American rapper, songwriter, and producer Jay-Z was raised in the drug-ridden Marcy Projects of Brooklyn. His first appearance on Yo! came from his usage of rap as a means of escape. 1989 saw MTV Raps. Following his Roc-a-Fella label’s millions of record sales, Jay-Z launched an entertainment firm and his own apparel brand. In 2008, he married well-known singer and actress Beyoncé.
American rapper, songwriter, and producer Jay-Z was raised in the drug-ridden Marcy Projects of Brooklyn. His first appearance on Yo! came from his usage of rap as a means of escape. 1989 saw MTV Raps. Following his Roc-a-Fella label’s millions of record sales, Jay-Z launched an entertainment firm and his own apparel brand. In 2008, he married well-known singer and actress Beyoncé.
Childhood
Born Shawn Corey Carter in Brooklyn, New York, on December 4, 1969, Jay-Z is a rapper. When Jay-Z was just eleven years old, his father, Adnes Reeves, abandoned the family. “He was the last of my four children,” his mother, Gloria Carter, later remembered, “the only one that didn’t give me any pain when I gave birth to him, and that’s how I knew he was a special child.” The drug-ridden Marcy Projects in Brooklyn were home to the young rapper and his mother.
Carter traded drugs and dabbled in gun violence during a difficult adolescence that is chronicled in several of his autobiographical songs. As Jay-Z later recalled in one of his songs (“December 4th”), “I went to school, got good grades, could behave when I wanted/But I had demons deep inside that would raise when confronted.” He attended multiple high schools, including George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School in downtown Brooklyn, where he was a classmate of the rap legend Notorious B.I.G.”
Get Started in Hip-Hop
At an early age, Carter resorted to rap as a way out of the drug abuse, violence, and destitution he experienced growing up in the Marcy Projects. He collaborated with the rapper Jaz-O, an elder artist who functioned as a mentor, in 1989 to record a song titled “The Originators,” which earned them a spot on an episode of Yo! MTV Raps. At this point, Carter adopted the moniker Jay-Z, which was a play on his childhood nickname of “Jazzy,” a tribute to Jaz-O, and a reference to the J/Z subway station close to his Brooklyn apartment.
Jay-Z was largely unknown even with his stage name until he and two pals, Kareem Burke and Damon Dash, started their own record label, Roc-a-Fella Records, in 1996. That June, Jay-Z released Reasonable Doubt, his debut album. Reasonable Doubt made Jay-Z an emerging star in hip-hop with songs like “Can’t Knock the Hustle,” featuring Mary J. Blige, and “Brooklyn’s Finest,” a collaboration with Notorious B.I.G. Despite the album only reaching No. 23 on the Billboard 200, it is now regarded as a classic hip-hop album.
With the 1998 album Vol., two years later, Jay-Z saw even more popularity. Two… The Hard Knock Life. Jay-Z’s most successful single to date was the title tune, which famously sampled the chorus from the Broadway musical Annie. For Vol., he won a Grammy. 2 and another nomination for “Hard Knock Life,” which signaled the start of a successful run that would see Jay-Z rise to prominence in the hip-hop industry.
The rapper put out a number of No. 1 albums and smash singles over those years. During this time, some of his most well-known songs are “Big Pimpin’,” “I Just Wanna Love U,” “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” and “03 Bonnie & Clyde,” a duet with Beyoncé Knowles, who would later become his wife. Jay-Z’s 2001 album The Blueprint was his most well-received release during this time, and it went on to rank highly among reviewers’ lists of the finest albums of the decade.
Jay-Z stunned the hip-hop community in 2003 when he dropped The Black Album and declared it to be his final solo album before retiring. When asked to explain his abrupt departure from the rap game, Jay-Z stated that he used to get inspiration from attempting to outdo other legendary MCs, but that he had grown bored because there wasn’t much competition. He remarked, “The game aint hot.” “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.”
Rap Returns
Jay-Z announced his comeback to the music industry in 2006 with the release of his new album, Kingdom Come. Soon after, he put out two additional albums, Blueprint 3 in 2009 and American Gangster in 2007. Jay-Z’s earlier sound was significantly altered by these three albums, which featured more rock and soul influences in their production and mature subjects like the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Barack Obama’s election in 2008, and the dangers of fame and wealth. Jay-Z said that he was attempting to change his sound to better reflect 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 stated. “As more people come of age, hopefully the topics get broader and then the audience will stay around longer.”
Next, Jay-Z collaborated on 2011’s Watch the Throne with Kanye West, a former Roc-A-Fella protégé. Soon after its August release, the album went on to become a triple smash, topping the pop, R&B, and rap charts. After receiving numerous Grammy nominations, it went on to win the Best Rap Performance Grammy with “Otis,” a song that featured a sample of the late R&B singer Otis Redding.
Magna Carta Holy Grail, Jay-Z’s 12th studio album, was released in July 2013. While the album did not receive a favorable review from reviewers, it was highly received by fans and eventually reached double platinum status, topping the Billboard 200. Jay-Z had an incredible nine Grammy nominations that winter, and he and Justin Timberlake shared the victory for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for their smash hit song “Holy Grail.”
Tidal, Rocawear, and Other Commercial Efforts
Jay-Z focused on the business side of music during his break from rapping, rising to the position of president of Def Jam Recordings. In his capacity as president of Def Jam, Jay-Z signed well-known artists including Ne-Yo and Rihanna and facilitated Kanye West’s evolution from record producer to platinum-selling recording artist. However, Jay-Z’s tenure at the storied hip-hop label wasn’t without controversy. In 2007, he left as president of Def Jam, citing the company’s unwillingness to abandon its outdated business practices. “You have record executives who’ve been sitting in their office for 20 years because of one act,” he said.
Jay-Z and Live Nation, a concert promotion firm, inked a $150 million deal in 2008. This massive agreement gave rise to Roc Nation, a joint venture that manages almost every facet of its artists’ careers in the entertainment industry. In addition to Jay-Z, Roc Nation signed a number of well-known musicians to its roster, including T.I., Shakira, and Rihanna.
Two of Jay-Z’s other commercial endeavors include Roc-a-Fella Films and the well-known urban apparel brand Rocawear. In addition, he owns the 40/40 Club, a classy sports club that started out in New York City and eventually expanded to Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Atlanta, and (since closed) Las Vegas.
Jay-Z has been a part-owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team since 2004. He was instrumental in the team’s 2012 move to the Barclays Center, a brand-new facility in downtown Brooklyn. In order to obtain his certification as a sports agent, he liquidated his Brooklyn Nets shares and founded the full-service sports management company Roc Nation Sports in 2013. Jay-Z famously rapped, “I’m not a businessman / I’m a business, man,” in reference to his business empire.
When Jay-Z and a number of his powerful friends, including Madonna, Nicki Minaj, and Jack White, announced the relaunch of Tidal, a streaming music service, the firm grabbed headlines once more in March 2015. The program attracted a respectable number of users—a reported one million in September 2015—but it also faced legal troubles and a turnover in senior management. Early in2017, Sprint, the largest telecommunications company, acquired a 33 percent share in Tidal from Jay-Z.
Jay-Z was dubbed the first billionaire rapper by Forbes in June 2019, with contributions from his ownership of Uber and Armand de Brignac champagne. Not too long after, he moved into yet another emerging sector of the economy when he was hired as chief brand strategist by the Caliva cannabis company in California.
“4:44”
Jay-Z was the first rapper to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on June 15, 2017. Regarding the honor, he tweeted, saying, “I recall when rap was said to be a fad.” Some of the greatest writers in history are now with us.
Subsequently, on June 30, Jay-Z made his 13th solo album, 4:44, available only to Sprint and Tidal users. Based only on download counts, the Recording Industry Association of America certified it platinum less than a week after its release. The extremely personal album, which features Beyoncé, Damian Marley, and Frank Ocean as special guests, became an instant financial and critical hit and was hailed for the rapper’s open lyrics and newfound artistic maturity.
Jay-Z described the album’s title track, “4:44,” as “one of the best songs I’ve ever written” in an iHeartMedia interview. The song’s lyrics seem to address the marital problems and adultery that his wife Beyoncé spoke about in her confessional album Lemonade:
In reference to the birth of their children, he sings in the song, “I apologize, often womanize / Took for my child to be born / See through a woman’s eyes / Took for these natural twins to believe in miracles / Took me too long for this song / I don’t deserve you.”
A commentary on the culture of success, “The Story of OJ,” and “Kill Jay-Z,” which the rapper told iHeartMedia “is about killing off the ego,” are two more songs. According to him, “‘The Story of OJ’ is really a song about we as a culture, having a plan, how we’re gonna push this forward,” during the iHeartMedia interview. “We all make money, and then we all lose money, as artists especially. But how, when you have some type of success, to transform that into something bigger.”
In November, when the nominees for the Grammy Awards for the year were revealed, Jay-Z took the lead with eight nominations for his album 4:44. Though he did won the 2018 Salute to Industry Icons Award, he ultimately lost out when the winners were revealed in January of that year.
‘Everything Is Love’ and OTR II
Shortly after, the king of hip-hop declared that he and Beyoncé would be joining together for the OTR II Tour, which would be an extension of their 2014 endeavor. The tour began on June 6 in Cardiff, Wales, and ten days later, the couple released a collaborative album titled Everything Is Love, giving their fans even more reason to celebrate. The album was first only available for streaming on Jay-Z’s Tidal. A music video for the song “Apes**t,” which featured the Carters in an aristocratic setting while they sung and rapped amidst the iconic artwork of the Louvre in Paris, was also released along with the album.
Work in Politics and Charity
Following a significant period of time spent out of politics, Jay-Z became one of Obama’s most ardent backers during his 2008 presidential campaign. He said nothing but positive remarks about the African American candidate when he showed up at rallies. Jay-Z spoke to the gathering at one rally, “Rosa Parks sat so that Martin Luther King could walk. Martin Luther King walked so that Obama could run. Obama’s running so we all can fly.”
Jay-Z supported Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign once more. He came out as an advocate for gay marriage in that same year. Denying same-sex couples the opportunity to marry “is no different than discriminating against Blacks. It’s discrimination plain and simple,” he said in an interview with CNN.
Tidal X: 10/20, Jay-Z’s inaugural yearly charity event, included Beyoncé, Minaj, Lil Wayne, Usher, and other platinum-selling performers in October 2015. In February of the following year, it was revealed that Tidal was giving $1.5 million from the proceeds of its concerts to a variety of causes, such as Black Lives Matter and Harry Belafonte’s nonprofit group Sankofa.
NFL Collaboration
The National Football League and Jay-Z announced a relationship in August 2019 that included Roc Nation providing entertainment recommendations for NFL events and promotional appearances, including the Super Bowl. The parties also decided to collaborate on social activity projects under the NFL’s Inspire Change program.
Hip-hop mogul Jay-Z expressed his belief that he could work with the powerful sports league to effect the social change that Colin Kaepernick was seeking. “You can either go home, you can pack your bag and sit in the house, or you can choose to take it head-on,” he said, responding to criticism of the announcement from Kaepernick’s supporters. The quarterback had not played in the NFL since sparking a controversy in 2016 about kneeling during the national anthem. “And that’s pretty much how we operate at Roc Nation. We seek to identify things that we want to be a part of and things that we believe that we can add value to, and we step in and we come with these ideas.”
Jay-Z and Beyoncé picture
Image credit: Getty Images/Mike Coppola
Beyoncé and Jay-Z
Individual Life
Jay-Z, who is fiercely protective of his personal life, spent years keeping his relationship with popular singer and actress Beyoncé a secret from the public. The pair even succeeded in keeping the media at bay for their little New York City wedding on April 4, 2008. At Jay-Z’s penthouse residence, only around forty people showed up for the celebration, which included Gwyneth Paltrow, Kelly Rowland, Michelle Williams, and former members of Destiny’s Child.
On January 7, 2012, Jay-Z and Beyoncé welcomed Blue Ivy Carter, a daughter, into the world. Jay-Z and Beyoncé hired more security and rented a portion of Lenox Hill Hospital in New York out of concern for their privacy and safety.
Jay-Z posted a song on his website in her honor not long after his daughter was born. He announced that Beyoncé had previously experienced a miscarriage on “Glory,” where he also expressed his happiness at becoming a parent. The song was accompanied by a statement from Jay-Z and Beyoncé, stating that “we are in heaven” and that “the best experience of both of our lives” was Blue’s birth.
Beyoncé revealed on Instagram in February 2017 that she and Jay-Z were expecting twins. “We would like to share our love and happiness. We have been blessed two times over. We are incredibly grateful that our family will be growing by two, and we thank you for your well wishes. The Carters,” she wrote.
In June 2017, Jay-Z and Beyoncé welcomed a boy and a girl into their family. The twins’ names and birth were not immediately confirmed by the couple, but People magazine revealed that they had registered trademark applications for Sir and Rumi at the USPTO. Beyoncé made it official early on July 14 by sharing a picture of herself holding their one-month-old twins.
During November 2017, Jay-Z revealed his adultery, talked about his marital issues, and how therapy helped him and his wife regain their relationship. The essay was published in T: The New York Times Style Magazine.
“I grew so much from the experience,” he stated. But the most crucial realization I had, I believe, was that everything is interconnected. Every emotion has a source and is related to others. and simply being conscious of it. Being conscious of it in daily life offers you a significant benefit.
“For us, we chose to fight for our love,” he said, “for our family.” He echoed much of same thoughts in an interview with CNN’s Van Jones in January 2018, admitting the challenging times with Beyoncé and the strides they’d made in mending their relationship. to provide a distinct result for our children. must end that pattern for both Black women and men.”
Hollywood Hall of Fame
In October 2021, Jay-Z, Carole King, the Go-Go’s, Tina Turner, Todd Rundgren, and the Foo Fighters will all be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
