Did You Know? ☆ Jay Z

Shawn Corey Carter, known professionally as Jay Z is an American rapper and businessman. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and abandoned by his father, Shawn and his three siblings were raised by his mother, Gloria Carter in Marcy Houses, a tough lawless housing project in Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant neighbourhood. After his mother bought him a boom for his birthday which sparked his interest in music so began freestyling and writing lyrics. Known as “Jazzy” around the neighbourhood, Carter later adopted the showbiz/stage name “Jay-Z” in homage to his mentor “Jaz-O”, the American rapper and record producer who was prominent in the late 1980s through to the 1990s. Carter would drop the hyphen in 2013 and add it back in 2017.

Jay-Z is one of the best-selling musicians of all time, having sold more than 100 million records, while receiving 21 Grammy Awards for his music. In 2006 MTV ranked him the “Greatest MC of all time”, while 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’. As an artist, Jay-Z holds the record for the most number one albums by a solo artist on the US Billboard 200, with fourteen in total. He has also had four number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, one (“Empire State of Mind”) as a 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 and 50 Cent. He was also ranked the 88th greatest artist of all time by Rolling Stone and in 2017, Forbes estimated his net worth at 810 million dollars, making him the second richest hip hop artist in the US.

As well as selling hit record after record, Jay-Z owns the New York 40/40 Club sports bar and is the co-creator of the clothing line ‘Rocawear’. He is the former president of ‘Def 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 Sports’ and is a certified NBA (National Basketball Association) and MLB (Major League Baseball) sports agent. Jay-Z married singer, beyond in 2008 and as a couple they have an estimated combined net worth of 1.16 billion dollars.

Article by Candice Eastman.