Shawn Corey Carter, better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record executive, and media mogul who was born on December 4, 1969. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential hip-hop musicians of all time. He was the CEO of Def Jam Recordings.
Jay-Z has become a billionaire through his business ventures. He launched the clothing shop Rocawear in 1999 and the luxury sports bar franchise 40/40 Club in 2003. Both companies have grown to be multibillion-dollar businesses, allowing him to launch the entertainment Label Roc Nation in 2008.
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Table of Contents
Early Life
Jay-Z was born Shawn Corey Carter on December 4, 1969, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Marcy Houses, a housing project in Brooklyn’s Bedford–Stuyvesant district, was where he grew up. Jay-Z and his three siblings were raised by their mother, Gloria Carter, after their father, Adnis Reeves, abandoned the family.
Shortly before he died in 2003, Reeves met and reconciled with Jay-Z. Jay-Z alleges in his songs that he shot his older brother in the shoulder for stealing his jewelry when he was 12 years old. He attended Eli Whitney High School in Brooklyn alongside rapper AZ until it closed.
He then went to adjacent George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School, where he met rappers The Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes, and then to Trenton Central High School, where he did not graduate. He peddled crack cocaine and was shot three times during this time, according to his interviews and lyrics.
Jay-Z used to wake up his siblings at night by hammering out drum patterns on the kitchen table, according to his mother. He began freestyling and creating songs after she gave him a boombox for his birthday, which sparked his interest in music. He went under the stage name “Jay-Z” in honor of his instructor Jaz-O and was known as “Jazzy” throughout the neighborhood. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Jay-Z can be heard on several of Jaz-O’s early records, including “H. P. Gets Busy,” “The Originators,” and “Hawaiian Sophie.”
In the early 1990s, Jay-Z got into multiple battles with rapper LL Cool J. On the 1994 Big Daddy Kane album Daddy’s Home, he rose to prominence with the posse cut “Show and Prove.” During this time, Jay-Z was referred to be Big Daddy Kane’s hype man, while Kane clarifies that he did not play the typical hype man position and was instead making cameo appearances on stage. “Whenever I needed to leave the stage to change clothing, I’d bring out Jay-Z and Positive K and let them freestyle until I returned.”
Jay-Z made early appearances on Big L’s “Da Graveyard” and Mic Geronimo’s “Time to Build” in 1995, which also featured early appearances by DMX and Ja Rule. His first official rap track, “In My Lifetime,” was released in 1995, along with a music video. For the B-side “I Can’t Get With That,” an unreleased music video was also made.
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Career
Without a major company to sign him, Jay-Z sold CDs out of his car and formed Roc-A-Fella Records as an independent label in 1995 with Damon “Dame” Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke. Jay-Z released his debut album Reasonable Doubt in 1996, featuring beats from prominent producers such as DJ Premier and Super DJ Clark Kent, as well as a guest appearance by The Notorious B.I.G. The album debuted at number 23 on the Billboard 200 and received positive reviews from critics. This album was later ranked No. 248 in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and was certified platinum.
In 1997, Jay-Z released his follow-up, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1, after signing a new distribution contract with Def Jam. Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs produced it, and it outsold his previous release.
DJ Premier and Ski, who worked with him on Reasonable Doubt, contributed several beats to the album. In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 was certified platinum in the United States, similar to its predecessor. Jay-Z published Vol. 2 Hard Knock Life in 1998, which featured “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem),” his biggest song at that moment. He continued to collect sounds from popular producers like Swizz Beatz, an emerging in-house producer for Ruff Ryders, and Timbaland, and he leaned more on flow and wordplay.
DJ Premier, Erick Sermon, The 45 King, and Kid Capri were among the other producers who contributed to the album. “Can I Get A…”, a collaboration between Ja Rule and Amil, and “Nigga What, Nigga Who,” a collaboration between Amil and Jaz-O, were both chart-topping singles from this album. Jay-most Z’s commercially successful album, Vol. 2, was certified 5 Platinum in the US and has sold over five million copies to date. Although Jay-Z boycotted the ceremony in protest of DMX’s lack of a Grammy nomination, the album went on to win a Grammy Award.
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Mariah Carey and Jay-Z collaborated on “Heartbreaker” from her seventh album, Rainbow, in 1999. The song went on to become Jay-first Z’s US chart-topper, spending two weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Jay-Z released Vol. 3. Life and Times of S. Carter in the same year. The album was a hit, selling over 3 million copies. The most popular hit from Vol. 3 was “Big Pimpin,” which featured UGK.
Jay-Z released The Dynasty: Roc La Familia in 2000, which was supposed to be a compilation album for Roc-A-Fella artists but was instead changed into a Jay-Z album by Def Jam. The Neptunes, Just Blaze, Kanye West, and Bink were all introduced on the album and have since gone on to have noteworthy success. This is also Jay-first Z’s album to feature a more soulful feel than his prior releases. In the United States alone, The Dynasty sold over two million copies.
Jay-Z came out against Prodigy in 2001 after taking issue with a phrase from Jay-song Z’s “Money, Cash, Hoes” that he believed disparaged Mobb Deep and Prodigy’s feud with Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, and Death Row Records. Later, at Summer Jam 2001, he played the song “Takeover,” which was aimed at Prodigy and featured images of him costumed as Michael Jackson. Nas, who blasted him on “We Will Survive,” was mentioned in a line near the end of “Takeover.” Nas retaliated with “Ether,” a diss track, and Jay-Z immediately added a verse to “Takeover” dissing Nas, igniting a feud between the two rappers. By 2005, the feud was over, and Jay-Z said that Mark Pitts had assisted them in settling it.
Jay-Z released The Blueprint, his sixth studio album, on September 11, 2001, just hours before the September 11 attacks, and it garnered a coveted five-mic review from hip-hop magazine The Source. The album sold over 427,000 copies in its first week, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, and was certified 2 Platinum in the United States.
It was praised for its production and for striking a balance between “mainstream” and “hardcore” rap. Eminem was the album’s only guest rapper, producing and rapping on the track “Renegade.” Kanye West produced four tracks on the album, which is one of his first major successes in the music industry.
Popular tracks on the Blueprint include “Izzo (H.O.V.A. ),” “Girls, Girls, Girls,” “Jigga That Nigga,” and “Song Cry.” Despite its early popularity being overshadowed by the horrific events of 9/11, the album had sold 2.7 million copies worldwide as of February 2012. The Library of Congress chose The Blueprint for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2019 because it is “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
Jay-Z admitted to stabbing record producer Lance Rivera at the Kit Kat Klub in New York City in 1999. In October 2001, Jay-Z was sentenced to three years of probation for this second-degree crime.
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The Blueprint2: The Gift & The Curse, a double album released in 2002, was Jay-next Z’s solo album. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling nearly 3 million copies in the United States alone, surpassing The Blueprint.
It was eventually published as The Blueprint 2.1, a single-disc version that included half of the original material. “Excuse Me Miss” and “’03 Bonnie & Clyde,” which featured Jay-Z’s then-girlfriend Beyoncé Knowles, were two of the album’s biggest successful singles. “Guns & Roses,” which featured Lenny Kravitz, and “Hovi Baby” were two other radio songs that did well.
It also included “A Dream,” which included Faith Evans and the late Notorious B.I.G., and “The Bounce,” which featured Kanye West. The Blueprint 2.1 had tunes produced by and featuring Panjabi MC, including “Stop,” “La La La (Excuse Me Again),” “What They Gonna Do, Part II,” and “Beware,” which did not appear on The Blueprint2: The Gift & the Curse.
Through 2003, a steady stream of popular albums followed, with at least one each year. Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life (1998) was Jay-first Z’s album to reach the top of the Billboard 200 album chart, and it also earned him his first Grammy Award for the best rap album.
His place as one of the premier voices in hip-hop at the start of the twenty-first century was cemented by the highly acclaimed The Blueprint (2001), which featured the triumphal hit “Izzo (H.O.V.A.).” Jay-Z pleaded guilty to assault in connection with a 1999 nightclub stabbing and received three years’ probation shortly after the album’s release, but the incident had no impact on his career.
However, Jay-Z announced his retirement as a performer ahead of the release of The Black Album (2003). The ostensibly farewell album proved to be one of his most popular, with Rick Rubin’s bombastic single “99 Problems” garnering a lot of attention. He became the president of Def Jam Recordings in 2004, making him one of the most powerful African American executives in the music business at the time.
Jay-Z remained remarkably engaged in music after his retirement. In 2004, he cooperated with the rock band Linkin Park, and he sang on the albums of several other musicians, including Kanye West, whose career he had aided, and Beyoncé, with whom he had begun dating. Jay-Z has built a sizable business portfolio, including a film production firm, a clothing line, and an interest in the National Basketball Association‘s New Jersey Nets, which he eventually helped relocate to his birthplace of Brooklyn.
Kingdom Come marked his definitive return to recording in 2006. He resigned as Def Jam president in 2007, shortly after the release of the album American Gangster. In 2008, he launched Roc Nation, which quickly grew into a full-service entertainment empire.
When Jay-Z embarked on a tremendously successful tour with Mary J. Blige in 2008, he demonstrated that he remained one of rap’s most bankable artists. The Blueprint 3 was released the next year, and it featured some of his most frequent producers, including West and Timbaland. “Empire State of Mind,” a musical love letter to New York City featuring Alicia Keys‘ soaring guest vocals, and the determined “Run This Town,” which featured West and Rihanna, were among the album’s highlights.
Both tracks, as well as two other hits from the album, earned Grammy Awards. Watch the Throne (2011), a high-profile collaboration with West, was similarly successful, with the tracks “Otis,” “Niggas in Paris,” and “No Church in the Wild” all winning Grammys. Between the two albums, Jay-Z released Decoded, a memoir (2010).
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In 2013, Jay Z (who had eliminated the hyphen from his name) reappeared with Magna Carta Holy Grail, which was made accessible for free to Samsung smartphone owners several days before its official release, according to an exclusive contract with the business. Despite mixed reviews, the rapper’s 13th album reached number one on the Billboard 200 chart. It also resulted in two Grammy nominations: one for best rap/sung collaboration for “Holy Grail” and another for the best music video for “Suit & Tie.” A year later, he was nominated for two additional Grammys for his work on Beyoncé’s “Drunk in Love.”
JAY-Z released 4:44, his 13th studio solo album, in 2017, after capitalizing the letters and reintroducing the hyphen in his name. The album was a response to Beyoncé’s Lemonade (2016), in which she accused her husband of adultery. On some tracks, he admitted to infidelity and spoke about racism and politics.
Both of the couple’s albums were only available on TIDAL, a subscription-based music streaming service that JAY-Z co-owns with other musicians. When JAY-Z bought Aspiro AB, a Norwegian technology business, in 2015, he inherited the company’s holding company. JAY-Z was admitted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame for the first time in 2017.
In 2018, he and Beyoncé released the collaboration album Everything Is Love, for which they received a Grammy for best urban contemporary album. JAY-Z was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in the year 2021.
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Relationship Life
Despite being one of the most well-known husband-wife duos in the world, Beyoncé and Jay-Z have managed to keep the majority of their private lives secret. Nonetheless, here is a detailed history of Beyoncé and their Jay-relationship, Z’s from their first date at Nobu to their secret wedding, from cheating suspicions to the birth of their three children, and every musical collaboration in between.
Although nothing is known about their first meeting or early relationship, Beyoncé once said that they met when she was barely 18 years old. While both attended the 2000 MTV Spring Break festival, the couple sat next to each other on a plane, and Jay-Z later rapped about the experience in his 2018 song “Everything Is Love.”
After a year of friendship and constant phone calls, Beyoncé and Jay-Z decided to put their friendship to the test sexually. Their first official date was at celebrity favorite Nobu, where the rapper brought a friend, according to more lyrics from Jay-Z’s “Everything Is Love.” He referred to that decision as his “first foolish mistake” in the song.
Bringing a male friend to dinner, however, did not affect their connection. They started working together even before they were dating, releasing their first song together, “’03 Bonnie & Clyde,” in 2002.
The famous duo released “Crazy In Love” not long after their debut collaboration. The musical masterpiece even earned them a Grammy the following year. While Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s relationship was no secret, they acknowledged it when they walked the MTV Video Music Awards red carpet together in 2004.
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Beyoncé admitted to Cosmopolitan in 2006 that she had wedding fever after seeing his sister walk down the aisle. “I’m not sure when I’ll want to get married. I never pictured myself as a bride, but after my sister’s wedding, I did start thinking about what kind of wedding I would want. I don’t think I want a big one “she revealed to the press. Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, members of Destiny’s Child, were also mentioned as bridesmaids during the interview.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s 2008 wedding takes the cake when it comes to super-secret celebrity weddings. The couple was observed picking up a marriage license in New York in April 2008, without even telling their fans they were engaged, and it was later revealed that Beyoncé and Jay-Z married on April 4, 2008.
Beyoncé announced another relationship milestone on the VMA stage in 2011, she’s pregnant. “I want you to get up and walkabout. During her performance of “Love On Top,” she cried to the crowd, “I want you to feel the love that’s growing inside me.” It was eventually discovered, however, that this was not her first pregnancy. The singer revealed details of a previous miscarriage in her 2013 documentary Life Is But a Dream.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z welcomed daughter Blue Ivy Carter into the Knowles-Carter family on January 7, 2012.
In early 2013, Beyoncé released Life Is But a Dream, an autobiographical documentary that gave viewers a never-before-seen insight into her private life with Jay-Z and her newborn baby. That summer, Jay-Z releases Magna Carter Holy Grail, which includes “Part II (On The Run),” another musical collaboration with his wife.
On December 17, 2013, Beyoncé released her self-titled album, which includes the smash song “Drunk In Love,” a musical collaboration with her husband. In 2014, the gifted couple performed the sultry song on the Grammy stage.
Despite allegations of a strained relationship, Beyoncé and Jay-Z denied them during a joint tour in the summer of 2014. While Jay-Z has since deleted his Instagram account, on the couple’s seventh anniversary, he uploaded a never before seen wedding video.
When Beyoncé released her visual album Lemonade in 2016, their relationship, and associated cheating suspicions, were thrust back into the forefront. The tracks “Hold Up” and “Sorry,” in particular, refer to Jay-Z’s infidelity “He only wants me when I’m not there / He better call Becky with the good hair,” Beyoncé sings, leading the Bey Hive to speculate on who this mysterious “Becky” was. However, “Becky” isn’t a real person, but rather a symbol for all women, as she later stated.
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Contrary to popular opinion surrounding Lemonade, Beyoncé demonstrated her commitment to Jay-Z when she gave a shoutout to him during the final performance of her Formation World Tour. Few celebrity pregnancy announcements have been as legendary as Beyoncé’s in 2017. The singer announced on Instagram that she is expecting twins.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z had two additional children, daughter Rumi Carter and boy Sir Carter, on June 13, 2017.
Jay-Z released another album, 4:44, in the same month, with lyrics hinting at infidelity.
The parents of three hit the road again on June 6, 2018, for a new joint tour and the release of their highly anticipated joint album, Everything Is Love.
During the summer of 2020, Beyoncé released her second visual album, Black Is King. Both her spouse and their three children made cameos in the film.
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Jay-Z’s Investments And Assets
The investment that propelled Jay-Z into the billionaire club involves a company you’re familiar with, which began as a small ridesharing app in San Francisco. Jay-Z agreed to invest $2 million in Uber when the company’s focus was still on black cars. For an angel investor, especially an entertainer, that’s a significant investment. When it comes to such investments, celebrities usually write checks in the mid-five-figure to the low-six-figure range.
Uber’s founder, Travis Kalanick must have been amazed when he received Jay-original Z’s wire for $5 million, not $2 million. Not only did the hip-hop superstar recognize the company’s potential, but he also realized how valuable an early investment could be. Kalanick, unfortunately, returned the surplus monies. However, Jay-Z kept his $2 million investment.
Every celebrity and their manager has suddenly turned into a startup investor. People as diverse as actor Ashton Kutcher and Jay-Z’s erstwhile rival Nas had formed their business funds. And, in many cases, their early investments were paying off. One of the most notable was Uber.
By the spring of 2019, while I was wrapping up my analysis of Jay-fortune which Z’s was hanging around the billion-dollar mark the value of his Uber stake had risen to roughly $70 million, a 35-fold increase over his initial investment. It was that growth, combined with his prior holdings, that propelled Jay-Z to billionaire status at the time.
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Jay-Z’s cognac a joint venture with Bacardi sells approximately 200,000 cases per year and is growing at nearly 80% per year. “Jay-Z resonates with customers who are drawn to the ultra-premium lifestyle,” says Eric Schmidt, Director of Alcohol Research at Beverage Marketing Corp.
Jay-Z made an offer to buy the parent business of the Scandinavian streaming service for just under $60 million in 2015. Later that year, he relaunched Tidal with a roster of celebrity investors that included his wife, Beyoncé, as well as other musicians ranging from Kanye West to Calvin Harris.
Roc Nation Sports is a multi-faceted entertainment organization that began as a joint venture with a concert promoter. Through its sports agency (Kevin Durant, Todd Gurley), as well as its record label and artist management departments, Roc Nation represents some of the biggest names in entertainment (Rihanna, J. Cole).
Jay-Z secured the ultimate return of his master recordings from the aforementioned label that helped launch his career before taking over as Def Jam’s CEO in 2004. He also wrestled back his publication rights from EMI in a separate transaction. His hits currently have about 1 billion streams per year, which is a wise move.
About Art collection, Jay-Z boasted about a “Basquiat in my kitchen corner” in the song “Picasso Baby.” He’s been collecting classics for over a decade, including Basquiat’s “Mecca,” which he paid $4.5 million for in 2013. “He rapped about it all in detail,” says Fab 5 Freddy, the late painter’s contemporary and friend. “By mentioning Jean-Michel, Jay-Z helped educate millions of hip-hop fans.”
Following the birth of their twins in 2017, Jay-Z and Beyoncé purchased a $26 million East Hampton mansion and a $88 million Bel Air estate to match. Jay-Z also has a Tribeca penthouse, which he purchased in 2004 for $6.85 million.
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Jay-Z Net Worth
Jay-Z net worth is 1.4 billion dollars as of 2023. He’s sold over 100 million albums globally, received 22 Grammy Awards, and his albums have all gone platinum. Jay-Z has grown his fortune by making wise business decisions and sensible investments. He is also married to Beyonce Knowles, Queen B, who has a net worth of $400 million.
