Background

Shawn Carter was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City and was raised in Marcy Houses, a housing project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. 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.

Education

Along with future rapper AZ, Carter attended Eli Whitney High School in Brooklyn until it was closed down. He then attended the nearby George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School with future rappers The 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.

Career

In June of 1996, Jay-Z released his debut album, Reasonable Doubt. Although the record only reached No. 23 on the Billboard 200, it is now considered a classic hip-hop album, including songs such as "Can't Knock the Hustle," featuring Mary J. Blige, and "Brooklyn's Finest," a collaboration with Notorious B.I.G. Reasonable Doubt established Jay-Z as an emerging star in hip-hop.

Two years later, Jay-Z achieved even broader success with the 1998 album Vol. 2 ... Hard Knock Life. The title track, which famously sampled its chorus from the Broadway musical Annie, became Jay-Z's most popular single to date. He scored a Grammy win for Vol. 2 and another nomination for "Hard Knock Life," marking the beginning of a fruitful period in which Jay-Z would become the biggest name in hip-hop.

During those years, the rapper released a slew of No. 1 albums and hit singles. His most popular songs from this period include "Big Pimpin'," "I Just Wanna Love U," "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" and "03 Bonnie & Clyde," a duet with future bride Beyoncé Knowles. Jay-Z's most acclaimed album of this period was The Blueprint (2001), which would later pop up on several music critics' lists of the best albums of the decade.

In 2003, Jay-Z shocked the hip-hop world by releasing The Black Album and announcing that it would be his last solo record before retirement. Asked to explain his sudden exit from rap, Jay-Z said that he once derived inspiration from trying to outshine other great MCs, but had simply gotten bored due to a lack of competition. "The game ain't hot," he said. "I love when someone makes a hot album and then you've got to make a hot album. I love that. But it ain't hot."

In 2006, Jay-Z ended his retirement from making music, releasing the new album Kingdom Come. He soon released two more albums: American Gangster in 2007 and Blueprint 3 in 2009. This trio of albums marked a significant departure from Jay-Z's earlier sound, incorporating stronger rock and soul influences in their production and offering lyrics that tackled such mature subjects as the response to Hurricane Katrina, Barack Obama's 2008 election and the perils of fame and fortune. Jay-Z noted he was trying to adapt his music to befit his own middle age. "There's not a lot of people who have come of age in rap because it's only 30 years old," he said. "As more people come of age, hopefully the topics get broader and then the audience will stay around longer."

Jay-Z next teamed up with former Roc-A-Fella protégé Kanye West for 2011's Watch the Throne. The album proved to be a triple hit, topping the rap, R&B and pop charts shortly after its August release. It went on to garner multiple Grammy nominations, winning the Grammy for Best Rap Performance with "Otis," which sampled the late R&B singer Otis Redding.

In July 2013, Jay-Z unveiled his 12th studio album, Magna Carta Holy Grail. The effort earned a mixed reception from critics but otherwise fared well with fans, going on to top the Billboard 200 and achieve double-platinum status. That winter Jay-Z earned a whopping nine Grammy nominations, sharing the win for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration with Justin Timberlake for the hit single "Holy Grail."

During his hiatus from rapping, Jay-Z turned his attention to the business side of music, becoming president of Def Jam Recordings. As president of Def Jam, Jay-Z signed such popular acts as Rihanna and Ne-Yo, and helped Kanye West's transition from producer to best-selling recording artist. But his reign at the venerable hip-hop label wasn't all smooth sailing; Jay-Z resigned as Def Jam's president in 2007, complaining about the company's resistance to change from ineffectual business models. "You have record executives who've been sitting in their office for 20 years because of one act," he lamented.

In 2008, Jay-Z signed a $150 million contract with the concert promotion company Live Nation. This super deal created a joint venture called Roc Nation, an entertainment company that handles nearly all aspects of its artists' careers. Along with Jay-Z, Roc Nation signed such top artists as Rihanna, Shakira and T.I., among many others, to its roster.

Jay-Z's other business ventures include the popular urban clothing line Rocawear and Roc-a-Fella Films. He also owns the 40/40 Club, an upscale sports bar that opened in New York City and later added venues in Atlantic City and Las Vegas (since closed), as well as Atlanta.

A part-owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team since 2004, Jay-Z helped spur the relocation of the franchise to a brand-new home in downtown Brooklyn, the Barclays Center, in 2012. In 2013 he launched a full-service sports management company, Roc Nation Sports, and sold his Brooklyn Nets shares in order to pursue certification as a sports agent. As Jay-Z once rapped about his business empire, "I'm not a businessman / I'm a business, man."

The business of Jay-Z made headlines once again in March 2015, when he and several of his high-powered friends, including Madonna, Nicki Minaj and Jack White, announced the relaunch of Tidal, a streaming music service. The service gained a reasonable stream of followers - a touted 1 million in September 2015 - but also endured a revolving door of top management and legal issues. In early 2017, Jay-Z agreed to sell a 33 percent stake of Tidal to telecommunications giant Sprint.

On June 15, 2017, Jay-Z became the first rapper to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He tweeted about the honor: “I remember when rap was said to be a fad. We are now alongside some of the greatest writers in history.”

Later that month, on June 30, Jay-Z released his 13th solo album, 4:44, exclusively to Tidal and Sprint subscribers. It was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America less than a week after its release, solely based on download numbers. The highly personal album, which includes guest artists Beyoncé, Damian Marley and Frank Ocean, was an immediate commercial and critical success, praised for the rapper’s candid lyrics and a new level of artistic maturity.

When the list of the year's Grammy hopefuls was announced November, Jay-Z led the way with eight nominations for his work on 4:44. He wound up getting shut out when the winners were announced the following January, though he did receive the 2018 Salute to Industry Icons Award.

Soon afterward, the hip-hop king announced that he and Beyoncé were teaming up for the OTR II Tour that summer, an extension of their 2014 effort. The tour kicked off in Cardiff, Wales, on June 6, and 10 days later, the couple gave their fans another reason to get excited with the release of a joint album, Everything Is Love. Initially available for streaming solely on Jay-Z's Tidal, the album was accompanied by a music video for the track "Apes**t," which showed the Carters in their aristocratic element as they sang and rapped among the world-famous art pieces of the Louvre in Paris.

Achievements

• 

  Jay-Z has received 21 Grammy Awards, tied with Kanye West for the most by a rapper. He also holds the record for the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the Billboard 200, and has recorded four number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. The same publication ranked him as the biggest artist of the 2000s, while Rolling Stone named him one of the 100 greatest artists of all time. He is the first rapper to be honored at the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2017 and to receive the "Salute to Industry Icons Award" at the 60th Grammy Awards.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Decoded 2010

• movie

  • Backstage 2000
  • State Property 2002
  • Paper Soldiers 2002
  • The Great Gatsby 2013 2013
  • Watch Annie 2014
  • Watch Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin 2018

• music

  • Reasonable Doubt 1996
  • Vol. 1 - In My Lifetime by Jay-Z 1997
  • Hard Knock Life Vol.2 1988
  • Volume. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter 1999
  • The Dynasty 2000
  • The Blueprint 2001
  • Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse Explicit Lyrics 2002
  • The Black Album
  • American Gangster 2007
  • Blueprint 3
  • Magna Carta... Holy Grail 2013
  • 4:44

Religion

Religion wasn’t a big part of Jay-Z’s family growing up, but growing up where he did, Jay-Z experienced all kinds, saying: "Church wasn’t a major part of my life growing up… But when you grow up in a place like Bed-Stuy, church is everywhere. So is mosque. So are a thousand other ways of believing."

He is religious, though. At least he’s not an atheist. He has said: "For the record, I of course believe in God, but I believe in one God. If people must know my religious beliefs, I believe in one God. I don’t believe in religion. I don’t believe in Christians or Muslims. I think all that separates people. I think it’s one God. I think it’s all the same God, and I don’t believe in Hell."

Politics

In 2006, Jay-Z appeared with Russell Simmons in a PSA combatting racism and anti-Semitism organized by the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding. By 2008, Jay-Z was actively involved in the 2008 presidential campaign, where he supported increased voter participation and helped send voters to polling stations. He was an early supporter for the candidacy of Illinois senator and subsequent U.S. president Barack Obama, performing for free in voter-drive concerts financed by the Democrats' campaign. He also became acquainted with Obama himself, who stated "Every time I talk to Jay-Z, who is a brilliant talent and a good guy, I enjoy how he thinks. That's somebody who is going to start branching out and can help shape attitudes in a real positive way." During the 2010 mid-term elections' campaign, Jay-Z appeared, along with other artists, in an ad prepared by the HeadCount organization, urging voters, and especially younger ones, to register and vote. In May 2012, Jay-Z announced his endorsement of President Obama's support of same-sex marriage and participated in his re-election campaign.

In the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Jay-Z and Beyoncé supported presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at her rally in Cleveland. Clinton praised Jay-Z for addressing racism, oppression, and the criminal justice system.

Views

Jay-Z also became involved in philanthropic activity. In 2003, Jay-Z, together with his mother, founded The Shawn Carter Foundation, which has assisted eligible students facing socio-economic hardships through college. On August 9, 2006, he met with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the organization's headquarters in New York City. The rapper pledged to use his upcoming world tour to raise awareness of and combat the global water shortage. Already on the look-out for a way to, in his own words, "become helpful", he had been made aware of this issue during a visit to Africa by Bono from the rock group U2. The effort took place in partnership with the UN, as well as MTV, which produced a documentary entitled Diary of Jay-Z: Water for Life, first airing in November 2006. Along with Sean "Diddy" Combs, Jay-Z pledged $1 million to the American Red Cross' relief effort after Hurricane Katrina. Jay-Z stated his support for Kanye West after the latter's outburst against President Bush during a live Katrina charity telethon. He also addressed the issue of the Katrina disaster, and the government's response, in his one verse song "Minority Report."

Quotations: “People respect success. They respect big. They don’t even have to like your music. If you’re big enough, people are drawn to you.”

“I will not lose, for even in defeat, there’s a valuable lesson learned, so it evens up for me.”

“You learn more in failure than you ever do in success.”

“Those who are successful overcome their fears and take action. Those who aren’t submit to their fears and live with regrets.”

“Either love me or leave me alone.”

“When you’re growing up, your dad is your superhero. Once you’ve let yourself fall that in love with someone, once you put him on such a high pedestal and he lets you down, you never want to experience that pain again.”

“By the time I got to record my first album, I was 26, I didn’t need pen or paper – my memory had been trained just to listen to a song, think of the words, and lay them to tape.”

“I’m hungry for knowledge. The whole thing is to learn every day, to get brighter and brighter. That’s what this world is about.”

“You can want success all you want, but to get it, you can’t falter. You can’t slip, you can’t sleep. One eye open, for real, and forever.”

“I believe everyone in the world is born with genius-level talent. Apply yourself to whatever you’re genius at, and you can do anything in the world.”

“Life is for living, not living uptight. See ya somewhere up in the sky.”

"I believe excellence is being able to perform at a high level over and over.”

“People look at you strange, say you changed. Like you worked that hard to stay the same.”

“I’m like a dog. I never speak, but I understand.”

“I’m not afraid of dying. I’m afraid of not trying.”

“I would run into the corner store, the bodega, and just grab a paper bag or buy juice – anything just to get a paper bag. And I’d write the words on the paper bag and stuff these ideas in my pocket until I got back. Then I would transfer them into the notebook.”

"I’ve never looked at myself and said that I need to be a certain way to be around a certain sort of people. I’ve always wanted to stay true to myself, and I’ve managed to do that. People have to accept that.”

“Rap for me is like making movies, telling stories, and getting the emotions of the songs through in just as deep a way. And I grew up in rap and movies the same way.”

Interests

• reading
  
  Favorite Food: Pasta, Cereal.
  
  Favorite Drink: Armand de Brignac Champagne.
  
  Favorite Colour: Blue.
  
  Favorite Perfume: Gold by Jay Z.
  
  Favorite Movies: Godfather 2, True Romance.

• Politicians

  Barack Obama, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi

• Writers

  Gary Zukhav, James Redfield, Dick Gregory

• Sport & Clubs

  Basketball, Football

• Athletes

  New York Jets

• Music & Bands

  Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway, John Lennon,

Connections

Jay-Z is married to American R&B singer Beyoncé. In 2002, Jay-Z and Beyoncé collaborated for the song "'03 Bonnie & Clyde." Jay-Z also appeared on Beyoncé's hit single "Crazy in Love" as well as "That's How You Like It" from her debut album Dangerously in Love. On her second album, B'Day, he made appearances on the 2006 hits, "Déjà Vu" and "Upgrade U." In the video for the latter song, she comically imitates his appearance. The couple generally avoids discussing their relationship. Beyoncé has stated that she believes that not publicly discussing their relationship has helped them. Jay-Z said in a People article, "We don't play with our relationship." They kept a low profile while dating, and married in April 2008. It became a matter of public record on April 22, 2008, but Beyoncé did not publicly debut her $5 million Lorraine Schwartz-designed wedding ring until the Fashion Rocks concert on September 5, 2008, in New York City.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z were listed as the most powerful couple for TIME magazine's 100 most influential people of 2006. In January 2009, Forbes ranked them as Hollywood's top-earning couple, with a combined total of $162 million. They made it to the top of the list the following year, with a combined total of $122 million between June 2008 and June 2009.

At the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, Beyoncé revealed that she was pregnant with their first child and on January 7, 2012, she gave birth to their daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. On January 9, 2012, Jay-Z released "Glory", a song dedicated to their child, on his social website LifeandTimes.com. The song detailed the couple's pregnancy struggles, including a miscarriage Beyoncé suffered before becoming pregnant with their daughter. Because Blue's cries were included at the end of the song and she was officially credited on the song as "B.I.C", at two days old she became the youngest person ever to appear on a Billboard chart when "Glory" debuted on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs at number 74. On June 18, 2017, Beyoncé's father Mathew Knowles confirmed that she had given birth to twins with Jay-Z, a daughter, Rumi, and a son, Sir.

Mother:

Gloria Carter

Wife:

Beyoncé Knowles-Carter

Daughter:

Blue Ivy Carter

Daughter:

Rumi Carter

Son:

Sir Carter

colleague:

P. Diddy

Sean John Combs, also known by his various stage names Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Puffy, Diddy, Brother Love and B. Love, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, and entrepreneur born in New York City and raised in Mount Vernon, New York. He worked as a talent director at Uptown Records before founding his label Bad Boy Entertainment in 1993.

colleague:

Foxy Brown

Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand, better known by her stage name Foxy Brown, is an American rapper best known for her solo work, as well as numerous collaborations with other artists and her brief stint as part of hip hop group The Firm.

References

• Empire State of Mind: How Jay Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office, Revised Edition
• From Jim Crow to Jay-Z: Race, Rap, and the Performance of Masculinity
• Jay-Z: Hip-Hop Icon
• Jay-Z: Building a Hip-hop Empire
• Jay-Z
• The Carter Effect: How Beyoncé and Jay-Z showed me how to turn my pain and passion into profits.
• The Wake Up Call: Financial Inspiration Learned from 4:44 + A Step by Step Guide on How to Implement Each Financial Principle
• 3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, and Hip-Hop's Multibillion-Dollar Rise