JAY-Z

JAY-Z,  was born Shawn Corey Carter, on December 4, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York, here in the U.S..

 

He grew up in Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood, which was pretty rough at the time, where he was raised mainly by his mother, Gloria Carter, who says Shawn used to wake up the household at night, banging out drum patterns on the kitchen table.

 

His mother bought him his first boombox for his birthday, which set him off on his love of music.

 

Shawn’s father, Adnis Reeves bailed out on his family, including Shawn’s three siblings, at a young age but they rekindled their relationship right before Adnis passed away.

 

Shawn has said, through his lyrics, that when he was younger he had once shot his older drug addicted brother, Eric, in the shoulder for stealing his jewelry. 

 

While in the 6th grade, Jay tested at a 12th grade reading level.

 

Shawn went to Eli Whitney high school in Brooklyn, along with AZ, the longtime friend and co collaborator of Nas and The Firm, who has been revered as “one of the most underrated lyricists of our time.”

 

After the closing of his high school, Shawn attended the George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School. There, he would be amongst future Icons and Outlaws alumni Busta Rhymes and Biggie Smalls, the one and only Notorious B.I.G.

 

Shawn then attended Trenton Central High School, shortly, before dropping out.

 

He claims to have been selling crack at this time and was even shot at three times.

 

His firsthand experience with illicit drug dealing would form his lyrics when he began rapping under the stage name Jazzy, soon shortened to Jay-Z (a name that may also have been derived from the proximity of the J and Z subway lines to the Marcy Projects or possibly an Homage to his rapping mentor, Jaz-O).

 

He lived in London in 1989 for a short time. JAY recorded music with Monie Love and soaked in the culture, before moving back to the States. 

 

You can hear Jay on some of Jaz-O’s earlier recordings from the 80’s and 90’s, like “H.P. Gets Busy”, “Hawaiian Sofie” and “The Originators.”

 

In the early 90’s, Jay-Z found himself involved in rap battles with LL Cool J, who eventually had a falling out while they were both involved at Def Jam. They’ve resolved their differences since then.

 

Big Daddy Kane’s 1994 album, “Daddy’s Home”, introduced the world to Jay in the song “Show and Prove”, a posse cut that had multiple rappers doing verses on one track.

 

Big Daddy Kane has said in regards to Jay being referred to as his “hype man,” 

“When I would leave the stage to go change outfits, I would bring out Jay-Z and Positive K (“I Got A Man”) and let them freestyle until I came back to the stage.”  

 

Jay then found himself appearing on Big L’s “Da Graveyard” and alongside young versions of DMX and Ja Rule (Holla Holla) in 1995.

 

1995 also saw Jay’s first official single, “In My Lifetime” that had a music video as well as an unreleased video for the song’s B-Side, “I Can’t Get With that.”

 

What do you do when you want to get your music out but have no financial backing from a record label? You get out and hustle your album yourself. Jay Z would spend hours a day selling CD’s out of his car.

 

Tired of not getting where he wanted to be in the music world, Jay-Z and two friends, Damon Dash and Kareem Burke, founded their own company and independent record label, Roc-A-Fella Records, in 1995 to release his debut album, Reasonable Doubt (1996). It eventually sold more than a million copies in the United States, certifying it platinum and hes been revered as “one of the greatest rap albums ever” and, arguably, “Jay-Z’s best work.”

 

This album featured beats by renowned producers like DJ Premier and DJ Clark Kent and even had very early appearances from the Notorious B.I.G. and the queen, Mary J Blige.

 

Reasonable Doubt debuted at 23 on the Billboard 200 and charted for 18 weeks.

 

The four singles from this album were “Dead Presidents”, “Ain’t No N Word”, “Can’t Knock the Hustle”, and “Feelin It”. It would later make Rolling Stone’s Magazines “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”

 

A string of successful albums followed at a rate of at least one per year through 2003. Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life (1998) was not only one of the first of Jay-Z’s releases to top the Billboard 200 album chart but also won him his first Grammy Award, for best rap album. 

 

This record saw Jay relying more on “wordplay and flow” and featured beats by DJ Premier, Erick Sermon from future Icons, EPMD, Kid Capri and Swizz Beatz, who was a producer for DMX and the record label, Ruff Ryders as well as Timbaland.

 

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