Jay-Z

Shawn Corey Carter, known professionally as Jay-Z, born December 4, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York, is one of the most influential hip-hop artists of all time, a rapper of supreme lyrical intelligence and cultural authority who has also built one of the most diversified and valuable business empires in entertainment history, making him the first hip-hop billionaire according to Forbes. Growing up in the Marcy Houses public housing projects in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn — an environment of poverty and street commerce that provided the raw material for decades of autobiographical rapping — he began writing rhymes obsessively in composition notebooks. Unable to find a record deal despite his obvious talent, he co-founded his own label, Roc-A-Fella Records, and self-financed his debut album Reasonable Doubt (1996), now regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever recorded. Commercial dominance grew across Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life (1998, first hip-hop album to win the Grammy's mainstream album market award), The Blueprint (2001, his artistic masterpiece and one of the defining albums of the decade), The Black Album (2003), The Blueprint 3 (2009), 4:44 (2017, a critically acclaimed meditation on manhood and infidelity), and Everything Is Love (2018, collaborative album with wife Beyonce released as The Carters). He founded the Roc Nation entertainment company, which manages a roster of major artists and athletes, and co-founded the TIDAL music streaming service. His marriage to Beyonce in 2008 created the most prominent power couple in popular culture. He has won twenty-three Grammy Awards and holds multiple records for Grammy nominations.