niggas in Paris,” and “No Church in the Wild” capturing Grammys as well. In between the two releases, Jay-Z published a memoir, Decoded (2010).

 

Jay Z (having dropped the hyphen from his name) returned in 2013 with Magna Carta Holy Grail, which, in an exclusive deal with Samsung, was made available for free to users of the company’s smartphones several days ahead of its official release. Although the album, on which the rapper reflected on his massive wealth and fame, was greeted with mostly lukewarm reviews, it became his 13th release to land at number one on the Billboard 200. It also produced two Grammy wins: one for best rap/sung collaboration for “Holy Grail” and another for best music video for “Suit & Tie.” He received two more Grammys a year later for his collaboration on Beyoncé’s song “Drunk in Love.”

 

In 2017 JAY-Z (having capitalized the letters and reinstated the hyphen in his name) released his 13th studio solo album, 4:44, an extremely candid album that was, in part, a response to Beyoncé’s Lemonade (2016), on which she accused her husband of adultery. He admitted to infidelity on various tracks and also addressed racism and politics. The couple’s albums were both released exclusively on TIDAL—a subscription-based music streaming service that JAY-Z owned alongside other artists. JAY-Z had acquired the service in 2015 when he purchased its parent, the Norwegian technology company Aspiro AB. Also in 2017 JAY-Z became the first rapper to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2018 he and Beyoncé, billed as the Carters, unveiled the collaborative effort Everything Is Love, for which they won the Grammy for best urban contemporary album.

 

In 2021 JAY-Z was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

 

JAY-Z is as iconic an entrepreneur and businessman as he is a recording artist. He’s been involved in everything from having his own collection through Reebok in 2003, starting his own clothing line and selling it for $204 million, owning a chain of upscale sports bars called the 40/40 Club, being an investor in a line of beauty products, being a co-brand director for Budweiser Select and owning the Brooklyn Nets basketball team until 2013.

 

He’s been an investor in an app to help rich folk book executive plane flights, launched his own cigar line, bought a wine and spirits company, signed an exclusive deal with the Weinstein Company, producing a documentary on Kalief Browder, a man imprisoned for three years and who committed suicide when he was released.

 

As recently as 2020 he announced the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment, a partnership between his own Roc Nation and Brooklyn’s Long Island University, which “prepares students for a wide range of careers in performance, entrepreneurship, and all aspects of music, sports business and management.”

 

In November of that same year, he announced his joining of a cannabis production company as their “Chief Visionary Officer.”

 

He made Grammy history last month. JAY-Z recently became tied for the most Grammy nominations in history with 80. He shares that distinction with legendary producer Quincy Jones. He's also married to the person who currently holds the record for second most Grammy nominations: Beyoncé's 9 nominations at the end of November put her at 79 over the course of her career.

 

  Jay Z is ranked the 88th best artist - of any genre - of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.

 

From running around the rough and tough alleys of the Marcy projects to becoming a mogul of multiple companies, Jay-Z is the living embodiment of what hard work and perseverance can achieve. Jay-Z’s net worth, presently, is 1.3 Billion dollars, giving him the infallible title of “Hip Hop’s First Billionaire.”

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