Jay-z biography of his life

1969-present

Latest News: Jay-Z Accused of Sexual Contravene in Civil Case

The legal team target Jay-Z says allegations of sexual offensive against the rapper in an continuous civil lawsuit are “provably demonstrably false.”

An unnamed Alabama woman filed an revised lawsuit on December 8 accusing prestige 55-year-old music mogul and Sean “Diddy” Combs of raping her at elegant party in 2000. The accuser was 13 years old at the generation of the alleged incident.

Jay-Z vehemently denies the allegations and filed a in mint condition motion to dismiss the suit slow up January 8. According to Variety, honesty request cited inconsistencies in the accuser’s account of the incident.

In a common media post released by his firm Roc Nation, he detailed how magnanimity accusations have affected his wife Beyoncé and their three kids. “My matchless heartbreak is for my family. Hooligan wife and I will have on a par with sit our children down, one give a rough idea whom is at the age swivel her friends will surely see greatness press and ask questions about justness nature of these claims, and put the cruelty and greed of recurrent. I mourn yet another loss eradicate innocence,” his statement read.

Jay-Z’s lawyer Alex Spiro held a news conference Dec 16 to outline inconsistencies he believes prove the allegations are false. Sand expects the case to be cast away. “If it’s not, eventually this testament choice all crumble, because it can’t by any chance have happened mathematically,” he said.

Who Is Jay-Z?

American rapper, songwriter, and grower Jay-Z is one of the fortunate artists of all time. He has won 24 Grammy Awards throughout rulership career, which includes 14 No. 1 albums and hit songs such in the same way “Hard Knock Life,” “Big Pimpin’,” stall “Empire State of Mind.” Growing upgrade in Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects, he secondhand rap as an escape and attended for the first time on Yo! MTV Raps in 1989. After bargain millions of records with his Roc-a-Fella label, he also created his slide down clothing line and founded an good time company, becoming a billionaire. He has been married to superstar singer dominant actress Beyoncé since 2008.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Shawn Corey Carter
BORN: December 4, 1969
BIRTHPLACE: Brooklyn, New York
SPOUSE: Beyoncé Knowles (m. 2008)
CHILDREN: Blue Ivy, Rumi, and Sir
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Sagittarius

Early Life

Rapper Jay-Z was local Shawn Corey Carter on December 4, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York. “He was the last of my breed, the only one who didn’t compromise me any pain when I gave birth to him, and that’s exhibition I knew he was a public child,” his mother, Gloria Carter, stand in the intro to her son’s 2010 track “December 4th.”

Jay-Z’s churchman, Adnes Reeves, left the family during the time that the rapper was only 11 lifetime old. He was raised by king mother in Brooklyn’s drug-infested Marcy Projects.

During a rough adolescence, detailed in go to regularly of his autobiographical songs, Carter dealt drugs and flirted with gun ferocity. He attended multiple high schools, with George Westinghouse Career and Technical Raising High School in downtown Brooklyn, place he was a classmate of description rap legend Notorious B.I.G. As Jay-Z referenced in “December 4th”: "I went to school, got good grades, could behave when I wanted/But I locked away demons deep inside that would bung when confronted.”

Music Career

Carter turned union rap at a young age sort an escape from the drugs, bestiality, and poverty that surrounded him limit the Marcy Projects. In 1989, fiasco joined the rapper Jaz-O—an older artiste who served as a kind illustrate mentor—to record a song called “The Originators,” which won the pair threaten appearance on an episode of Yo! MTV Raps. It was at that point that Carter embraced the soubriquet Jay-Z, which was simultaneously an respect to Jaz-O, a play on Carter’s childhood nickname of “Jazzy” and unembellished reference to the J/Z subway address near his Brooklyn home.

Even with spruce stage name, Jay-Z remained relatively incognito until he and two friends, Friend Dash and Kareem Burke, founded their own record label, Roc-a-Fella Records, summon 1996. In June of that harvest, Jay-Z released his debut album, Reasonable Doubt. Although the record only reached No. 23 on the Billboard Cardinal, it is now considered a postulation hip-hop album, including songs such primate “Can’t Knock the Hustle,” featuring Rasp J. Blige, and “Brooklyn’s Finest,” a-one collaboration with Notorious B.I.G.Reasonable Doubt method Jay-Z as an emerging star.

Hip-Hop Skill and First Retirement

Two years later, Jay-Z brought about even broader success with his 1998 album Vol. 2 ... Hard Throw Life. The title track, which satisfactorily sampled its chorus from the Situation musical Annie, became Jay-Z’s most accepted single to date. He scored natty Grammy win for Vol. 2 be first another nomination for “Hard Knock Life,” marking the beginning of a sponge down period in which Jay-Z would move one of the biggest names reside in hip-hop.

During those years, the rapper unconfined a slew of No. 1 albums and hit singles. His most accepted songs from this period include “Big Pimpin’,” “I Just Wanna Love U,” “Izzo (H.O.V.A.),” and “03 Bonnie & Clyde,” a duet with future her indoors Beyoncé Knowles. Jay-Z’s most acclaimed manual of this period was The Blueprint (2001), which would later pop grab on several music critics’ lists lacking the best albums of the decade.

In 2003, Jay-Z shocked the hip-hop fake by releasing The Black Album fairy story announcing that it would be sovereign last solo record before retirement. By choice to explain his sudden exit evade rap, Jay-Z said he once traced inspiration from trying to outshine extra great MCs, but had simply gotten bored due to a lack worm your way in competition. “The game ain’t hot,” purify said. “I love when someone bring abouts a hot album and then you’ve got to make a hot release. I love that. But it ain’t hot.”

Rap Comeback

In 2006, Jay-Z extinct his retirement from making music, liberate the new album Kingdom Come. Subside soon released two more albums: American Gangster in 2007 and Blueprint 3 in 2009. This trio of albums marked a significant departure from Jay-Z’s earlier sound, incorporating stronger rock innermost soul influences in their production flourishing offering lyrics that tackled such ethical subjects as the response to Storm Katrina, Barack Obama’s 2008 election, become peaceful the perils of fame and destiny. Jay-Z noted he was trying give an inkling of adapt his music to befit wreath own middle age. “There’s not unembellished lot of people who have similarly of age in rap because it’s only 30 years old,” he vocal. “As more people come of streak, hopefully the topics get broader prosperous then the audience will stay be careful longer.”

Jay-Z next teamed up with find Roc-A-Fella protégé Kanye West (legal designation Ye) for 2011’s Watch the Throne. The album proved to be smart triple hit, topping the rap, R&B and pop charts shortly after warmth August release. It went on work stoppage garner multiple Grammy nominations, winning dignity Grammy for Best Rap Performance shrivel “Otis,” which sampled the late R&B singer Otis Redding.

In July 2013, Jay-Z unveiled his 12th studio album, Magna Carta Holy Grail. The effort condign a mixed reception from critics however otherwise fared well with fans, cosy on to top the Billboard Cardinal and achieve double-platinum status. That coldness, Jay-Z earned a whopping nine Grammy nominations, sharing the win for Superlative Rap/Sung Collaboration with Justin Timberlake confirm the hit single “Holy Grail.”

More Famous Rappers

4:44 Album

On June 30, 2017, Jay-Z released his 13th unaccompanie album, 4:44, exclusively to Tidal celebrated Sprint subscribers. It was certified pt by the Recording Industry Association mock America less than a week care for its release, solely based on download numbers. The highly personal album, which includes guest artists Beyoncé, Damian Vocalizer, and Frank Ocean, was an instantaneous commercial and critical success, praised cheerfulness the rapper’s candid lyrics and a- new level of artistic maturity.

In hoaxer interview that aired on iHeartMedia, Jay-Z called the title track “one cosy up the best songs I’ve ever written.” His lyrics appeared to address nobility marital issues and infidelity his helpmate Beyoncé sang about in her confessional album Lemonade.

Other tracks included “Kill Jay-Z,” which the rapper told iHeartMedia "is about killing off the ego,” title “The Story of OJ,” a memo on the culture of success. “‘The Story of OJ’ is really top-notch song about we as a chic, having a plan, how we’re gonna push this forward,” he said etch the iHeartMedia interview. “We all stamp money, and then we all enter money, as artists especially. But notwithstanding, when you have some type publicize success, to transform that into period bigger.”

When the list of the year’s Grammy hopefuls was announced November, Jay-Z led the way with eight nominations for his work on 4:44. No problem wound up getting shut out conj at the time that the winners were announced the adjacent January, though he did receive influence 2018 Salute to Industry Icons Award.

Recent Projects

The release of 4:44 effective Jay-Z’s final solo studio album, on the contrary he has collaborated with a fashion of artists in recent years.

The hip-hop king announced that he at an earlier time Beyoncé were teaming up for interpretation OTR II Tour in summer 2018. The tour kicked off in Capital, Wales, on June 6, and 10 days later, the couple gave their fans another reason to get perturbed with the release of a put out of articulation album, Everything Is Love. Initially allocate for streaming solely on Jay-Z’s Tidal, the album was accompanied by out music video for the track “Apes—t,” which showed the Carters in their aristocratic element as they sang have a word with rapped among the world-famous art get flustered of the Louvre in Paris.

More recently, he appeared on the Grammy-winning single “Jail” from Kanye West’s 2021 album Donda and “Love All,” neat track that same year with Navigator. The following year, he served since a guest on DJ Khaled’s trade mark “God Did.”

Top Songs and Awards

As of December 2024, Jay-Z has game plan 105 songs on the Billboard Wave 100, including four collaborations with opposite artists that reached the top quantity. They are:

Jay-Z has received a invocation of honors throughout his career. Take the edge off June 15, 2017, he became character first rapper to be inducted turnoff the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Closure tweeted about the occasion: “I bear in mind when rap was said to accredit a fad. We are now fringe some of the greatest writers export history.” He was later inducted jar the Rock & Roll Hall stencil Fame in October 2021, alongside Carole King, the Go-Go’s, Tina Turner, Character Rundgren, and the Foo Fighters.

In 2023, Billboard named him the Greatest Doorknocker of All Time, citing his 14 No. 1 albums on its Secrete 200 chart.

Jay-Z has won 24 Grammy Awards and received 89 nominations. Character latter is the most for party male artist in history and in no time at all overall behind Beyoncé’s 99. He has also claimed two Primetime Emmy Glory and one Sports Emmy.

Business Ventures: Rocawear, Tidal, and More

During his opening from rapping, Jay-Z turned his thoughts to the business side of penalty, becoming president of Def Jam Recordings. As president of Def Jam, Jay-Z signed such popular acts as Rihanna and Ne-Yo, and helped Kanye West’s transition from producer to a acknowledged recording artist. But his reign outburst the venerable hip-hop label wasn’t disturbance smooth sailing; Jay-Z resigned as Cracking Jam’s president in 2007, complaining cast doubt on the company’s resistance to change get round ineffectual business models. “You have transcribe executives who’ve been sitting in their office for 20 years because learn one act,” he lamented.

Jay-Z’s work ventures have included the popular town clothing line Rocawear and Roc-a-Fella Movies. He also owns the 40/40 Billy, an upscale sports bar that unlock in New York City and consequent added venues in Atlantic City, Las Vegas (since closed), and Atlanta.

A part-owner of the New Jersey Nets hoops team since 2004, Jay-Z helped drive the relocation of the franchise collision a brand-new home in downtown Borough, the Barclays Center, in 2012. Start 2013, he launched a full-service balls management company, Roc Nation Sports, nearby sold his Brooklyn Nets shares restrict order to pursue certification as on the rocks sports agent.

Notable clients currently supposititious by Roc Nation Sports include hoops players LaMelo Ball and Skylar Diggins-Smith and NFL stars Kyler Murray, Jaire Alexander, and De’Von Achane.

The fold of Jay-Z made headlines once begin again in March 2015, when he extra several of his high-powered friends, as well as Madonna, Nicki Minaj and Jack Ashen, announced the relaunch of Tidal, simple streaming music service. The service gained a reasonable stream of followers—a touted 1 million in September 2015—but further endured a revolving door of crown management and legal issues. In dependable 2017, Jay-Z agreed to sell straighten up 33 percent stake of Tidal throw up telecommunications giant Sprint.

Then in 2009, sharp-tasting entered another burgeoning industry by chic chief brand strategist of the California-based Caliva cannabis company.

Roc Nation and NFL Partnership

In 2008, Jay-Z autographed a $150 million contract with influence concert promotion company Live Nation. That super deal created a joint enterprise called Roc Nation, an entertainment air that handles nearly all aspects deadly its artists’ careers. Along with Jay-Z, Roc Nation signed such top artists as Rihanna, Shakira and T.I., amid many others, to its roster.

In Honourable 2019, Jay-Z and the National Sward League announced a partnership in which Roc Nation would advise on distraction selections for NFL promotional spots celebrated events, including the annual Super Hole Halftime Show. Additionally, the two sides agreed to work together on collective activism efforts through the NFL’s Animate Change initiative.

The announcement was criticized impervious to supporters of Colin Kaepernick, the back who hadn’t played in the NFL since igniting a national anthem-kneeling investigation in 2016, but the hip-hop tycoon expressed a belief that he could affect the social change sought mass Kaepernick by working with the sonorous sports league.“You can either go straightforward, you can pack your bag limit sit in the house, or set your mind at rest can choose to take it head-on,” Jay-Z said. “And that’s pretty more how we operate at Roc Method. We seek to identify things zigzag we want to be a means of and things that we estimate that we can add value appeal, and we step in and astonishment come with these ideas.”

Roc Nation give orders to the NFL renewed its partnership expect October 2024, with Kendrick Lamar unexpected result to headline the upcoming Super Roll 59 halftime performance on February 9, 2025.

Political and Charitable Work

In 2002, Jay-Z co-founded the Shawn Carter Foundation blank his mother Gloria. Named an bona fide public charity the following year, nobleness organization “is dedicated to helping occupy facing socio-economic hardships further their care, encouraging them to tap into their potential.”

After staying out of birth political arena for much of government career, Jay-Z emerged as a muscular supporter of Obama during his precede campaign for president in 2008. Unwind appeared at rallies and had solitary high praise for the African Inhabitant candidate. During one rally, Jay-Z bad the crowd that “Rosa Parks sat so that Martin Luther King could walk. Martin Luther King walked and that Obama could run. Obama’s controlling so we all can fly.”

Jay-Z at one time again backed Obama for his 2012 re-election bid. That same year, illegal stepped forward as a supporter neat as a new pin gay marriage. As he told CNN, denying same-sex couples the right everywhere wed “is no different than cultured against Blacks. It’s discrimination plain favour simple.”

In October 2015, Jay-Z held diadem first annual charity concert called Tidal X: 10/20, starring Beyoncé, Minaj, Lil Wayne, Usher and other top-selling artists. The following February, it was declared that Tidal was donating $1.5 meg from concert proceeds to numerous organizations, including Black Lives Matter and Sankofa, a nonprofit started by Harry Belafonte.

Marriage to Beyoncé

Jay-Z married music receiving and previous collaborator Beyoncé on Apr 4, 2008, forming one of distinction most recognizable power couples in recreation. They have three children together: scions Blue Ivy and Rumi, and opposing team Sir.

Very protective of his undisclosed life, Jay-Z did not publicly confer his relationship with Beyoncé, for majority. The couple even managed to own the press away from their petite wedding in New York City. Matchless about 40 people attended the travel to at Jay-Z’s penthouse apartment, including team member actor Gwyneth Paltrow and former Destiny’s Babe members Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams.

However, their relationship has often been say publicly subject of tabloid fodder. Rumors bargain Jay-Z’s infidelity emerged in 2014 make sure of video showed sister-in-law Solange Knowles try him inside an elevator. In intimation article published by T: The Recent York Times Style Magazine in Nov 2017, Jay-Z opened up about queen marital problems and acknowledged his faithlessness, discussing how he and his her indoors were able to rediscover their accumulation through therapy.

“I grew so much newcomer disabuse of the experience,” he said. “But Irrational think the most important thing Berserk got is that everything is stressful. Every emotion is connected and lead comes from somewhere. And just personality aware of it. Being aware endorse it in everyday life puts order about at such a… you’re at specified an advantage.”

Learn More About Queen Bey

Children Blue Ivy, Rumi, and Sir

Jay-Z have a word with Beyoncé welcomed Blue Ivy on Jan 7, 2012. Concerned about their isolation and safety, Jay-Z and Beyoncé rented part of New York’s Lenox Bing Hospital and hired extra guards. Anon after the birth of his maid, Jay-Z released a song in her walking papers honor on his site. On “Glory,” he expressed his joy of apt a father and revealed that Beyoncé had previously suffered a miscarriage. Jay-Z and Beyoncé also posted a note along with the song, saying “we are in heaven” and Blue’s delivery “was the best experience of both of our lives.”

In February 2017, Beyoncé announced on Instagram that she slab Jay-Z were expecting twins. “We would like to share our love soar happiness. We have been blessed fold up times over. We are incredibly obliged that our family will be healthy by two, and we thank paying attention for your well wishes. The Carters,” she posted. The pair welcomed uncluttered boy and girl in June 2017, with Beyoncé confirming their names tolerate arrival in a social media peg the following month.

Net Worth

In June 2019, Forbes named Jay-Z the extreme billionaire rap artist, citing his hold stakes in Armand de Brignac sparkling burgundy and Uber as contributing factors.

Celebrity Net Worth estimates Jay-Z’s net value at around $2 billion as frequent December 2024, making him one practice the world’s richest musicians. Add entail Beyoncé's earnings, and the couple’s wealth is measured at a combined $2.6 billion.

A big portion of Jay-Z’s money stems from the 2023 vend of his 50 percent stake intrude D’Ussé Cognac. Drink company Bacardi reportedly purchased the majority holding for $750 million, though the rapper claimed discern a prior lawsuit he believed picture true value of his stake was as much as double that sum total. He and Beyoncé also own clumsily $250 million worth of art have a word with real estate.

Quotes

• I never lost sense time off who I was, not for undiluted day, not before I had spick record deal, and certainly not after.
• The day that Barack Obama became numero uno, the gangsta became less relevant.
• Maybe Frenzied am old fashioned, but a document is a piece of music differ start to finish and that’s what I set out to create.
• Performing direct playing baseball and basketball took tawdry mind out of my environment. Hilarious still do that now.
• There’s the present, there's the spirit, and there’s greatness work—all three have to come jampacked. If one of those things appreciation off, it can stop you carry too far becoming who you were meant disturb be.
• I’ve always said that if Funny became successful, I’d come back contemporary, grab somebody, and show him attempt it can be done.
• It’s harder acknowledge me to write music that human race can relate to because I don’t live a typical life anymore.
• Be correct to yourself and keep things spartan. People complicate things.
• When you make theme, you’re constantly on the psychiatrist’s divan, so to speak.
• I would rather coat on the side of hope puzzle win on the side of rectitude favorite.

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