Jay Z Biography

Jay-Z, an American rapper and businessman was born Shawn Corey Carter on December 4, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York.Shawn and his three siblings were raised by their mother, Gloria Carter After their father, Adnis Reeves, abandoned the family.

Jay Z Music Career

Shawn began freestyling and writing lyrics.He was now known as ‘Jazzy’around the neighborhood,a name that he later adopted and slightly changed it for the stage name ‘Jay-Z’.In 1989, he joined the rapper Jaz-O—an older performer who served as a kind of mentor—to record a song called “The Originators,” which won the pair an appearance on an episode of Yo! MTV Raps.

His name remained anonymous until he and two friends, Damon Dash and Kareem Burke, founded their own record label, Roc-a-Fella Records, in 1996. In June of that year, Jay Z released his debut album, Reasonable Doubt.

The reached No. 23 on the Billboard charts, it is now considered a classic hip-hop album, featuring songs such as “Can’t Knock the Hustle,” featuring Mary J. Blige, and “Brooklyn’s Finest,” a collaboration with Notorious B.I.G.

Jay-Z achieved even broader success with the 1998 album Vol. 2.Hard Knock Life which spawned the biggest hit of his career at the time, ‘Hard Knock Life -Ghetto Anthem’.The title track, which famously sampled its chorus from the Broadway musical,Annie became his most popular single to date and won him his first Grammy nomination.

Jay-Z later in 2001 released his sixth studio album, The Blueprint, which received a coveted 5 mic review from hip-hop magazine The Source. The album was written in just two days and released in the wake of September 11 attacks where it sold more than 427,000 copies, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and reached 2x platinum status in the U.S.

Jay-Z later in 2002 released The Blueprint: The Gift & the Curse, a double-album. The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at number one, selling over 3 million units in the U.S. alone and surpassing The Blueprint.

Jay-Z later released  The Black Album which has sold more than 3 million copies in the US. He also collaborated with R. Kelly and released a collaborative studio album, The Best of Both Worlds.He was then reported to have gone for retirement.

In 2006, he 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 2010.In 2011 he released the album Watch the Throne. The album proved to be a triple hit, topping the rap, R&B and pop charts that August.

The rapper later released his 12th studio album, Magna Carta Holy Grail in the year 2013, was seen as decent, but failed to live up to the hip-hop star’s larger-than-life reputation.On June 30, he 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.

Jay Z Wife Beyoncé

Jay-Z is married to American R&B singer Beyoncé. 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.

Jay Z Children

Jay Z and Beyoncé welcomed their first child, a daughter named Blue Ivy Carter, on January 7, 2012. Concerned about their privacy and safety, Jay Z and Beyoncé rented part of New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital and hired extra guards.

Jay Z and Beyoncé welcomed twins, a boy and a girl, in June 2017. Although the couple didn’t immediately confirm the twins’ birth or their names, People magazine reported that they had filed trademark documents at the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the names Sir and Rumi.

Jay Z Awards

The popular rapper has numerous awards to his name which include: American Music Awards, BET Awards, BET Hip Hop Awards, Billboard Music Awards, BRIT Awards, Grammy Awards, Mobo Awards, MTV Awards and several others.

Jay Z Photos